Nearly four decades after the emergence of crack-cocaine, a more deadly and toxic substance creeps around street corners in its wake. Fentanyl, a narcotic used to treat severe pain, is being trafficked through border states like California, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, and rampantly making its way through the rest of the country.
“Our increased California National Guard deployment helped federal partners seize over half a million fentanyl pills at the southern border last month,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom shared on March 26. “We’re doing our job, while Republicans in Congress drop the ball and block the bipartisan border security deal that would further crack down on fentanyl trafficking. They continue to choose chaos for political gain over the American people.”
His boiling frustrations resonate with hundreds of fellow elected officials annoyed at their peers’ stalling on a $20 billion bipartisan border agreement that would allocate funding toward hiring 1,500 border protection personnel, 4,300 asylum officers, 100 immigration judges, and adding 10,000 extra detention beds, if passed. The proposal has since been rejected by Republicans like Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA).
“It’s not a border security bill. It doesn’t do anything of the sort. After careful review of this, we believe if it does pass we believe it would make it worse,” Johnson said last month.
He expressed disdain with the bill’s mention of work authorizations for “illegal aliens,” stating that it would threaten “Americans’ working wages” and serves as a pull factor to attract more migrants.
As Congress continues to debate remedies, the internationally trafficked opioid is increasingly being used as an alternative—or supplement—to heroin and methamphetamine.
“The illegally used fentanyl most often associated with recent overdoses is made in labs,” the National Institute on Drug Abuse released in 2021. “This synthetic fentanyl is sold illegally as a powder, dropped onto blotter paper, put in eye droppers and nasal sprays, or made into pills that look like other prescription opioids.”
The analgesic was first developed in 1959 and distributed in hospitals during the 1960s as an intravenous anesthetic. In 2011, officials noted an uptick of fatal overdoses tied to illegal use of the substance, which has only grown over the decade since.
Statistics from the Drug Enforcement Administration mark approximately 100 deaths per day—more than 50,000 lives per year—from fentanyl overdose. The chemical effects are approximately 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin, the DEA says.
“Fentanyl is produced in the United States, in Canada, and in Mexico. And the chemical precursors come from Asia,” President López Obrador of Mexico shared in a CBS interview earlier this week.
He noted traffickers from his country often use tunnels from Tijuana to San Diego to move materials without being encompassed by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.
China remains the largest producer of fentanyl while Mexico follows closely behind, yet their populations have not endured the brutal effects of the narcotic on a mass scale.
“You know why we don’t have the drug consumption that you have in the United States? Because we have customs, traditions, and we don’t have the problem of the disintegration of the family,” Obrador said.
Statistics support his analysis. The substance is more rampant in Black and brown communities, claiming the lives of those most vulnerable in urban cities with high poverty rates exposing common trends in racial disparities. While overdose deaths associated with white users have decreased, the number of fatalities for Black individuals continues to rise.
Reports revealed the largest cause of death for Black men in the District of Columbia were tied to fentanyl, with a record 134 overdose deaths per 100,000 residents—nine times higher than the fatality rate among white men. That number is reflective of cases across the nation.
“President Biden is committed to addressing the inequities that have led to Black and brown people entering addiction treatment years behind their white counterparts and is investing $83 billion in treatment—42% more than was made during the previous administration,” said Director of Black Media at the White House Rodericka Applewaithe. “To reduce barriers to treatment that often disproportionately impact communities of color, this administration has increased by 15 times the number of providers who can treat opioid use disorder and eliminated a near two-decade ban on mobile methadone vans that have proven critical in rural and underserved communities, among other efforts.”
Though there have been advances, the HALT Fentanyl Act, introduced by Republicans last year, permanently registers fentanyl as a schedule I substance, which ensures a 10-year mandatory sentence for offenses involving 100 or more grams of the drug.
Governors like Greg Abbott (R-TX) have unconstitutionally arrested and detained migrants through effectively eliminating safe haven towns known as “sanctuary cities” for refugees hoping to curb the number of traffickers entering the country.
“This is just another example of Republican officials politicizing the border while blocking real solutions. We remained focused on delivering the significant policy changes and resources we need to secure the border—that is why we continue to call on Congressional Republicans to pass the bipartisan border security agreement, the toughest and fairest set of border reforms in decades,” said Karine Jean-Pierre, White House Press Secretary.
President Biden emphasized those concerns and made it clear that the government will have to look beyond a regional framework to solve the epidemic.
“It’s a global challenge that demands global action,” Biden mentioned to reporters last November.
He managed to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in California that month to create an open flow of communication to counter narcotic efficiency.
Since that convening, Biden has racked up meetings with world leaders like President López and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who serve as founding members of the Trilateral Fentanyl Committee (TFC), established in 2022. The three recently met in Mexico this past February.
“Both Mexico and Canada committed to embed personnel at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection National Targeting Center to increase and expedite information sharing on criminals and illicit activities associated with the trafficking of both fentanyl and firearms,” said a White House senior administration official.
The group agreed to utilize more of ATF’s eTrace Database and present trilateral reports more frequently. The committee is scheduled to meet again this spring, most likely in Canada.
“To hold drug traffickers accountable, we have criminally charged leaders of the world’s largest and most powerful drug cartel, including Ovidio Guzman Lopez, the son of ‘El Chapo,’” Applewaithe expressed. “We sanctioned over 290 individuals and entities involved in the global illicit drug trade; led diplomatic initiatives to stepped up counternarcotics cooperation with other key governments, including Mexico and China; and launched the Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats, which unites more than 150 countries in the fight against drug trafficking cartels and illicit finance.”