While Democrats dither over the border wall, deadly fentanyl floods our communities

[Right_in_Virginia]

While Democrats dither over the border wall, deadly fentanyl floods our communities
Washington Examiner, Jan 20, 2019, Beth Bailey

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Fentanyl can strike anyone, at any age, on account of the unique method by which it can be absorbed: through contact with the skin. A relative in the Drug Enforcement Administration warned me last year that, because of fentanyl’s increasing use and availability, I should wipe the handle of any grocery cart I use. He explained that people who have developed a tolerance to fentanyl may have handled the cart before me, and that the quantity required for the average adult to overdose and die is just 3 milligrams. Smaller still, he said, was the amount required to kill my daughter.

While many balk at the notion that merely touching fentanyl can lead to an overdose, any contact with the mucous membranes can introduce the drug to the bloodstream. Additionally, according to the American College of Medical Toxicology, the use of alcohol-based sanitizer is both “ineffective in removing fentanyl and may increase drug absorption.”

[...]

Our border crisis is real. About 90 percent of heroin and 80 percent of fentanyl in the U.S. is sourced from Mexico. While rehabilitation and addiction recovery services are a key component of the strategy for dealing with America’s opioid crisis, we must also address the porousness of our border.

When we fail to keep deadly drugs out of our country, Americans lose. We lose family members and friends, and the capacity those people possessed to positively change the world. We allow American money to be funneled into the hands of vicious Mexican cartels that inflict horrific retribution on those who oppose them.


Read more:  https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/while-democrats-dither-over-the-border-wall-deadly-fentanyl-floods-our-communities