Yuma Reveals How the Migrant Surge Has Fueled America’s Drug Crisis
If the Biden administration wants ‘bold’ solutions for overdose deaths, it can deter illegal migration
By Andrew R. Arthur on February 11, 2022
U.S. drug overdose deaths exceeded 100,000 for the one-year period ending April 2021, and show no signs of slowing down. While the White House has promised “bold, new solutions aimed at keeping Americans alive”, the best response to the U.S. overdose epidemic is to slow the flood of illicit drugs into the country. And as CBP statistics out of Yuma, Ariz., show, that means freeing up Border Patrol agents to stop the drug flow by discouraging migrants from entering the United States illegally.
America’s Drug Crisis — and Mexico’s Increasingly Weak Response. The CDC estimates that 100,306 Americans died from drug overdose deaths between April 2020 and April 2021, a 28 percent increase over the same period one year before. More than three-quarters of those deaths were associated with opioids, which include illegal substances like heroin and fentanyl, as well as prescription drugs such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, and morphine.
Fentanyl is particularly deadly — it’s 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, and two milligrams can kill you (depending on your body weight and tolerance). Worse, as the DEA explains, fentanyl is being mixed with other illicit drugs to increase their potency. Adolescents have even started vaping fentanyl.
https://cis.org/Arthur/Yuma-Reveals-How-Migrant-Surge-Has-Fueled-Americas-Drug-Crisis
