Law enforcement in the U.S. seized over 115 million fentanyl pills in 2023, up from 71 million in 2022, and only 50,000 in 2017

Darwin Brandis/iStock

Fentanyl, with potency exceeding fiftyfold that of heroin, is primarily manufactured in laboratories in India and China before clandestine entry into the U.S., typically via Mexico. According to this DW article, opioid addiction is far less rife in European nations endowed with robust and functioning healthcare systems, evidenced by a mere forty-nine (49) recorded fentanyl overdose deaths in the European Union in all of 2021. In stark contrast, the U.S. witnessed more than 200 deaths per day in 2022, and that may be a conservative estimate.

Nearly every solution enacted at federal, state, and local levels to combat the opioid crisis has been punitive and counterproductive. I dread America will persist in this approach for years to come, reflective of a society divided and politicians, particularly on the right and within the GOP, increasingly keen to exacerbate hardships for those their respective factions deem as societal outcasts. More needless suffering, deaths, and imprisonment shall ensue, and #Murica will become more and more of a s**thole country.

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