Public sentiment around the US fentanyl crisis and India's involvement reflects a complex and predominantly negative outlook. Commenters frequently express frustration over the tendency to shift blame onto external countries like China and India, while advocating for a focus on domestic issues such as societal despair, government and policy failures, and the capitalist structures that exacerbate the crisis. Personal stories of loss highlight the devastating impact of fentanyl, while calls for solutions include improved education, treatment for addiction, and introspection on societal issues driving drug demand. There is significant criticism of US policies, with commenters seeking accountability and proactive domestic solutions over external blame.

United States Government

China

India

[deleted]

Is there any issue in the US that Americans are responsible for and not a foreign country?

dasappan_from_uk

It is weird Nobody under this post wonders why  China is not rampaged by the fentanyl issues as a Country producing almost all the chemical precursors. In the meantime, the drug crisis crosses over the whole pacific and becomes the nightmare of US.

Old-Investment6064

China doesn’t produce Fentanyl, but chemical precursor (raw materials) for the drugs, which are essential chemicals that can be used for more than just making Fentanyl. Latin American countries are buying these materials, making Fentanyls, and smuggling the final products into the United States. This is like blaming mass shootings in the United States because China is the largest producer of gunpowder, and it makes no sense. 

The United States is only saying this because the US has an F-tier public healthcare system and loose border control on Mexico, despite Trump’s rhetoric of building a wall, it's still easy to illegally immigrate to the US from the Mexican border, let alone send drugs. 

Instead of blaming China, a more productive way to stop this is to cooperate with Chinese law agencies to investigate Fentanyl factories in Latin America, but this is not politically viable and honestly, I don't think the US government even thinks stopping Fentanyl is at its top priority. So the blame games continue.

loned__

People are missing the point when they compare this to the opium wars. Britain didn't use opium to undermine China for furtherance of its imperial goals, Britain used its imperial power to undermine China so that British merchants could sell opium. It was always about the money. Look at the histories of the great American fortunes, a shocking number have their roots in Chinese opium trading.

The CCP is happy to let its industries run rampant so long as their aren't challenged politically. They've been happy to stem the flow of drugs in the past. 
 https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3194183/white-house-confirms-china-has-stopped-cooperating-anti-drug

From their view, the US is interfering in their internal affairs (Taiwan) so why should they reign in Chinese entrepreneurs as a favour to the Americans. What do they get out of it?

ReadingPossible9965

EpistemicHorse

*Xi, for his part, would deny responsibility for the more than 70,000 Americans killed by this synthetic opioid last year. The Chinese line is that the US is “scapegoating” China and has only itself to blame for becoming the “global drug den.”*

And Xi would have a point.

Happy, optimistic people, with better things to do (and a proper healthcare system) do not become addicted to opioids quite so easily.

Quixotematic

No_Egg5420

Kolbysap

Is no one going to mention the drug culture in the US?? Sure, other cities overseas have drug use problem as well but not like here, compared to other developed countries.

How many people in the US look favorably to people who use or had used illicit drugs? Think of this in your daily lives... as compared to most countries on earth. Not to mention positive media influence like movies (they are funny though) and music. What about the ad spams for drugs....

At its core we cannot deny our responsibility to our relationship with drugs. A big factor in why we even allowed weed is because it's unwinnable and there's tax revenue.

Far-Molasses7628

Lol yes blame the opioid crisis on China not on the shitty medical care system we have

SecretAntWorshiper

China and Russia at war with the west for quite sometime now, though it’s non kinetic.

jim_jiminy

[\[Gift link\]](https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-10-26/china-sees-fentanyl-as-war-with-us-by-other-means?accessToken=eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJzb3VyY2UiOiJTdWJzY3JpYmVyR2lmdGVkQXJ0aWNsZSIsImlhdCI6MTY5ODMzMzgyMiwiZXhwIjoxNjk4OTM4NjIyLCJhcnRpY2xlSWQiOiJTMzUyV0dEV1JHRzAwMSIsImJjb25uZWN0SWQiOiJDRjA1NDUyMDU4M0E0ODU3OTcxOTQzQkFFQzg2ODBCNyJ9.PA03qbeNgyPP6l2xP4Iyp1SJbADmpAkghJxYRVO5-mo) From Andreas Kluth:

  
If and when Joe Biden and Xi Jinping meet at an economic summit in San Francisco next month, the US president will at some point confront his Chinese counterpart about the fentanyl epidemic raging in that city and across America.  


  
Xi, for his part, would deny responsibility for the more than 70,000 Americans killed by this synthetic opioid last year. 

  
For Beijing to tolerate, in the name of geopolitics, an opioid trade that kills tens of thousands of Americans a year is too cynical for words.

  
China views the illegal fentanyl trade via Mexico as just another geopolitical weapon against the US.

bloombergopinion

Turnabout is fair play. The Brits did the same to the Chinese with opium 200 years ago.

This is a genuine problem and this comment section is just full of shills and ignorance.

StyleOtherwise8758

Soc13In

The writer probably should learn some basic chemistry.

bronzedisease

China produces lots of pharmaceuticals and active components to drugs. Many of the ones you have in your medicine cabinet comes from China. It’s the same reason so many things are made in China: it’s cheaper and more profitable.

stopstopp

Politics and history aside, there's a much simpler explanation for this.

Nearly all fentanyl is made using a synthesis pathway that starts with a chemical commonly used in pharmaceutical manufacturing called 4-piperidone (or one of its closely related derivatives). These compounds are themselves synthesized from a chemical called piperidine which is one of the most widely used stock chemicals in the world.

It just happens that, for purely commercial reasons, a large percentage of the world's piperidine and 4-piperidone are made in China. There are six major chemical manufacturers there who produce tons of the stuff every year. This was the case long before the fentanyl crisis in the US and, unless somebody comes up with a way to beat the Chinese price on piperidine, it's going to be the case long into the future.

The only blame China has in the fentanyl crisis is that they make stuff cheaper than anybody else. Yeah, they have some sloppy export controls but if the Chinese weren't making the stuff somebody else would be. Piperidine is easy to produce - you can literally synthesize it from ground up black pepper - so if the cheap supply from China gets cut off people would just start brewing their own in a garage someplace.

It may be politically expedient to blame China for the fentanyl crisis but the theory honestly doesn't carry much weight.

Chester_Bumpkowicz

Read up on the opium wars. I do not believe that past transgressions 150 years ago should excuse bad behaviour now, but if you buy into the idea that it’s ok to hold a grudge and seek revenge for something their great grandfather did to your great grandfather, then China selling Fentanyl to us makes sense.

The Opium wars was basically Europeans, led by UK going to war with China in 1860 to protect their lucrative opium trade in China, that the Emperor wanted to ban, because of how opium destroyed society in China.

Xandurpein

Two reasons:

1. Money

2. It’s justified as revenge for China’s Century of Humiliation 

Any Westerners that die is a bonus as part of that revenge. The CCP could cut down this trade tremendously if they wanted to, but why should they when it’s all win/win for them?

CryptoOGkauai

It's profitable, and the Chinese government doesn't mind them exporting it to us.

rockeye13

I just watch the Task and Purpose episode on it, but aren't India also producing a lot of those precursor chemicals?

[https://youtu.be/BjsSuWKz2s0?t=843](https://youtu.be/BjsSuWKz2s0?t=843)

Seems to me to be more a failure of drug administration in the USA and China, India and Mexican carttels are just going where the profits are.

Antiwhippy

India is doing pretty much the same thing as China. 

https://www.csis.org/analysis/dangerous-opioid-india

https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Trade/India-s-role-in-illicit-synthetic-drug-trade-draws-closer-scrutiny

Is India non conventional methods to fight the United States?

That_Shape_1094

US could easily stop overdoses by dispensing safe supply, it's a crisis by political failure.

overdoses actually increased when less opioids got prescribed

HironTheDisscusser

As others have pointed out: India is doing even worse.
So ask yourself if India is doing this to battle the US or to profit?

Not that China isn’t waging open and secret warfare on its enemies but if exporting substances would be considered warfare so could be the export of toys sprayed with toxic colors.

BlerghTheBlergh

If you're a true researcher you'd ask an open question instead of already implying the answer. India is an even bigger rival of China than the US since those countries are in a symbiotic relationship and India is not. Besides India is an upcoming US rival as well even if Modi tries to be friends.

singhapura

Shouldnt this be in r/ conspiracy theories?

scipio211


&gt;Whenever there has been a spike in US China trade or other tensions (e.g. President Trump's moves to curb imports, or Ms. Pelosi's visit to Taiwan) China has provided more assistance to producers of the raw materials going into Fentanyl.   

Where are you getting this information? What kind of assistance are they providing?

&gt;A key weapon in China’s Geo political strategy is the use of its economic power. This is done to do get concessions through economic coercion, undermine a country’s economy (making it more influenced by China’s policies), or affect defence spending of a rival though a small effort of its own. 

I would like to add, for context, that this is everybody's geopolitical strategy. The US has done it in over 80 countries and counting through USAID, THE IMF, the military, sanctions etc., France is doing it to all countries that were forced to use the CFA as currency and hold their deposits hostage, the G7 (&amp;World Bank) operates in this exact fashion the collude to bring other countries under their purview.

My point is not to downplay China's efforts, as your article begins parallelizing China and the USA, but to add in context on where these strategies are being used currently in developing countries, usually with the AIM of extracting resources at an unfair/exploitative rate for that country.

Sometimes it feels like were just discussing the right switch to hit ourselves with. 

Also, the US DEA is is facilitating the fentanyl crisis, often assisting cartels and traffickers in bringing drugs into the US for distribution.

DatTingTing

to be honest 

china have no interests in check whats going on while they sell the precursor,especially the fentanyl wont go back to china，

and theres no international laws or agreement to limit the precursor trade，while Mexico factory say “trust me！” china has no reason to refuse that，

reflyer

They see it as revenge for the opium wars

Light_fires

McLurkleton

It’s not actually the first time I hear about this… but, strategically speaking, if I flood the society with cheap drugs that can kill people and slow down the society and the healthcare system, makes sense

Diossina17

* [The overall national opioid dispensing rate declined from 2012 to 2020, and in 2020, the dispensing rate had fallen to the lowest in the 15 years](https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/rxrate-maps/index.html)
* During that same time period starting in 2013, illegal synthetic opioids from China began hitting the market. 100 times stronger than morphine and at least 30 times stronger than heroin, the fentanyl trafficked from China [dramatically exacerbated overdose incidence in the United States](https://www.cdc.gov/opioids/basics/epidemic.html)
* In 2020, more than 56,000 deaths involving synthetic opioids (other than methadone) occurred in the United States, which is more deaths than from any other type of opioid. [Synthetic opioid-involved death rates increased by over 56% from 2019 to 2020 and accounted for over 82% of all opioid-involved deaths in 2020](https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/deaths/synthetic/index.html). The rate of overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids was more than 18 times higher in 2020 than in 2013.
* Fentanyl, which comprises aprox. 90% of the synthetic opioids category, and has become the leading cause of death in the age 18-45 group
* China has [systematically reduced enforcement of precursor and fentanyl analog controls](https://www.brookings.edu/articles/chinas-role-in-the-fentanyl-crisis/), [directly provided Mexican cartels with precursors to produce it](https://maritimefairtrade.org/china-weaponizes-counternarcotics-cooperation-with-u-s-risking-millions-of-lives/) and [essentially runs the black market the cartels use to sell their product](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/05/14/china-black-market-money-laundering-drug-cartels/).

While India also produces precursor chemicals, India does not use its enforcement of drug regulations as a geopolitical tools against its enemies the way China does. [When China ramps up its enforcement, production shifts to India, by both China and India-based traffickers](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8871795/). But because China has significantly now reduced its enforcement of drug regulations in very specific cases as punishment against its rivals, it remains the largest supplier. Plus, Indians are not involved with the cartels in logistics and finances like Chinese are.

taike0886

my personal opinion is that China tries everything to destabilize and whatever sticks its ok for them. I think they are involved in a lot of things in the west, from bot farms, to corrupt politicians, blackmail etc

Werdproblems

Yes China is facilitating the drug crisis / act of war

qcriderfan87

They're being paid to make and ship out. But they're not incentivizing themselves.

spidah84

Why don't chinese do fentanyl is better question

Neat-Clerk-9474

Remember this is a civilized space for discussion, to ensure this we have very strict rules. Briefly, an overview:

**No Personal Attacks**

**No Ideological Discrimination**

**Keep Discussion Civil**

**No Targeting A Member For Their Beliefs**

**No Whataboutism's or Bad Faithed Debate**

Report any and all instances of these rules being broken so we can keep the sub clean. Report first, ask questions last. 

Interesting in learning new political theory? Check out or subs reading list [here](https://new.reddit.com/r/PoliticalDebate/about/wiki/ideological-education/)


*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/PoliticalDebate) if you have any questions or concerns.*

AutoModerator

The fact that drugs like fentanyl are easily smuggled with existing law enforcement shows that extra security will have little effect.

I don’t know how to fix our drug problem, it seems to complex to take on. Oregon tried to decriminalize them, but is going back on that, largely because they didn’t fund services properly beforehand.

If there is one thing i know, fixing this problem takes more money that most are willing to spend on it.

We can't fix the drug problem without addressing the root causes of the consumption of drugs. We've had a war on drugs since Nixon. Imagine if we took even half of the money spent on that war and put it into research into why our citizens make the decision to do what they do? It is going to be expensive? Hell yes. What if all that research boils down to the fact that our social order is a bloody mess and capitalism has screwed with most of our minds? Do we address the actual causes or just go back to funding military solutions? 

There are parts of the world where countries consider a happiness index. Imagine what the happiness index is in the US? Go state to state and conduct that study district by district for one year. It would cost less than that section of wall that fell down on the Mexican border. 

Our Founders were a little idealistic when they thought that citizens had an inalienable right to pursue life, liberty and happiness. It's a great goal to strive toward but greedy and power-hungry people rally don't want everyone to be happy.

dennismfrancisart

The solution to drugs (short term at least) is to legalize, tax, and regulate them. The drug war has done nothing but exacerbate the problem.

Prevatteism

Former law enforcement, it is 100% my opinion that at this point, legalizing and regulating heroin would provide a safer alternative to fentanyl and drastically reduce overdoses. I've dealt with everything, meth, crack, coke, heroin, oxy's, etc etc, fentanyl was above and beyond worse than anything to ever hit our streets. 

Criminalization of drug addiction does very little to curb drug use. In fact, it actually has the blowback effect of creating a market pressure on cartels to discover or develop even stronger, even more concentrated drugs. If its illegal and has to be smuggled, then naturally you need to be able to fit as much as possible in as small a volume as possible. Additionally, a drug that hits hard, wears off fast, and creates maximum dependency means higher sales volume and maximizes demand. 

Fentanyl fits the bill perfectly, and has virtually completely replaced heroin. Before I quit the force junkies I had been dealing with for years were telling me that they couldn't even *find* heroin anymore and actually *missed* when it was *just* heroin on the streets. A feeling which was mutual. 

Tl;dr legalize and regulate heroin. Tax it. Put the taxes into making treatment free and widely available. It would vastly decrease overdose deaths and make treatment possible without fearing legal reprisal.

An economically-meaningful amount of fantanyl is so tiny that I'm not sure how effective measures against smuggling it would be possible without throttling trade.

Daztur

We should also be reminded of how and why people are getting addicted in the first place.

On one hand, we have corrupt pharmaceutical and health-insurance industries. Purdue pharma, for example, famously misled people on the extremely addictive nature of OxyContin. They also pushed the drug hard on doctors to over prescribe it, as well as producing dosages that were generally extremely unnecessary. The Sackler Family puts Pablo Escobar to shame here. While that is one very recent and public example, that is just an extreme case of how the industry as a whole operates in America. And while people may point the finger at them for a few weeks while the new cycle is hot, they generally forget about our homegrown and technically legal drug lords and rather focus on people coming from south of the border.

Secondly, our expensive and poorly ran healthcare industry, high costs of housing, de-industrialization and other related issues with wages and cost of living, has produced a great deal of poverty and despair. It's not difficult to imagine how these conditions can break the spirits of many men and women, who then turn to drugs as a momentary relief. 

The way you kill the opioid crises and drug addiction in this country is to address these problems with our healthcare, pharmaceuticals, and lopsided economy. That way you kill demand, and the production and flow of drugs diminishes.

TuvixWasMurderedR1P

De-criminalization is the only viable option. Fentanyl is extremely low-volume and can easily be smuggled, demand creates supply. Prohibition only enriches criminals.

We could spend the money we currently waste on interdiction and incarceration and put it into treatment and prevention.

It probably wouldn't make the problem that much better, but at least it would stop getting worse.

&gt;The way fentanyl gets into the United States, especially through the Mexican border, has led to intense debates about border security, immigration policy, and international relations.

Yet the two biggest pieces of the problem, how fentanyl began as an export from this country and how it is as much of it gets in from all points of entry, not just from the south, never seem to affect proposed policy. The MAGA crowd wants to blame Mexico while giving internal production a pass. They want to blame China while not setting cooperation as a key to save lives.

Yes, legalizion is ideal but will go nowhere if a system similar to Portugal is not in place or gets the funding to be a factor. We cannot simply declare the war on drugs over if we do not handle the addiction crisis with support, education, and eventually a way to ween off. And incarceration is simply not working.

ChefMikeDFW

You are focused on the supply side of this problem, but neglect the demand side. There truth is there is demand for fentanyl in the US.

Trying to close the borders won't adjust the demand. It would just increase prices and profits and as such probably also increase crime rate as crime rates are linked to the difficulties people have to fund their addictions.

Personally, I think with your solution of closing the borders the fentanyl crisis will only end as soon as there is another drugs to take the main stage. You need to think of an easy way out of drug use so it can reach the maximum amount of people addicted to fentanyl. And think of what makes people use opiates rather than something less dangerous like weed, and how to prevent a switch from weed to opiates.

-Apocralypse-

My experience has been that you can stamp out one drug problem, and it just gets replaced by another. The solution is people need to stop using Fentanyl. Make the penalty of possession in the U.S. much harsher, like 25 to life. That will probably slow down the usage. Won't end it, but it should slow it down a bit.

Alarming_Serve2303

Most fentanyl that comes into the U.S. comes through Ports of Entry along the Southern Border.  Mexico is the largest trading partner of the U.S., there’s no way Border officials can inspect every truck or car coming in from Mexico.  Gov. Greg Abbott tried enhanced border inspections just beyond US inspections; it cost the Texas economy over $4B in just a few days.  

The precursor chemicals need to be stopped from entering the Western Hemisphere, and the U.S. needs better cooperation with Western Hemisphere governments.

HauntingSentence6359

Clearly any goods coming from Mexico must be searched 100% to combat what is really a form of warfare. Same with China. Both of those countries, and any other major points of origin for fentanyl, should have trade tarriffs imposed on all their goods. The profits of which will be used to fund the search of goods entering America.

And sealing the border to migrants until we've kicked the drug trade out of the country is also in order.

sund82

Border security is currently having zero impact on fentanyl supply. We could double border security, but 2 times 0 is still 0. Years of "fighting" the drug war should have taught us that prohibition is not an effective strategy.

If we want people to use less fentanyl, we would need to address the demand, not the supply. We're a capitalist nation, as long as people have money and want drugs, people will be able to buy drugs.

Wheloc

I have a simple solution:  legalize it.

Legalize all drugs.  If people want to take drugs, they will take drugs.  Prohibition certainly hasn't stopped anyone yet.

Take all of the resources currently going toward the war on drugs and repurpose them on prevention and treatment.

GrizzlyAdam12

To address the issues the OP has laid out in their post, we need to fundamentally change the narrative and scope of the war on drugs. 

First, Just Say No is bullshit. The idea that it is minor's fault that they became addicted to drugs given to them by professional drug dealing adults is disguising.

Second, if you can't stop drugs at the individual level, you have to do so at a collectivist level.

Third, The easiest way to decrease the drug trade throughout the country is to choke off all the main foreign sources of origin. China, Mexico, and India. 

Fourth, you put trade tariffs on all goods coming in from those countries. Once their bottom line is threatened, you will see them become much more interested in ending the drug trade on their end.

Fifth, for those countries unwilling or unable to stop sending drugs to America, we identify an appropriate military solution, and then we prosecute it mercilessly.

Sixth, the domestic production or mass distribution of fentanyl should become a capital crime.

Increased border security won't do a darned thing to stop people who want a drug from acquiring it or people who want to make money manufacturing and selling that drug from making and selling it.  This has been the lesson since the 1970's and before.  The Hollywood thinking that enough commandos and enough barricades is going to do anything at all is feel good but not real good.  You have to remember that the other team is playing too.  They see your moves, and they have all day to think of ways to get their product into the country.  The only way to stop this is to destroy the demand.  Either eliminate the factors that make people want to get high instead of drunk or legalize getting high and sell the crap yourself.  These are the higher reward lower risks options.  Otherwise please think of something else.  Whenever the world pits barbarians against egalitarians, the barbarians win.  The first wave definitely dies but they never stop coming.

Sapriste

&gt;It's also really important to get China to control how much of these chemicals they send out.

You know Biden already did that right? [https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-xi-meet-us-china-military-economic-tensions-grind-2023-11-15/](https://www.reuters.com/world/biden-xi-meet-us-china-military-economic-tensions-grind-2023-11-15/)

  
For working with Mexico (I agree that's the best way) these are mexicos demands: [https://apnews.com/article/mexico-border-crossings-migrants-venezuela-cuba-6844e96d09bee286964e9bac15d06fba](https://apnews.com/article/mexico-border-crossings-migrants-venezuela-cuba-6844e96d09bee286964e9bac15d06fba)

It is complex man

Professional_Cow4397

&gt;On the other hand, people who don't agree with this say that only focusing on border security isn't enough and might even be bad. They say that the demand for drugs in the United States makes the supply, and that efforts should focus on reducing addiction and making public health better. They say that we need to reform drug policies, like making it easier for people to get treatment for substance use disorders, getting more money for mental health services, and using strategies that reduce harm. They also say that we need to deal with the social and economic conditions that make people use and sell drugs.

This part is entirely correct. Better border security does literally nothing in the face of illegal trade. Imagine unironically thinking that a drug smuggler is going to use legal points of entry. By this reasoning we should also ask nicely (but firmly) that drug cartels register with the government so we know what they're up to.

You have to kill demand to destroy the illegal drug trade, and treatment is the most effective method of doing that. The US is one of the few first world nations that doesn't already have good treatment policies implemented, so naturally we have an enormous drug problem. We either toss an addict behind bars or implement half-measures like providing clean needles and micro doses with zero additional help.

You can't address drug addiction without addressing its causes. Everyone else already figured that out but Americans like wasting billions of tax dollars on federal prisons for some reason.

Worried-Ad2325

To tackle the fentanyl crisis, we need a balanced approach: bolstering border security to catch traffickers and increasing funding for addiction treatment and mental health services. Also, the US should work closely with Mexico and China to cut off the supply chain. Together, we can save lives and protect communities.

potusplus

If parents don’t stop abusing and neglecting their children, drug usage will never go away.

Apprehensive-Ad186

Everyone in the comments here saying to legalize drug use is crazy in my opinion. Legalizing a deadly substance never solved the problem ever. Let's not even talk about the half a million people cigarettes kill every single year. Look at alcohol alone as an example. Almost 180,000 people die from alcohol deaths per year in the USA and the truth is that it is probably even more than that. That's just booze. Alcohol isn't that deadly of a substance on its own as alcohol poisoning only makes up about 2,200 of those deaths. Now replace that with a drug that can very easily kill someone the first time they take it because of how potent it is.

The best answer to me is two fold. Two steps can make sure a vast majority of fentanyl deaths never happen. The first is proper education from a young age. Yes I know people give the DARE program shit all the time, and yes I know we already do this. We should triple our efforts however. Make rigorous study of drugs and the horrible deaths they cause a mandatory part of health classes around the country. This needs to extend outside of school though. The parents both need to be present and attentive to their children (even just this would drastically improve the drug problem). The whole community needs to be involved.

That first answer is one most people can agree is a good idea. This party is where people are going to hate me. We need to take the "war on drugs" literally. The USA, Mexico, and Canada should form a united coalition to protect the entirety of North America from the threat of these drugs. The southern border of Mexico is much smaller and would be easier to guard. The US and Mexican government get on a similar page and both work together to secure both borders. Once the travel of the drug cartels is as limited as possible is when the actual war would need to start. The spy power of the US government would absolutely be able to route out a large amount of drug cartels if we just had the cooperation of the Mexican government.

This step is much more complicated than simply air striking cartel labs and warehouses of course. It would also involve the US taking an extremely active role in assisting Mexico to build the proper infrastructure so as to not rely on the cartels and their money any longer. It's a sad truth that the Mexican economy is very heavily driven by the cartels. This would need to be fixed with the cooperation of the US and Canada. NAFTA was a plan that looked like a 8/10 plan on paper but the execution of it was pure garbage. The three countries would have to fully communicate and work out a realistic deal that would equally benefit all three members.

Humans have been seeking ways to alter their consciousnesses since the beginning of time.

The problems with fentanyl are that it is a particularly addictive way to accomplish that goal and it is quite easy to overdose on the stuff.

This is complicated by the fact that there are legitimate uses for fentanyl, so it makes sense to have legal fentanyl in a   limited capacity.

We have to accept that some people will use drugs.  We should isolate them so that they can inflict minimal harm on others while using and have options if they choose to get clean.  

(This does not mean providing housing.  Rather, this means requiring them to be in institutions that they cannot leave.)

We should accept that most of them won't get clean.  A lot of the fentanyl users will eventually OD.  The meth users can go for a long time deteriorating and becoming increasingly prone to symptoms that resemble schizophrenia.

I405CA

[Mexico has already asked China to help stop the flow of Fentanyl precursors to Mexico](https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/mexico-asks-china-help-control-fentanyl-shipments-2023-04-04/)
 
This was asked back on April 4th of 2023. This is just China throwing more tantrums because people won't let them do illegal activities.

Xyren767

We let the Sackler's get off with only a comparatively minor fee. They still get to keep nearly 50% of the profits they made while causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands and ruining millions of lives and destroying entire generations of a family line.

DylanLee98

"rejects US economic sanctions" 

Sactions are happening whether they agree with them or not. Lmao!

crosseyedweyoun

Probably what Britain  said before the opium war(s)

freqkenneth

I mean, it's the Sacklers who should swing for this not China

Gemembory

i love watching the western pro us bots and the eastern pro china bots go at it.

This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://english.elpais.com/international/2023-06-02/china-rejects-us-economic-sanctions-over-fentanyl-crisis-they-are-trying-to-blame-us-for-their-own-problems.html) reduced by 86%. (I'm a bot)
*****
&gt; Tensions between China and the United States over the fentanyl crisis continue to escalate.

&gt; &amp;quot;The U.S. has imposed new sanctions on Chinese companies and individuals and has attempted to blame China for its own problem with fentanyl, with the intention to mislead the public and deflect the blame for its inaction,&amp;quot; the diplomatic representation said in a statement.

&gt; Washington unveiled a new wave of economic sanctions this week, arguing that China is the at the center of synthetic drug manufacturing and as part of a strategy to weaken the financial structures of Mexican cartel suppliers.


*****
[**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/13ziwoi/china_rejects_us_economic_sanctions_over_fentanyl/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~687467 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **Chinese**^#1 **fentanyl**^#2 **China**^#3 **drug**^#4 **Mexico**^#5

autotldr

I mean, they’re not wrong. The root of the cause of opioid addiction is economic and opportunity despair along with a rampant over prescription of opioids. I had a dental procedure and the dentist prescribed me hydrocodone when all I needed was some ibuprofen. I used ibuprofen and didn’t fill the hydrocodone and I literally had no problems at all. They just prescribe that shit without regard

yuckfoubitch

Fentanyl is a chemical weapon in the wrong hands.

fruits_of_entropy

If your solution to americas drug problem is to hope another country fixes it for you, then you deserve what you get. We know the solutions, we have peer reviewed data on what works and what doesn’t work, stopping the supply from coming in will not work, it never does.

Nigelthornfruit

“The Opium War” all over again, but this time the table have turned.

Ok-Strangerz

Looks like China learned from the British &amp; their opium tactics.

this_dudeagain

Is there anything that US doesn't blame China these days?? 

Seriously.. did the Chinese create Sackler family whose greed led to proliferation of legal narcotics in the market that led to the addiction in the first place and wherever there's market there will be supply..  a lot of Fentanyl is coming to US not just from China but everywhere its because a lot of Americans are sadly addicted to opiods and are paying money for it.. Did any of the Sacklers even go to jail for what they did?

America should get this act together..  I won't be surprised if they blame China for their gun violence too in coming days.

sulu1385

I can't believe how this comment section is overrun by Muricans desperate to blame others for their country's problems.

SiofraRiver

China should stop forcing Americans to do drugs. Oh wait, they are not.

altaccount269

China's payback for the opium sold to its people in the 1800s

roararoarus

Do you think that a hardline authoritarian state doesn’t know what’s leaving its borders? They have always known what is being shipped and where it ends up.

I do not know the details of the current situstion but I do know we cooperated in forcing opium addiction on the the Chinese and profited by doing so. 

The last attempt by the Chinese to free themselves was about 1903 as I recall.  We stopped the effort and everything fell apart over there. We fired on unarmed Chinese who wanted to talk to us.

astar58

Kind of like the British and the Opium wars.

Drengi36

I don't think they understand how sanctions work.

Megatanis

Huh??? China itself is slowly making these drugs illegal and Wuhan has the  labs changing the product by a single molecule to skirt the restrictions to sell to their number one buyer of medicine: The US

Observante

China is the mains source of fentanyl. Thats it.

CuriousCanuk

This looks like the opium wars in reverse. I'm sure they care very little for the harm they are doing. It will be up to the international community to TEACH them to care.

Monarc73

Mercurionio

It's an interesting turn of events that China is now forcing Opium trade and extorting 99 years long port concessions.

TremendousVarmint

Dunkleosteus666

I mean, they're _kind of_ correct. I've never heard of someone who's never done hard drugs before waking up and just going "I feel like shooting up fentanyl today." The opiate addictions that usually lead to fentanyl use come from mostly home grown US causes. 

China _is_ however likely responsible for providing easy access to things like chemical precursors. Granted, there is an argument that more prohibition just makes the drugs more dangerous, but that's a different argument altogether.

zachtheperson

The West forced TWO Opium Wars on China. China doesn't care what the West thinks about this topic.

Lower_Ad_5532

Why does It seem like China is the cause of all US’s domestic problems now? Tik Tok, opiods, global warming, jobs….. 
it is domestic politics and capitalism on steriods folks!

Difficult-Top9010

No-Feeling5008

Surely there are 101 other Chinese imports that have endangered people that support sanctions

peter_marxxx

The FBI highlights India's role in combating the US fentanyl crisis, driven by illegal fentanyl from Mexico with precursors sourced from China.

US Fentanyl Crisis and India's Involvement

Why This Matters

Public Sentiment Summary

Highlighted Comments

Parties Involved

What the people want