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1st ON FOX: Rep. Lance Gooden, R-Texas, is contacting on President Biden to declare fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction (WMD), arguing that is justified offered the tens of 1000’s of overdose fatalities by People in america each and every year.
“Fentanyl has quickly emerged as a single of the most perilous prescription drugs dependable for creating a community overall health crisis in the United States. It is vital the federal govt can take rapid motion to handle the opioid epidemic and defend the American persons by designating fentanyl as a Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD),” Gooden claimed in a letter to President Biden, attained by Online News 72h Digital.
FATHER WHO Misplaced DAUGHTER TO FENTANYL Needs Action ON BORDER: ‘SHE Didn’t OVERDOSE, SHE WAS POISONED’
The drug, which can be lethal in compact amounts, is mostly trafficked via the southern border. Far more than 10,586 lbs of fentanyl had been seized at the southern border in FY 2021 by Customs and Border Security (CBP), up considerably from the 4,558 lbs in FY 2020 and 2,633 in FY 2019. Most of the sum seized is caught at ports of entry.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration is looking at a record selection of seizures of fentanyl.
(DEA)
The Drug Enforcement Administration recently warned of a “nationwide spike” in fentanyl-linked mass overdoses as it states the drug is killing Us citizens at an “unparalleled” level.
The agency said that many of the victims thought they have been using cocaine, and did not know that it was laced with fentanyl — a fatal drug that is 50-100 moments far more strong than morphine.
“This yr by itself adequate fentanyl has crossed our southern border to get rid of each individual single American 7 instances,” Gooden mentioned in a statement. “The president ought to stop disregarding this disaster, secure our border, and connect with this drug what it is — a weapon of mass destruction. Our national stability and hundreds of 1000’s of American life are at stake.”
DEA WARNS OF ‘NATIONWIDE SPIKE’ IN FENTANYL-Linked MASS-OVERDOSE Deaths, AS BORDER Disaster RAGES
The company cited Centers for Condition Handle statistics that in a 12-thirty day period period of time ending in October, there ended up more than 105,000 drug overdoses — 66% of which were being connected to fentanyl and other artificial opioids.
Gooden, in his letter to Biden, cites federal statute that claims a WMD is “any weapon that is built or supposed to lead to loss of life or really serious bodily injuries via the release, dissemination, or influence of toxin or toxic chemical substances, or their precursors.”
“It is distinct fentanyl, and its precursors, meet this definition,” he stated.
Gooden mentioned that the growing prevalence of opioid use “simultaneously heightens the possible for fentanyl to be repurposed by terrorists or cartels as a mass chemical weapon.”
“The deadly potential of fentanyl use or even get in touch with is a considerable threat to nationwide stability, an possibility cartels or other illicit teams may possibly choose benefit of,” he stated.
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A current report by the bipartisan Commission on Combating Synthetic Opioid Trafficking said the source of fentanyl into the U.S. has progressed from 2014-2019, when most fentanyl came in from China by means of international mail. Now, the report claimed, it will come in from Mexico through the land border.
“The drug is created in unlawful laboratories there making use of precursors from Asia — mainly the [People’s Republic of China] — and is trafficked principally by land into the United States,” the report reported.
