As the world continues to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, America is losing the battle against the opioid epidemic. Illicit fentanyl is pouring over the borders from Mexico and China, and it is killing Americans at unparalleled rates.
According to an unfortunate new study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), deaths from opioid overdoses in teens ages 14 to 18 almost doubled between 2019 and 2020 and grew by an additional 20 percent in 2020. The main contributing factor is illicit fentanyl flooding our streets from across the border.
Fentanyl can be 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine, and it is laced into other drugs. 77 percent of teen overdose deaths in 2021 were associated with fentanyl and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) claims fentanyl is the lead driver of drug overdose deaths.
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