Ignoring the real epidemic

 From the CDC:

During 2023, approximately 72,000, or nearly seven in 10, drug overdose deaths in the United States were estimated to involve illegally manufactured fentanyls (IMFs). Carfentanil, a fentanyl analog 100 times more potent than fentanyl, has reemerged in the U.S. drug supply.

the opioid epidemic was blamed on doctors treating pain patients with oxycodone etc. (which by the way was a godsend to people with chronic pain) but some of this got diverted (often stolen from these patients or prescribed to patients who lied about pain or a few doctors who just gave out pills for money).

So authorities cracked down on all physicians ordering pain medicine, and the result is a lot more pain...and I suspect the push to euthanize patients whose pain can't be controlled is because they weren't given a high enough dosage of narcotic pain relief.

By making doctors/patients with pain the scapegoat, it ignored the elephant in the room: That a lot of the pills used in overdoses were not prescribed but counterfeit drugs that were manufactured and imported into the US (for people who love to take drugs to get high).

but nothing can be done, so just let it go on, right? Make sure Narcan is available and voila, problem solved...well to the acute overdose but not to the families destroyed by drugs or the crime from drug users.

well, a couple years ago when this started, I googled fentanyl and found it in a wholesale place in China willing to ship it to you.

well, it looks like it might have taken years, but at least a few of them are being prosecuted.

November 14, 2024 LOS ANGELES — A joint investigation resulted in charges for Hubei Aoks Bio-Tech Co. Ltd., a chemical company based in Wuhan, China, its director and three senior employees in U.S. federal court Nov. 7, for allegedly selling fentanyl precursor chemicals and xylazine — known as “tranq” — globally.

Developing....

But a lot of the Narcotics are made by sending ingredients to Mexico to be manufactured and then smuggled into the USA by the same criminal cartels that now are expanding into smuggling all those migrants. 

And this is not new: This article  is from 2021...

and this article is from one month ago notes that people smuggling migrants into the USA is big business for them now. 

 Mexico cooperated with the cartels because they had guns etc. and would shoot you if you opposed them.

But something just happened in Mexico, and even CBC is blaming Trumpieboy.

Mexico announces the largest fentanyl seizure in its history. The timing may not be a coincidence.

The raids came after a sharp drop in fentanyl seizures in Mexico earlier this year, and days after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose 25% tariffs on products from Canada and Mexico unless those countries cracked down on the flow of migrants and drugs across the border. Experts say the timing may not be a coincidence. "It is clear that the Mexican government has been managing the timing of fentanyl seizures," said security analyst David Saucedo. "But under the pressure by Donald Trump, it appears President Claudia Sheinbaum's administration is willing to the increase the capture of drug traffickers and drug seizures that Washington is demanding.

Saucedo said it's clear the Mexican government. "doesn't see fentanyl as one of its own problems, and fighting it isn't its priority," He added there would only be big busts "when there is pressure from Washington."

Backstory:

essentially Mexico sarcastically said as long as the US population were taking the drugs, why should they risk their lives to stop the smuggling?

(and remember: If you let the cops shoot these gang members too vigorously, the International courts will send their bloodhounds to destroy you for human rights violations, as they did and continue to do against Duterte here in the Philippines).

Ironically, seeing Mexico shrug and say: Hey stop your people from taking drugs: well, this was the same argument I heard when visiting relatives in Colombia in the 1990s: 

Local farmers could make money for their families, some of their young sons joined the cartels because the job paid well, and hey, they thought if the gringos were dumb enough to use drugs, they may as well sell it to them.

Ironically what changed their minds? The drug taking by locals increased and people realized that if they continued to support this, it would destroy their own families.

this article from a liberal Catholic magazine about how priests try to cope with the narco state developing in Mexico discusses the problem of a society trying to cope with the breakdown of society by drugs and violence.