Treating California’s Fentanyl Crisis as an Epidemic

A mother attends a rally in front of City Hall in San Francisco on Aug. 21, 2022, for National Fentanyl Prevention and Awareness Day. (Jason Blair/NTD)

Commentary

More than the rest of the country, California continues to suffer large numbers of fentanyl deaths. The Feb. 15 update on the California Overdose Surveillance Dashboard, run by the state government, shows the numbers for 2021, the last full year data are available. There were 7,175 deaths related to any opioid overdose, of which 5,961 were deaths related to fentanyl overdose, or 83 percent.

Interestingly, there also were 14,777,578 prescriptions for opioids—that is, legal use, including fentanyl prescriptions. I’ve know people, such as those with cancer or who are in post-operative care, for whom an opioid prescription is the difference between a tolerable life and extreme suffering. Although abuses happen, such uses are legitimate.

It’s well known the source of the illegal fentanyl is Mexican cartels, which import the chemical precursors from Communist China. Would competent diplomacy take of that problem? It seems to me it would. In any case, it’s not being done.

Also effective would be strong border control. But the Biden administration is giving us effectively open borders. Fentanyl notoriously is highly condensed, far more than heroin and other opioids. If the government won’t stop illegal immigrants entering, how can it possibly stop the packets of fentanyl many of them carry? The Border Patrol Chiefs testified before Congress in February that Biden’s border crisis is “overwhelming.”

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection canine team checks automobiles for contraband in the line to enter the United States at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in San Ysidro, Calif., on Oct. 2, 2019. (Sandy Huffaker/AFP via Getty Images)

A new problem was reported April 10 by the Los Angeles Times, “Tainted pills from Mexican pharmacies kept killing Americans even after U.S. knew of threat.” They’re often tainted with fentanyl. Well, with the border basically open, as supported by the L.A. Times’ editorial pages, it’s hard to see how that can be halted, either.

Military Solution?

Some Republicans, including former President Donald Trump and Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas, have called for U.S. military attacks on the cartels in Mexico. That presents numerous problems. The first is it effectively would be a declaration of war on Mexico. The second is it would encourage the cartels to infiltrate the U.S. military more than they already have. Former DEA Deputy Administrator Jack Riley says the infiltration already has begun.

Another problem is the U.S. military already is overstretched and tasked with too many different missions all around the world. And the U.S. Army has fallen 25 percent short of the its recruiting goals of 60,000 new soldiers. That is, 15,000 short.

Attacking the cartels in Mexico would be a difficult mission that, for example, might end up targeting civilians, with cell phone pictures of the carnage broadcast around the world. The cartels also, if they infiltrated the U.S. military, could use it to target rivals.

A drug user displays a fentanyl hit before usage in San Francisco, Calif., on Feb. 23, 2023. (John Fredricks/The Epoch Times)

Fentanyl as an Epidemic

We just went through an epidemic, COVID-19. It took the arc epidemics almost always take. First, the most vulnerable die quickly. In this case, it was the elderly and the weak. In the case of the 1918 Spanish Flu, it actually was healthy young people.

Next, those with some immunity or endurance die in some cases, but many survive. Eventually, the virus mutates and becomes weaker, enduring as part of the usual round of sickness that’s always with us.

There also was the crack cocaine epidemic of the 1980s and early 1990s. Because it was a social epidemic, it also led to social problems such as deadly gang warfare and government crime crackdowns, such as California’s Three Strikes initiative, Proposition 184, in 1994. Which was watered down by Proposition 36 in 2012.

At the federal level, the 1994 Crime Bill signed into law by President Clinton, among other things, increased penalties for crack cocaine distribution and possession far higher than those for regular cocaine. As a Brennan Center summary noted, “Overall, though, the law is now seen by many as a major driver of mass incarceration. For that reason, policymakers who played a role in pushing it forward, including presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden, have been attacked for supporting it.”

The crack epidemic ended not because of these efforts, but because those most likely to be susceptible to using it died from overdoses, or from the violence. Those who could get help from social agencies, church and other charities, or who could kick it on their own, did so and survived. Crack still is out there, but fewer people suffer from it.

Briefly, there was also the heroin epidemic in American cities in the 1960s, dramatized in the 1971 movie “The French Connection.” And in the late 19th century, there was a previous cocaine epidemic whose most famous fictional user was Sherlock Holmes. A real-life user was Sigmund Freud. It almost killed him. When launched in 1886, Coca-Cola contained cocaine, hence the name. In those days, it was legal. The first national law outlawing such drugs was the Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914.

Pictures of people who died from a drug overdose line a fence at the Laguna Niguel Skate Park in Laguna Niguel, Calif., on Aug. 31, 2020. (Chris Karr/The Epoch Times)

Conclusion

The problems: The U.S. State Department is incapable of negotiating strongly with Mexico City and Beijing. The border is wide open and not closing soon. Military action against the cartels in Mexico would be counterproductive. And there’s little desire for a new “war on drugs.”

That means the only thing left to do is to ride out the fentanyl epidemic. Those most vulnerable, including unfortunately even young people not aware fentanyl was laced into a less deadly drug, will die in large numbers until the epidemic dissipates.

In a positive development, a man in Orange County, Jim Raugh, whose son died of fentanyl, is putting up billboards around Southern California reading, “Fentanyl is the number one cause of death for Americans age 18 to 45.”

I forget where I saw it, but a nurse who deals with addicts said heroin junkies can go on for years, even decades, but fentanyl addicts don’t last more than a year or two. It’s terrible. Especially as, at this point, fentanyl has killed so many people, most of us know at least one victim. Just as most of us know someone who died of COVID.

It’s sad but that’s the way it is.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.