Because of what I listened to from the first 2024 Republican Presidential primary debate, I Googled “How is fentanyl coming to the US?”
And here’s what I found from the January 2020 DEA Intelligence Report: “The flow of fentanyl into the United States in 2019 is more diverse compared to the start of the fentanyl crisis in 2014, with new source countries and new transit countries emerging as significant trafficking nodes. This is exacerbating the already multi-faceted fentanyl crisis by introducing additional source countries into the global supply chain of fentanyl, fentanyl-related substances, and fentanyl precursors. Further, this complicates law enforcement operations and policy efforts to stem the flow of fentanyl into the United States. While Mexico and China are the primary source countries for fentanyl and fentanyl-related substances trafficked directly into the United States, India is emerging as a source for finished fentanyl powder and fentanyl precursor chemicals.”
Fast forward a couple years and some political pressure on China, and now China is mostly supplying the ingredients to Mexican cartels, and the cartels are making the pills and getting them to the US. India seems to be out of the picture. But don’t forget about heroin: that’s produced in South American countries, particularly Colombia, and trafficked to the United States by air and sea.
I really do appreciate that presidential candidates seem to care about what I care about, but the fentanyl talking point is just so trite. Here’s my favorite, from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis: “The cartels are killing tens of thousands of our fellow citizens.” He’s not wrong, but evidently it’s not OK for the cartels to kill our fellow citizens, but it’s fine for the alcohol industry to do so. I’m sick to death of the argument that opioids are killing everyone. Every single day, more people in the US die from alcohol use than from opioid use. Every. Single. Day. It’s just not sexy because they don’t die fast…and because the alcohol lobby is rich and supports candidates, so we can’t mention those deaths, right?
However, I think this trite argument about opioids killing everyone gives fodder to folks to say that the War on Drugs has failed, therefore we should decriminalize all drugs…because those are the only choices, right? Black or white…nothing but alcohol is legal – or everything is.
Former New Jersey governor Chris Christie at least brought up China…which really needs to be addressed. We don’t need mules to carry drugs over borders; we have mail to do that. There clearly are no easy answers, but what we really need to do is to stop militarizing our response to a public health crisis. At least the former governor of Arkansas and the former head of the DEA Asa Hutchinson MENTIONED treatment, but we CANNOT incarcerate nor treat our way out of this HEALTH crisis. We have to PREVENT it.
And we aren’t. We can’t. We can’t even get our government to talk about addiction as the public health crisis that it is. And it’s not just the government. On March 13, 2023, the University of Southern California’s Keck School of Medicine posted this blog: “10 Public Health Issues We Must Solve in 2022.” I don’t really understand the title, nor do I understand this: The blog starts, “Type 2 diabetes. The opioid crisis. Tobacco and alcohol use. What do they have in common? They’re among the top public health challenges in the U.S. today. They impact the health of our families, our communities and our country. They’re expensive to treat and contain. They raise the cost of insurance and medical care. The focus of public health programs is on eliminating them and improving the overall health of a population.”
And then it lists the “10 Current Public Health Issues in 2022”:
- Covid-19
- Opioid Crisis
- Social Media Misinformation/Disinformation Campaigns
- Health Equity
- Food Insecurity and Food Deserts
- Mental Health/Social Isolation
- Data Modernization and Privacy
- Environmental Impact on Health
- E-Cigarettes
- Cannabis Legalization
Wait now…what? “Type 2 diabetes. The opioid crisis. Tobacco and alcohol use. What do they have in common? They’re among the top public health challenges in the U.S. today.”
Evidently “type 2 diabetes” and “tobacco and alcohol use” just aren’t among the TOP TEN public health challenges in the US today. No…that top ten list is rounded out by “cannabis legislation” because, according to the blog, “public health experts are calling for the regulation of legal cannabis to prevent abuse.” OOOOoooooookkkkkaaaaayyyyy.
I’m tired. Exhausted. I’m exhausted having the same conversations over and over again with professionals from all walks of life who should know better, but especially those in the field of healthcare: addiction is a disease, a chronic, progressive, lethal brain disease. People are not addicted to specific substances like opioids or cocaine. They have the disease of addiction. Alcohol kills more people in the US annually than do opioids, even fentanyl. If we believe that addiction is a disease, then we need to treat it as we treat other health problems.
But we don’t. We blame, we minimize, we ignore. We penalize rather than help. We sanction those who need treatment for their disease. But treatment does work, and recovery does happen.
And the only way to stop this public health crisis is to prevent it for future generations. I’d love for a presidential candidate to talk about THAT.
References
https://mphdegree.usc.edu/blog/public-health-issues/
Guided by Guida 
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