Illegal drugs kill people. Yet there is no shortage of new illegal drugs making it to the streets. An article in The Hill highlights yet another of these fatal synthetic opioids. It reports:
An extremely powerful derivative of fentanyl, called carfentanil, was detected in 513 overdose deaths between 2021 and early 2024, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Carfentanil was designed to tranquilize large animals and is estimated to be 10,000 times stronger than morphine and 100 times stronger than fentanyl.
This is bad news under any circumstances. But the incoming administration will make the situation even more parlous. Their anti-drug strategy will rely on walls, tariffs, SWAT, executing drug dealers, invading Mexico, and all manner of other muscular interdictions. None of them will do a damn bit of good. But it will appeal to the toxic masculinity of the mindless sadists who will be the generals in the ongoing billion-dollar boondoggle optimistically called the ‘War on Drugs’.
That exercise in futility didn’t work in the 1970s. And it will work worse in the next four years. Especially as laboratory drugs now dominate the hard drug market.
Back in the day, most people got high with plant-based narcotics. Marijuana, cocaine, and heroin accounted for the bulk of illegal drugs. LSD, amphetamines, and MDMA (ecstasy) supplied niche markets.
Then methamphetamine brought lab drugs to the masses. Next, promiscuous marketing and slack oversight pushed Oxycodone, a synthetic opioid under the brand name OxyContin, into America’s medicine cabinets. People died. A crackdown on Oxy forced a new generation of opioid addicts to turn first to retro heroin — then to cheaper more powerful synthetics like fentanyl.
Soon illegal drug wholesalers were adulterating both plant-based and synthetic drugs. First with fentanyl, and then with even cheaper and more powerful lab drugs. Some users were consuming opioids without even knowing it. And drug overdose fatalities exploded.
The first Trump administration promised to do something about it. But the long-term death rate kept increasing. With Trump’s 2020 defeat, sanity prevailed. The Biden administration focused on the addict. Drug courts diverted users from jail to rehab. Widespread use of naloxone by first responders drove down OD fatalities. And an increasing effort to reduce demand has resulted in recent significant declines in drug deaths.
Starting in 2025, that trend will reverse. You can thank the simple economics of greed and the power of biochemistry, magnified by the imbecility of zealots who neither want nor know how, to do the right thing
Trump’s strategy relies on blocking all illegal drug imports to the US. That has never worked. And today the odds are even longer. It’s hard to move a poppy field. It’s damn simple to move a lab. I doubt that the cross-border flow of drugs will cease or even much diminish. However, for the sake of argument, let’s say it does. Are criminals going to walk away from billions of dollars? Are committed users going to be so frustrated they just quit?
Anyone who answers yes to those questions ignores the lure of money and the power of addiction.
Nothing drives innovation like profit. Big Pharma does not create legal drugs because they care. They want Americans to take their heart, blood, cancer, depression, weight loss, hair restorative, skin-plumping, sex-enhancing etc. drugs to improve the health of their bottom lines. Some of these pharmaceuticals keep Americans alive. Some keep us happy to be alive. Some stroke our vanity. And some do little except produce cash flow. But they all exist because the customer demands them.
The illegal drug market is driven by the same financial psychology. Drug pushers don’t create sales by ramping up supply. They trade in the knowledge that demand is the market maker. And there is no more reliable customer than an addict.
Someone will meet the demand. There are over 48,000 chemistry teachers in the US. They don’t get paid a lot. Some of them have financial needs and wants beyond their salary. That is a lot of potential Walter Whites
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy are on a mission to slash waste in the federal budget. Here’s an idea. Take every dollar we waste on pointless policies that do nothing to reduce illegal drug supply and spend 20 cents to help addicts stop using them. I’m not an expert, but it has to be cheaper to build and man rehab facilities that build and run a wall that will attempt to seal a 1,950-mile border. And let’s note the vast majority of illegal drugs coming from Mexico to the US go through official border crossings anyway.
It is a sick irony that a political party symbolized by an elephant will do nothing to prevent deaths caused by a drug meant for elephants — and in doing nothing useful will spend billions on the futility when they campaigned on spending less money wisely.
