China's role in flooding America with fentanyl is deliberate economic warfare, not a random drug crisis — fentanyl exported from China has killed roughly 403,000 Americans over seven years. Harsh penalties like the death penalty for dealers who knowingly distribute fentanyl that results in death are exactly the kind of deterrent this crisis demands. Treating this as a public health problem alone ignores that a foreign adversary is weaponizing addiction against American workers and families.
Cutting harm reduction programs while overdose deaths are finally falling is reckless — naloxone access, fentanyl test strips and expanded treatment drove the longest decline in decades. Defunding test strips and overdose hotlines removes the exact tools keeping people alive as newer, deadlier drugs like cychlorphine enter the supply. Punishment-first policies don't save lives; proven public health interventions do, and gutting them now risks reversing hard-won progress.
There is a 50% chance the number of drug overdose deaths in the United States in 2026 will be 108K, according to the Metaculus prediction community.
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