By Riley Griffin, Tanaz Meghjani and Katia Dmitrieva, Bloomberg NewsBrandon Dunn, co-founder of Forever 15 Project, testifies in front of an urn containing the ashes of his son Noah, who died from a fentanyl overdose, during a hearing on U.S. southern border security on Capitol Hill, Feb. 01, 2023, in Washington, DC. This is the first in a series of hearings called by Republicans to examine the Biden administration's handling of border security and migration along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The crisis has received increasing attention on cable news, is the target of scores of bills in Congress and has become a rallying cry from statehouses to school-board meetings across the country. And while ideas range from ramping up treatment options to waging war on cartels, voters appear united by a desire to break fentanyl’s grip on American society.
For his part, Trump has blamed Biden’s immigration policies for the rise in overdoses. He has called for deploying the U.S. military to Mexico and for using the death penalty as a punishment for drug smugglers. Just 2 milligrams of fentanyl, equivalent to 10 to 15 grains of table salt, is considered a lethal dose. Traffickers tend to distribute it by the kilogram, which is enough to kill 500,000 people, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The drug’s street value varies — one pill can cost less than a dollar, while a pound of powder can cost well more than $10,000.
“There are different beliefs about how fentanyl is getting here. People blame Trump, they blame Biden,” Ferraro said. “It’s no different from anything else in our country: It’s very polarizing, very binary.” “The Trump administration ignored it, the Biden administration is now turning a blind eye,” said Rauh. “They’ve both evaded their duties.”
Democrats were more likely than Republicans to want to see the U.S. make overdose antidotes more available and provide treatment for opioid-use disorder. Republicans, meanwhile, wanted in greater numbers to increase security at the U.S.-Mexico border and limit migration, the Bloomberg/Morning Consult poll found. Harm-reduction strategies such as needle exchanges and efforts to decriminalize recreational fentanyl use were broadly unpopular with voters overall.
Congress has also been paying greater attention to fentanyl. Lawmakers in the House and Senate introduced more than twice as many bills and resolutions that mentioned fentanyl in 2023 than a year earlier. “It’s simpler in a sound bite to say ‘China’s killing our people’ or ‘it’s immigrants coming across the border,’” she said.
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