For millions of Americans, the flow of illegal drugs, particularly dangerous opioids like fentanyl, has been one of the most disconcerting effects of the left’s lax immigration policy.
With overdoses and deaths trending upward year after year, President Donald Trump recently said he plans to shed light on the problem when he returns to the White House for a second term.
According to The Hill:
President-elect Trump announced plans to launch a “large-scale” ad campaign on Wednesday with the goal of educating Americans on the effects of fentanyl.
“I will be working on a large scale United States Advertising Campaign, explaining how bad Fentanyl is for people to use – Millions of lives being so needlessly destroyed. By the time the Campaign is over, everyone will know how really bad the horror of this Drug is,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
The drug is considered a synthetic opioid that resulted in the death of 74,000 last year and 76,000 in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The fentanyl crisis has fueled endless calls for action from politicians, activists, and those whose lives have been impacted by addiction:
Illegals are in the US by the millions, human trafficking is up, fentanyl deaths are up, and the mainstream media's views are down because they won't admit it.
If people believed what they said, we'd be talking about President-elect Harris. pic.twitter.com/WF2x8X0CUr
— Rep. Tim Burchett (@RepTimBurchett) November 27, 2024
"The California I knew as a little boy no longer exists."
Thank You @FoxNews for the interview. Fentanyl is not family friendly.
When fentanyl is showing up on the children's playground that is a problem. I didn't just walk on or look the other way. I did something about it.… pic.twitter.com/0CA84EmKgQ
— World Peace Movement (@darren_stallcup) November 27, 2024
How much fentanyl someone would have to ingest to kill them. pic.twitter.com/14W0LIiFGW
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) October 17, 2024
Trump also has a plan for cutting off the flow of fentanyl at the source, as U.S. News & World Report explained:
In social media posts on Monday, Trump promised to impose additional 10% tariffs on Chinese imports and 25% tariffs on Mexican and Canadian goods – the United States’ three largest trading partners – and asserted that not enough was being done to stop drugs and migrants from entering the country.
Nearly 75,000 Americans died from synthetic drug overdoses in 2023, most from fentanyl, according to government figures. Overdoses from fentanyl, which is about 50 times more potent than heroin, are the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 45.
Trump intends to pursue a more muscular approach than Biden has, but it’s unclear whether his planned shift in strategy will yield results. The Biden administration has spent the last year working with Beijing to address the crisis, with some modest advances.
Some experts welcomed Trump’s announcement.
“We need bold action,” said Paul Martin, the founder and CEO of United Against Fentanyl, a bipartisan nonprofit. “This kind of crisis – public health and national security, in my view – requires boldness, something more than the status quo.”
Here’s some additional coverage of the fentanyl situation:
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