Fentanyl is a problem, but ‘illegal border crossings’ is the wrong place to look | Opinion
Idaho Gov. Brad Little marked National Fentanyl Awareness Day on Tuesday with a trip to Kuna to warn kids about the dangers of fentanyl use.
This is a good effort, as is the state’s anti-drug campaign, “Fentanyl Takes All,” which highlights how deadly fentanyl can be.
Little was joined Tuesday by Lewiston resident Tarina Taylor whose son, Zachary, died of fentanyl poisoning.
“Zach got a call from a friend who offered him some Oxycontin,” Lewis told the group of Kuna students Tuesday. “Zach was after a good time, a little high, but fentanyl changed that all in an instant. The most important thing to remember is, fentanyl, one pill can kill.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 107,375 people in the United States died of drug overdoses and drug poisonings in the 12-month period ending in January 2022. Of those, 67% involved synthetic opioids like fentanyl. Some of these deaths were attributed to fentanyl mixed with other illicit drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin, with many users unaware they were actually taking fentanyl.
Only two milligrams of fentanyl is considered a potentially lethal dose, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
Along with the media campaign, Little announced other efforts to fight fentanyl:
- more roadside testing equipment to help ISP get fentanyl off our streets more quickly.
- a new statewide drug interdiction team at ISP to intercept fentanyl coming into our state.
- improving information sharing among law enforcement, first responders, health care workers, tribes, coroners and others to tackle the problem strategically.
- increasing resources for mental health and behavioral health to help prevent tragedy.
These are all good steps.
Unfortunately, Little this legislative session signed a terrible bill that limits who can get free naloxone kits, likely leading to more overdose and poisoning deaths.
Little also trips up on another key initiative. Little announced Tuesday he is preparing to travel to the Texas-Mexico border in two weeks and deploy a team of Idaho State Police personnel to assist the state of Texas on a monthlong mission for drug and fentanyl interdiction efforts at the border.
“With Title 42 set to end this week and an expected spike in illegal border crossings and even more fentanyl coming across the open border, governors are working together to increase state-driven border security efforts,” according to a press release issued by the governor’s office. Title 42 refers to a COVID health order that allowed U.S. officials to quickly expel migrants at the border.
These will be good photo ops, no doubt. But a serious fight against fentanyl needs more than photo ops.
If they’re looking at illegal border crossings, they’ll be looking in the wrong place. It would be better to be stationed at legal border checkpoints on the lookout for American citizens.
Despite what you may have heard, the vast majority of fentanyl seizures at the border are made up of U.S. citizens traveling through legal crossing points, not undocumented immigrants.
In 2021, U.S. citizens made up 86.3% of convicted fentanyl drug traffickers — 10 times greater than convictions of illegal immigrants for the same offense, according to a study by the libertarian think tank Cato Institute, based on data from the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
That study found that just 0.02% of the people arrested by Border Patrol for crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally possessed any fentanyl whatsoever.
According to Cato, 90% of fentanyl seizures occur at legal crossing points or interior vehicle checkpoints, not on illegal migration routes.
Fentanyl seizures at the border were up in 2022. In all, 14,700 pounds of fentanyl were seized in fiscal year 2022, which ended in September, according to data from the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.
That’s an increase of 31% from 2021, when 11,200 pounds were seized. That number has tripled since 2020, and it’s a more than five-fold increase from 2,800 pounds in 2019.
A recent report from the DEA identified China, Mexico and India as the top producers and exporters of fentanyl into the United States, with China leading the way.
For sure, fentanyl is a major problem, and Little is right to focus on it.
But citing the lifting of Title 42 and blaming illegal border crossings are nothing more than political dog whistles and do a disservice to fighting the real problems at hand.
And looking for fentanyl among those crossing the border illegally will be a fool’s errand.
This story was originally published May 10, 2023 at 4:00 AM.
