SOTU: Biden Announces Crackdown on Fentanyl Crisis

This represents the tale of our government's two party-driven approaches to governance, the reactionary Republican Cartel and the forward looking Democratic Party.

The Republican solution is brutality towards legitimate asylum seekers, currently protected by US laws and international agreements without spending a penny on prevention, without addressing needed changes in our immigration system, with wanton disregard for the human rights our country affords all people.

Biden's plan is to shut the door on essay access to the chemicals that are used to make fentanyl, develop alliances with other involved countries to track and control the distribution of chemical precursors, use technology to scan for and monitor any land based cross-border transport of drugs, and additional tactics for drug enforcement of those trafficking this dangerous drug.

The Republican solution: Build a Bigger Wall, pull up the drawbridge and stock the moat with alligators and piranha.  SImplistic, cruel, expensive and easy to out maneuver.

The Democratic solution: Go directly to the root of the problem, develop meaningful alliances, be flexible and able to react intelligently if one approach does not work as well as planned - all without penalizing legitament asylum seekers.

Incremental changes (Biden's proposal) should be implemented & evaluated to see if more is needed just like what was done with Bipartisan Gun Safety legislation unless Congress passes Bipartisan Legislation on Fentanyl with more extensive changes.

Current proposal is:

1) 123 new scanners to scan 70% of the cargo at the border by 2026

2) granting more tools to the U.S. Postal Service to disrupt the supply of fentanyl

3) cooperating with Chinese and Mexican authorities to halt the flow of fentanyl into the United States.

Other measure to consider to control the fentanyl problem based on research:

(1) global scheduling for dual-use chemicals which currently relies on self-regulatory mechanisms for pharmaceutical and chemical industries around the world — to reduce the ease of availability of precursor agents for drug trafficking organizations. 

(2) anti-money laundering standards in the banking sector.

The cartels have plenty of resources and many options to evade physical barriers at borders, airports, ports.

https://www.brookings.edu/research/china-and-synthetic-drugs-control-fentanyl-methamphetamines-and-precursors/

https://www.dea.gov/sites/default/files/2020-03/DEA_GOV_DIR-008-20%20Fentanyl%20Flow%20in%20the%20United%20States_0.pdf

Drug Addiction is a social and a medical problem.  Treating it as a crime has never worked.  All that does is fill our prisons with non-violent addicts.  Yes.  Work to interdict the transportation/importation of fentanyl, but focus more on treatment for those addicted.  

YES!!!!!  The # of overdoses and deaths is alarming and needs to be reigned in.

One huge problem that has greatly contributed to fentanyl deaths is the addition of fentanyl to some fake oxydondone and other pain medications and sold by dealers to people not knowing that they are being exposed to a much more potent opioid. Many of the deaths of younger people have been attributed to these tactics using by street dealers.

The dealers are essentially saying if the purchaser's system is not already primed for opioid exposure and they die -so what. If they survive, they know they will have a hooked client that will become more dependent on their supply.

This approach of selling fake drugs knowing that they will kill some buyers who overdose without ever knowing that they even could, deserves the severest of penalties without exception. It is not the purchasers who are committing great crimes here, it is the dealers and the dealer distunbutin network. 

Do you honestly think that if there was no fentanyl in this country that people would suddenly quit putting dangerous stuff into their bodies to feel good? Too bad that Reagan got rid of our stellar mental health program. Leave it to a Republican!!!

Biden was always big on 'The War on Drugs'.   Yet, no one in D.C. said a word when Big Pharma donated to them to keep their mouths shut while they got people addicted to opioids.   This new crisis was made by Big Pharma.   So, that being said, rather than punish the people who ended up getting addicted, punish Big Pharma!   Get tough on THEM!   Start Jailing their CEOs, etc.

This crisis is one of the Politicians making!    Here's another way to get tough-any single politician who has taken donations from Big Pharm must also be convicted of a felony and jailed.

THAT'S how we should be fighting the war on drugs!

I support the President on this, the issue fested unaddressed for far too long.  A nation wide approach requires support form Congress, and NOW is already to late to get ahead of the issue.  Congress, please act! 

We need to be wise about who is procicuted.  Make recovery programs required if.....

We can't punish the victoms.  Remember most of these were put on the drug by perscription by a Dr. for a medical need.  Maybe anyone who was perscribed this medication should have to go to recovery programs after x number of refills.  This may decrease the market for these dealers.  It will take time to drop the buyers.

Yes, choke the supply lines, but be prepared to watch for the new ones that will appear.  Follow the money.  We need to review the laws in the digital age to keep up with these  guys.  We need to keep our laws applying to all, but tighten it down following the constitutions.  We need a department that actively tracks new ways they are getting around our laws.  It may be the only way to only stay 1 step behind them instead of 300 yards.

The Congress needs to stop acting like spoiled teenagers and start working together and rebuild the country.  Move things through the system, no roadblocks.  

Continue to go after the sellers of the drugs aggressively.

In terms of the wall not effective as people still are able to go over and under it!

Biden's open border and cozy to China means HE IS THE PROBLEM

Kill 100,000 Americans is reason for talk tough, do nothing 

How many deaths are caused by tobacco?
 
 
Cigarettes and Death

More than 480,000 deaths annually (including deaths from secondhand smoke) 278,544 deaths annually among men (including deaths from secondhand smoke) 201,773 deaths annually among women (including deaths from secondhand smoke)
 
https://www.cdc.gov › health_effects
Tobacco-Related Mortality - CDC

More than 140,000 people die from excessive alcohol use in the U.S. each year.
 
https://www.cdc.gov › features › ex...
Deaths from Excessive Alcohol Use in the United States | CDC

We need to solve this problem at its core, which means we need to destroy this messed up for-profit medical industry and punish the living shit out of the billionaires who got rich by creating this crisis.

If this administration would shut the borders and enforce the laws on the books this problem would go away 

1. Start by controling flood of illegals over Southern Border to free up Customs Border Patrol manpower for enforcement.

2. Wage war on Mexican Cartels, shut them down along the border and on ourside.

3. Penalize China for production of this drug. Limit what they can buy.

Do not limit to any named drug. The war on drugs is a total failure. The police do little or nothing to stop the dealers. As it will cut off their federal money. Legalize all of it make safe places where they can use till they kill themselves or regulate their intake.

Biden is 100% responsible for those deaths for not closing the borders

The focus needs to be on fentanyl and other illegal drugs, but not on broader issues like immigration and racism. So no wall.

The control of this drug is a needed regulation.  It kills more people yearly than firearm violence and that is totally out of control.  I would hope that Congress can work jointly on this matter and not be as decisive as the discussions on responsibile firearm ownership.  We have done this in the past that when we work together we can solve these issues.  I refer to car safety measures that reduced car accident deaths from approximately 50,000/yr in the 1960s to approximately 30,000/yr currently.  This seems to be trending upward some now though.

I support stronger action on fentanyl, even though I don't know what that is.

We need to tackle the sources, the REAL sources, wherever they are; I'm nearly certain the average refugee is not smuggling fentanyl with them. Maybe we need to work with Mexico to have them help more with this problem.

We definitely need to be careful not to criminalize users, though. The crackdown on users of the 90s did not work and ended up with too many people of color incarcerated instead of receiving treatment for addiction, which is a health problem. We need to improve mental and substance abuse healthcare systems across the country to help people get away from drugs that might contain fentanyl while going after dealers but not others.

This has to be a multipronged approach, and we will need all state and local governments and law enforcement agencies to be on the same page to fight this problem.

Far too available 

Too easy to get it and it is addictive.  It need both the medical industry and police.

Absolutely a tougher approach for stopping fentanyl must be adopted and used.

There is only one answer that we all as Americans should agree on and that is:

Secure The Border!!!!!!

After that  is done, then we can go from there.