Donald Trump has unveiled a new strategy for addressing the fentanyl crisis.
“I will be working on a large-scale United States Advertising Campaign explaining how bad fentanyl is for people to use —Millions of lives being so needlessly destroyed,” Donald Trump posted to Truth Social on Wednesday. “By the time the campaign is over, everyone will know how really bad the horror of this drug is.”
Trump did not go into detail about how the campaign would look. On Monday, he promised to impose tariffs on China and Mexico to pressure their governments to do more to address the fentanyl crisis, which killed 73,838 people in the United States in 2022, the most recent year for which data is available.
Trump expressed concern about the drug entering the US through Mexico. Mexico’s President, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, responded in writing: “Mexico has consistently expressed its willingness to help prevent the fentanyl epidemic in the United States from continuing.
“This is, after all, a public health and consumption issue in your community.” So far this year, Mexican armed forces and prosecutors have seized tons of various drugs, 10,340 firearms, and detained 15,640 people for drug-related violence.
Trump’s social media post was published around the time he announced he had a “productive” conversation with Sheinbaum. He claimed the president had agreed to “stop migration.” Sheinbaum stated that the two had a “excellent conversation” but disagreed with Trump’s portrayal of the call.
“We reiterate that Mexico’s position is not to close borders but to maintain bridges between governments and people,” she stated during the broadcast.
The majority of chemical precursors are produced in China. Trump has previously called on the country’s government to impose the “death penalty” on drug dealers caught transporting the drug into the United States. If they don’t, Trump has publicly stated that he will increase tariffs already imposed on the nation by 10%.
Liu Pengyu, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy, told The Hill that “no one will win a trade or tariff war.”
Fentanyl is similar to morphine but approximately 100 times more potent. According to the US Drug Enforcement Agency, the illicit drug, which is primarily manufactured in foreign labs and smuggled into the US via Mexico and other routes, is being distributed throughout the country.
Synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, are the leading cause of overdose deaths in the United States.