Fentanyl: America's Other Epidemic

Fentanyl is a silent stalker of vulnerable Americans.  Almost overnight, it has become the top killer of adults aged 18 to 45.  Unlike America's other epidemic, there are no daily fatality counts in the news.  Fentanyl death statistics usually emerge once a year, then disappear from the nation's consciousness.

America can no longer ignore the issue. Drug overdose fatalities represent a mushrooming health emergency that has taken a backseat to COVID, despite alarming trends.  A perfect storm of pandemic lockdowns, a porous southern border and increased drug smuggling is fueling the maelstrom.     

A record 100,306 Americans died of drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending April 2021, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This represents a 28.5% spike in deaths compared to a year ago.  Since 1999, more than 841,000 Americans have perished of drug overdoses.

From 2019 to 2020, the rate of overdose deaths involving fentanyl and similar opioids leaped 56%.  Americans aged 15-to-24 experienced the largest percentage increase in overdose fatalities, 49%.  This age group had the second lowest rates in 2019, underscoring the rising drug use among young people. 

Fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid, has overtaken prescription painkillers and heroin as the leading cause of overdose fatalities.  It is responsible for about two-thirds of the overdose deaths,  according to an analysis of CDC data by the nonprofit organization Families Against Fentanyl.

Fentanyl is about 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine.  It is highly addictive and lethal.  A single fentanyl pill can be fatal.  Often Americans are unaware they are consuming fentanyl.  Drug cartels lace fake prescription pills with fentanyl, including Xanax, Valium, Oxytocin and opioids.

The prescription pills are manufactured in Mexico by drug cartels, using chemicals supplied by China.  Fentanyl is mixed with other narcotics to increase its potency and then infused into counterfeit prescription pills. The drugs are trafficked across the southern border by cartel-paid smugglers.

The flood of illegal immigrants is a boon to traffickers.  A reported 1.7 million "encounters " with illegal immigrants were tallied in fiscal year 2021, quadruple the figure for the prior year. The  Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) estimates about 400,000 so-called getaways eluded detection.

The statistics from the Customs and Border Protection agency for the fiscal year 2021 paint a clear but disturbing picture of  drugs flowing across the border.  During the latest reporting period, the agency confiscated 11,200 pounds of fentanyl, a jump from 2,150 pounds in fiscal 2020.

In addition, the Drug Enforcement Administration (IDEA) seized a record of more than 20 million counterfeit pills containing fentanyl in 2021.  Nearly half were confiscated in Phoenix, the repackaging and distribution area for the notorious Mexican Sinaloa Cartel, which has infiltrated the U.S..  

The drug pushers take advantage of America's social media to market the phony prescription pills.  The DEA estimates about 75% of drug traffickers use Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube. The agency says the thugs employ emoji's as a code for the types of prescriptions.

Cheri Oz, special agent in charge of the DEA's Phoenix field division, issued this warning at a news conference: "Traffickers are using technology to get into your homes and sell pills to your children and loved ones.  Watch their social media and educate yourselves on the dangers and lingo" of emoji's.

Isn't it ironic, perhaps insidious, the social media cabal regularly censors speech on its platforms, but knowingly allows criminals to advertise its fentanyl-laced pills?  The firms cannot claim ignorance because the DEA publishes on its website details of the criminals social media strategy.  

Excessive lockdowns imposed during the pandemic are equally to blame for the spiraling overdose cases.  In focusing on legitimate concerns about hospitalizations and deaths, health officials failed to balance their decisions with the risks of mental health and drug problems triggered by isolation.

"Two forces here are the negative economic impact of the pandemic as well as the emotional impact," says Dr. Paul Christo, associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. "That led a lot of people to use drugs to cope."

For its part, the Biden Administration plan to address the issue includes prescription testing, support programs, clean needles and $11 billion in spending.  None of these steps will alter the overdose trends.  No administration official has dared call for tightening the border to stem drug trafficking.

The Department of Justice seems uninterested in prosecuting drug smugglers, but pursues parents who appear at school board meetings. The border patrol has been whipsawed by administration criticism, instead of receiving more resources to halt the stream of drugs gushing across the southern border. 

To slow distribution, Congress should immediately pass legislation making it a federal crime for social media platforms to knowingly aid the sale of illegal drugs. Facebook and its ilk will fight it, piously claiming there is no way to police it.  That's a lie and should be condemned.

Any reasonable assessment of the drug issue would conclude the skyrocketing overdose deaths are the result of self-inflicted wounds by state and federal governments. America is straining under the weight of bad policy decisions. Yet there appears little sense of urgency to change direction.  

Cartels Rake In Billions From Illegal Immigration

The grisly image is seared into our conscious.  Two girls, aged three and five, dangling over a 14-foot wall at the Mexican border. A male drops the girls one-by-one, their tiny bodies thudding on U.S. soil in the dead of night.  The video image was captured by border patrol agents who rescued the girls.

Two males scampered into Mexico after they dumped their human cargo.  They are smugglers for Mexican drug kingpins, likely members of either Los Zetas or the Gulf cartel, which control yawning swaths of territory along the U.S. border.  No one crosses without paying the cartel.  No one.

The media shuns the subject of human trafficking at the border, preferring to shape Americans views with coverage that focuses only on the dreadful plight of the illegal immigrants.  Their shabby clothes, the frightened mothers clutching babies in their arms and the hollow faces of innocent children.

That message resonates with most people, naturally arousing sympathy. Politicians tread on this empathy, opening the border to a flood of immigrants.  Lifting restrictions, however, exposes the underbelly of the exploitation of immigrants by vicious Mexican cartels.

The media and politicians ignore this aspect because it tarnishes the image of the humanitarian narrative of open borders. Unrestricted access at the souther border is good news for the Mexican cartels because it ensures they will have a steady flow of "loads" (human cargo) to smuggle into the U.S.

These immigrants are often physically and sexually abused, extorted and sometimes murdered on the journey through Mexico by savage cartels thugs.  The criminals charge anywhere from $10,000 for a family to $3,000-to $6,000 per person to sneak immigrants across the 375-mile Mexican-U.S. border.

Smuggling is a hugely profitable enterprise for the drug lords.  The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimates the Mexican cartels rake in $4 billion annually.  The Mexican government has calculated the take could be as high as $6 billion.  Smuggling is almost as lucrative as drugs

Illegals are increasingly from Central American countries Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador.  Mexican immigrants have been declining, estimates the Pew Research Center. From 2007 to 2017, the number of unauthorized Mexicans crossing the border fell from 52% to 20% of the total.

An Associated Press (AP) investigation reported most Central American immigrants are promised a care-free journey to the U.S. border in luxury buses with meals included when they leave home.  It is a rude awakening later to be sardined into oppressively hot trailer trucks without food and little water. 

Those fleeing their countries must first pay a local smuggler to travel to the Mexican border. When the arrive, they fork over thousands of dollars to cartel coyotes.  The arrivals are packed into windowless semi-trailers trucks operated by the cartel for the rugged journey north. 

As the crowded trailers trundle across Mexico, National Guard members stop the truck operators and demand more money, the AP reported. On one trip, five agents from the Attorney General's Office halted a truck and forced each immigrant to hand over $35 each.  

Immigrants are forced to pay smugglers for so-called options, such as helping the individual cross the Arizona desert or find shelter. Some immigrants eschew the trailers, traveling illegally on trains or on foot, where they are prey for bandits and dishonest police.  The cost is less, but the risks are higher.  

Danger lurks even for those in the trailers. In April, nineteen migrants were shot and burned in Camargo, Mexico, apparently as a cartel warning that travelers must pay to enter their territory.  Not long ago in San Antonio, ten immigrants died in transit after being assured the trailer had refrigeration.

"They (cartel smugglers) have no concern for humanity, none; it's a money business," says Jack Staton, acting special agent in charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigations in El Paso. "They look at people as merchandise, as a way to make money."  

ICE agents have targeted cartel trucking because of the brazen nature of the smuggling operation.  Often the trucks are emblazoned with the logos of well-known companies to disguise their nefarious operation. Although many arrests have been made, the cartels view it as a cost of doing business.

The Mexican government's claims that it is clamping down on smuggling are a hollow assertion.  The tide of humans from Central America continue to be transported with impunity across the sprawling country without interference. Bribes are the currency that paves the way in corrupt Mexico.  

During April, more than 177,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended by the U.S, Border Patrol, according to preliminary reports from Customs and Border Protection.  An additional 42,620 undocumented immigrants escaped arrest.  Each month the numbers are mushrooming. 

As the immigrant tide rises, the cartels remain one step ahead of Mexican and U.S. law enforcement. The sophistication of their operation is improving, most recently with the introduction of wristbands that help cartels track migrants and payments.  

Bands of different colors are given each migrant to indicate the price they paid and the number of border crossing attempts.  For instance, first time crossers receive red bracelets.  Those with purple bracelets have been sent back twice and are paying more for one last attempt.

Each bracelet has wording signifying whether they have paid the cartel or still owe money.  Some colors represent the cartel smuggling the immigrant.  Border experts say the cartels have high-tech data collection methods and know where to reach family members of those they traffic.  

The information on wristbands was provided by the office of Democrat Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas.  Cuellar is vice chairman of the House Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee. Cuellar says most migrants are now crossing near the Texas towns of Del Rio, Mission, McAllen and La Joya. 

This is a crisis, no matter how the Biden Administration tries to sugarcoat the border chaos. The Biden plan of  dispatching millions of dollars to Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador to stanch the inflow of migrants is senseless and shortsighted. It has been tried before and failed miserably.  

The money winds up in the pockets of corrupt politicians in those Central American countries, who have no incentive to do anything about the human wave heading to the U.S.  Local smugglers pay off the politicians. Local economies benefit when immigrants wire U.S. dollars to their home countries.

The most effective solution is to finish the border wall, double enforcement and threaten retribution if Mexico doesn't slam shut the revolving door from its country to the U.S.  Then the U.S. should increase the quota for legal entry of Central Americans seeking asylum or permanent residency.

This is also the most compassionate way to treat immigrants who dream of security in America. The current border situation enriches the Mexican cartels, who use the trafficking cash to fund their other criminal enterprises at the expense of the poor who seek a better life.

Subjecting immigrants to the inhumane treatment of cartels is cruel, not humanitarian. If Americans are moved by the media images of the mistreatment of children, then they should support legal ways for immigrants to safely enter the U.S. That is far better than allowing cartels to abuse immigrants.