President Donald Trump has declared fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction.
“With this historic executive order I will sign today, we’re formerly classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction, which is what it is,” the president said at the White House Monday. “No bomb does what this is doing,” Trump added.
Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid, is highly lethal. Even a small amount, equivalent to a few crystals of salt, can be enough to kill a grown adult. Today, fentanyl remains the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.
In the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, drug overdose deaths, primarily driven by fentanyl, spiked to as high as 100,000 or more a year. In 2024, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported more than 48,000 Americans died from synthetic opioid—mainly, fentanyl—poisonings and overdoses.
The fentanyl crisis has played a significant role in the policymaking conversations related to securing the U.S. southern border. It has become a common practice of drug cartels to lace other drugs with fentanyl, meaning consumers of the drug often do not know what they are ingesting, which has led to the tragic spike in fentanyl poisonings.
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The precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl flow out of China to South and Central America before making their way into the U.S. through ports or land borders.
In November, FBI Director Kash Patel announced that China had agreed to take action to stop the flow of fentanyl precursor chemicals out of China.
“These substances are now banned, and they will no longer be utilized by the Mexican drug trafficking organizations or any other [drug trafficking organizations] around the world to make this drug,” the FBI director said, calling the agreement a “historic achievement.”
Customs and Border Protection agents continue to seize fentanyl at the border and U.S. ports, but seizures did decline in fiscal year 2025.
In fiscal year 2023, CBP seized 27,000 pounds of fentanyl. Seizures fell to 21,900 pounds in 2024 and declined again in fiscal year 2025 to 12,000 pounds.
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