Too Little, Too Late
By Bonnie Donovan
According to the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Institute on Drug Abuse, the illegal use of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids began a meteoric rise beginning in 2013-2014, causing the deaths of approximately 7,000 drug users.
In 2016-2017 that death count had reached 30,000 a year. This rate of increase in deaths was a critical warning point for America. By 2022, deaths from fentanyl and other synthetic opioids had risen exponentially.
(See the dark blue line on the graph).
Government officials and medical experts knew by 2016-2017 that a death rate acceleration from 7,000 to 30,000-a-year within only three years, constituted an alarm bell warning of a much higher rate of deaths from illegal drugs in future years, but elected officials in Washington and state legislatures, mostly, took little or no effective actions.
NIH knew that China was the wholesaler of the chemicals with which to make fentanyl and was an exporter of pill-making presses. They were also aware that Mexican Cartels were the manufacturers and wholesalers of the finished fentanyl products, and that American gangs were retailers of the finished products to the users.
Why did the Federal government and Congress not take immediate, strong action to disrupt and stop trade in 2017, when the data pointed to the sudden huge acceleration in the annual death rate from overdoses between 2013 and 2017?
Where was Salud’s Bill?
Where was our Congressman Carbajal in 2017 when the death rate from drug overdoses was the highest ever in the U.S.? Only now, in December 2023, in the safe company of others, is he trumpeting his effort to get a bill passed to address fentanyl deaths. But we see no funding attached to the bill.
Is this yet another exercise in virtual signaling?
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, during the 2023 Legislative session, over 600 bills dealing with fentanyl were introduced and at least 103 were enacted. Most bills intersect with the criminal justice and the public health systems. States introduced bills to consider the classification of fentanyl as a controlled substance, and considered increasing penalties for possession, distribution, drug-induced homicide, and drug delivery resulting in death. In addition, federal action was initiated on several fronts.
What happened? It looks as though panic set in among the political classes. Legislators fell over each other to be seen to be doing something to combat the ever-rising deaths from fentanyl and its various derivatives.
By the end of 2022, the death rate for all illegal drug use had risen to more than 110,500 people in the United States; 68% or 75,778 of those deaths involved fentanyl, or similar synthetic opioids. The growth rate was exponential and seemed unstoppable without drastic action, or at least, the appearance of drastic action.
It has been estimated that the main cause of death among Americans under age 50 is due to illegal use of fentanyl.
Growth of Death Rate Leveling Off, but at a High Level
Currently, total deaths from drug overdoses in 2023 is awaiting reporting data, but the estimated outlook is for total deaths to be well over 100,000. The growth rate, however, seems to be leveling off at a little above the 110,500 level. We await the final measured results.
A December 2, 2023, news item reported that police had discovered a fentanyl lab in a rural area near Vancouver in British Columbia. Two-and-a-half-million doses of fentanyl and 528 were found along with gallons of chemicals in a shipping container and a storage unit.
Six months earlier, a home in a “cookie-cutter” Vancouver sub-division was raided; it was packed with barrels of fentanyl-making chemicals, glassware, and lab equipment.
Another fentanyl lab was discovered in October 2023 at a rural property in Mission,
British Columbia. Thousands of miles away in Toronto, police, in August, found what is believed to be the largest fentanyl lab (so far) in Canada. It was hidden in a property 30 miles from the border crossing at Niagara Falls NY.
U.S. authorities say they have little indication that Canadian-made fentanyl is being exported to the USA in significant quantities at present. But at a time when fentanyl is causing record numbers of deaths from overdoses, the spread of fentanyl labs in Canada has the potential to undermine U.S. enforcement efforts and worsen the fentanyl epidemic in both nations.
A Final Thought
The population of the U.S. in 2023 is 339,996,563. The population of China is 1.411 billion. The USA is experiencing an annual fentanyl death rate of 75,778. The Chinese population is 4.34 times the population of the USA and 4.34 times the U.S. death rate from fentanyl would be 328,876.
Can you imagine the Chinese reaction if source chemicals made in the USA were being exported to an Asian country and then to China causing 328,876 deaths a year in that nation?
The left is obsessing about guns and J6, but in the meantime they are allowing dangerous drugs and hundreds of thousands of babies killed to occur. Now they are also trying to start a half dozen wars, destroy the oil economy and allow an invasion of our borders.
Here's something interesting, which people forget about California. In 2006, California enacted a law which put pseudoephedrine, the active ingredient in Sudafed, behind the counter and limited purchases to 10 days supply. They told us this was to combat methamphetamine production. They claimed that it's availability was driving the manufacturing, since it could be used as a raw ingredient.
Yet.... nearly 10 years later, what are the results? Meth use has continued to increase, along with all other drugs. So who was punished? We, the general public, were punished. Psuedophedrine is the most highly effective decongestant on the market, and recent data shows it may be the safest as well. Recent data is emerging which has shown these products (eg phenylephrine, etc.) to be both, ineffective and dangerous. Many of these products are being removed from store shelves. But where is the government outrage? They're not giving us more access to the safe and effective alternative which is already available. Meanwhile, marijuana use continues to be promoted by the California government, with no oversight or evidence based medical principles.