According to the DEA, two major Mexican drug cartels are responsible for the bulk of fentanyl distribution into the U.S.: Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG), which she said have poisoned Americans at “record rates.”
“We lost 107,622 Americans last year,” she explained. These two cartels are primarily responsible for the fentanyl and the methamphetamine that is flooding into the United States and is killing people.”
“These two cartels essentially are working from China, where they’re purchasing these chemicals that they’re using now to make into fentanyl and methamphetamine,” she continued. “These are not plant-based drugs anymore. It is a different and deadlier drug threat than we have ever seen in our country.”
The international nature of the issue makes it difficult for U.S. authorities to tackle it without help from foreign allies. Derek Maltz, a retired director of the DEA Special Operations Division, told the local press that education remains the best tool the agency has to combat the crisis on the home front.
“Education is critical, but more importantly, we’re following a lot of money toward opioid addiction, and the White House has come out with new strategies to provide a lot of resources to opioid addiction, which is great because we need to treat people that are addicted,” Maltz explained.
“We need to get mental illness services to people that are addicted. We need to help rehabilitate people that are addicted to opioids,” he added. “However, you’re never going to treat or educate a kid that’s 13 years old in the morgue. It’s too late. So we have to have more of a sense of urgency.”
Milgram reiterated the value of educating the public and equipping parents to discuss the issue with their children, particularly as fentanyl is a “shapeshifter” that can appear “in any drug.”
“[The cartels] are intentionally trying to trick [your children] into buying something that they believe is an OxyContin, is a Percocet, and it’s not,” she said. “It’s fentanyl, and one pill can kill, one use can kill. And we see this every single day.”
Source: Excelsior
