“Scott Raymond Adams is an American author and cartoonist. He is the creator of the syndicated Dilbert comic strip, and the author of several nonfiction works of satire, commentary, and business.” (Wikipedia). I listen to his blogs, and I’ve read several of his books. He’s entertaining and informative.
In recent broadcasts, Scott has been discussing the opioid epidemic, more accurately, the fentanyl epidemic. His 18-year-old stepson died of a fentanyl overdose in October 2018.
It’s a rare day when the news media isn’t reporting at least one so-called accidental death from fentanyl. Since the late 1990s, the CDC reports the death toll has been rising at an alarming rate. In 1999, almost 20,000 deaths were reported. By 2020 the number had grown to over 91,000 per year.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reported, “Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50-100 times stronger than morphine. Pharmaceutical fentanyl was developed for pain management treatment of cancer patients… [it] is also diverted for abuse.…Many users believe that they are purchasing heroin and actually don’t know that they are purchasing fentanyl, which often results in overdose deaths. Clandestinely-produced fentanyl is primarily manufactured in Mexico.”
The raw ingredients for making fentanyl are reportedly manufactured in China and exported to Mexico where they are converted and exported to the rest of the world, commonly the United States.
Few individuals and groups in power in the United States seem seriously interested in stopping the illegal flow of fentanyl into the U.S.. The death toll compares with losses in real wars, both in foreign lands and at home. The killer drug is easy to make and transport illegally. It should be a problem we could solve, if we really wanted to.
Scott Adams has proposed an idea that has value and might work if we’re serious about a solution. He suggests reclassifying illegal fentanyl from a drug to a more accurate description, a weapon of mass destruction….
Where many of us would look away when witnessing a drug deal going down on a street corner, we might take a more serious posture if we understood the deal involved weapons that have been illegally smuggled into our country, for substantial profit, with the sole purpose of killing Americans. Dealers in weapons are not as well tolerated as dealers of drugs. The weapons sellers could actually be identified as traitors and working with foreign governments to undermine and destroy the United States, one so-called accidental death at a time and tens of thousands of times each year.
When prosecuted, drug dealers often can plea to something that reduces or eliminates serious sentences because they can afford it and their activities don’t appear all that egregious.
Wouldn’t plea bargains be as available for a person arrested for treason? Not as likely. According to U.S. law, a person convicted of treason “…shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title, but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States.”
Scott Adams claims that fentanyl is the single most important political issue of our times and he is willing to put his full support behind the political party that comes up with the best plan for solving that problem. So far, it’s a neck-and-neck tie, at zero.
Do you think it’s time to place Adams’ idea on the table?