by Lawrence Kadish
"The shift from plant-based drugs, like heroin and cocaine, to synthetic, chemical-based drugs, like fentanyl and methamphetamine, has resulted in the most dangerous and deadly drug crisis the United States has ever faced."
We can debate the economy, decry the border mocked by illegal immigrants, and step around the criminally deranged allowed to stagger through our streets, but it is the deliberate and calculated effort to destabilize our nation through fentanyl that is the dagger thrust toward the heart of America.
In a national survey conducted by the respected polling company McLaughlin & Associates, it was revealed that a third of those voters asked acknowledged they know of someone who has been harmed by fentanyl. Consider that number: over 100 million people have seen the devastating impact of this drug. It reflects a crisis that makes the past plagues of heroin and cocaine a side show.
Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Administrator Anne Milgram acknowledged as much earlier this year when she stated:
"The shift from plant-based drugs, like heroin and cocaine, to synthetic, chemical-based drugs, like fentanyl and methamphetamine, has resulted in the most dangerous and deadly drug crisis the United States has ever faced."
As presidential candidate Donald Trump connects with the American people on issues vital to our shared future, he needs to pledge as central to his next administration the defeat of the fentanyl scourge stalking our land. To do so will require him to confront the global supplier of that poison: China.
That nation's despots know just how insidious a role drugs can play in unraveling a society. The introduction of opium to the Chinese in the mid-1800s created a mass of stupefied addicts. According to historians, some 40 million Chinese would become addicted to the drug, or some 10% of their population. There is little debate that it contributed to the collapse of China's imperial rule and what their leadership now calls a century of humiliation, as Western powers supplied the opium, followed by harsh trading treaties to a weakened China.
The DEA acknowledges that China is not only a manufacturing center for the chemicals needed to make fentanyl, but it also serves as the illicit banker that allows Mexico-based distributors of the drug to launder and manage their profits.
In a nation that rigidly controls its internet, prevents free speech, bans public demonstrations and jails anyone who questions the wisdom of its leader, China has clearly made a strategic decision to allow their fentanyl operations to continue. They have obviously determined that it may be a far more cost-effective way to harm the United States than the trillions of yuan spent to greatly expand their military forces. Without a shot being fired at our nation, the Chinese believe they have found a way of reducing America to a second-rate nation. They may well be embracing the edict, "Do to them as was done to us" – poison America with drugs.
The McLaughlin poll further revealed that this strategy is not being lost on American voters. Over half of those responding believe the manufacturing of fentanyl ingredients is a conscious decision by China. In addition, more than half believe the status of our diplomat relations with Beijing should be based on the Chinese shutting down those fentanyl mills.
As a president who never allowed our friends or foes to be confused about where he stood, Donald Trump should declare that he will make the war on Chinese-fueled fentanyl central to his plan to not only make America great again, but an America safe from attack by a foreign power who is using an insidious lethal drug as the weapon of choice.
Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.
Source: https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/20932/china-weapons-fentanyl
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