When Americans think of terrorism, they typically imagine violent events signified by hijacks, suicide bombers, and stolen weapons with the goal of taking as many American lives as possible in a single occurrence.
It’s time for Americans to rethink terrorism and terrorist attacks. The most dangerous act of terrorism, taking the lives of hundreds of Americans every day, is the flow of fentanyl into our country.
In the past two years, from 2020 to 2022, the amount of fentanyl seized reported by US Customs and Border Control (CBP) increased by more than 300 percent.
In 2020, synthetic opioids, mainly fentanyl, were the primary driver of all drug overdose deaths. Over this time period, deaths from fentanyl rose by more than 55 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Further, synthetic opioids (particularly fentanyl-related substances) may have resulted in almost 73,000 overdose deaths between July 2021 and June 2022. A lethal dose of fentanyl is a mere two milligrams, the main reason for the striking number of deaths.
Currently, over 150 Americans die every day from overdoses related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl.
The fentanyl crisis is an external threat that is flowing over the southern border and being shipped overseas from China, as the Drug Enforcement Administration reported.
This rise of fentanyl in America comes with the record number of illegal immigrants who have entered through the southern border. In 2022, CBP arrested more than two million migrants at the US-Mexico border. Further, there have been 18 consecutive months of over 150,000 illegal border crossings, over 10,000 pounds of deadly fentanyl has been seized at the border this year, and since President Biden took office, roughly 3.5 million illegal immigrants have attempted to cross the border, as according to data collected by Customs and Border Protection.
Before 2019, before China implemented stricter governance of internet sites advertising fentanyl and stricter enforcement of shipping regulations, China was the largest source of fentanyl and fentanyl-related production equipment in the United States.
Chinese traffickers and money launderers have significantly increased cooperation with Mexican cartels to transport fentanyl into the United States. Currently, Mexican transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) are largely responsible for the production of U.S.-bound illicit fentanyl, with assistance from China. Mexican TCOs utilize Chinese-made materials, such as precursor chemicals that are not internationally controlled and which are produced in and exported from China.
This is a direct terrorist threat to America. September 11, 2001, the most devastating act of terrorism on American soil, claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 Americans. Fentanyl kills more Americans than that every three weeks.
Fentanyl is illegally being smuggled into the United States with the primary objective of killing as many Americans as possible, and it’s working. America desperately needs to take action against these terrorist attacks. It starts on our soil at our border and it needs to start now.
Blake Mauro
Blake Mauro is a sophomore political science major with a media studies minor at Clemson University. She is very passionate about politics and journalism and hopes to pursue a career in the media industry as a voice for the silent majority following her graduation.
The views expressed in this article are the opinion of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Lone Conservative staff.
