Fentanyl Crisis News

The Daily Signal provides urgent fentanyl crisis coverage with reporting and conservative commentary on Mexican cartel trafficking operations, Chinese chemical exports, border interdiction failures, overdose death statistics, and the direct connection between open borders and America’s deadly opioid epidemic.
Filter articles by
    • Opinion

    This State Has Suffered ‘Highest Fentanyl Death Rate in America’

    West Virginia is feeling the worst effects of illicit fentanyl flowing across America’s southern border, according to state Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.  Fentanyl is “ravaging our state,” Morrisey says, noting that is “in part because West Virginia for many decades really has had the highest drug-overdose death rate in the nation.” And now, the Mountain…
    Virginia Allen
    Read More
    • Opinion

    Fentanyl, Viruses, Spying: Why Do We Let China Get Away With Attacks on America?

    Imagine if the United States treated China in the same way it does us. What if American companies simply ignored Chinese copyrights and patents and stole Chinese ideas, inventions, and intellectual property as they pleased and with impunity? What if the American government targeted Chinese industries by dumping competing American export products at below the…
    Victor Davis Hanson
    Read More
    • Opinion

    From Worst to Worster: Adding Xylazine to Fentanyl

    Xylazine—a tranquilizer approved as a sedative for veterinary medical use but not for any use in humans—is currently worsening the opioid crisis. Known on the street as “tranq,” xylazine has become a common additive to substances like fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine, whether taken orally, by smoking or snorting it, or by injecting it. It creates…
    Paul J. Larkin
    Read More
    • Opinion

    Sen. Cruz Warns of Long-Term Consequences If Flow of Fentanyl Into US Isn’t Stopped

    Sen. Ted Cruz says “a whole lot more Americans dead” will be the No. 1 long-term impact if the flow of the illicit drug fentanyl into the U.S. is not stopped. “You look at last year: We had over 100,000 overdoses last year. That’s the highest rate of overdoses in the history of our nation,”…
    Samantha Aschieris
    Read More
    • News

    Fentanyl Production Has Shifted From China to Mexico, House Panel Is Told

    The drug cartels in Mexico are operating on an “industrial scale,” according to an official at the investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. “Mexican cartels have taken over fentanyl production,” Steven Cagen, an assistant director for countering transnational organized crime at Homeland Security Investigations, told a House subcommittee hearing Wednesday. The Homeland Security…
    Virginia Allen
    Read More
    • News

    House Passes HALT Fentanyl Bill in Bipartisan Vote

    The House of Representatives passed the Halt All Lethal Trafficking of Fentanyl Act, also known as the HALT Fentanyl Act, on Thursday with the backing of both Republicans and Democrats. The legislation, which Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., and Rep. Bob Latta, R-Ohio, introduced on Jan. 24, aims “to amend the Controlled Substances Act with respect…
    Samantha Aschieris
    Read More
    • News

    Dead Migrants, Dead Americans: Pro-Border Security Rally Highlights Scourge of Cartels and Fentanyl

    A photo of a skeleton laying in the Texas dirt flashed across the screen, followed by another, and another – all images of the remains of migrants who died from exhaustion or other causes after entering America illegally. “[President] Joe Biden is responsible for more dead people on the Texas border than any time in…
    Virginia Allen
    Read More
    • News

    Fentanyl Being Mixed With Animal Tranquilizer, Spurring White House to Brand Xylazine ‘Emerging Threat’

    The White House has labeled the use of the animal tranquilizer xylazine mixed with fentanyl “an emerging threat to the United States.”   According to the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, “xylazine combined with fentanyl is being sold illicitly and is associated with significant and rapidly worsening negative health consequences, including fatal overdoses…
    Virginia Allen
    Read More
    • Opinion

    The Left Is Downplaying Reality of Fentanyl Crisis

    The Left refuses to connect the dots between the fentanyl and border crises because it would require acknowledging that we have an open border. The truth of the matter is that the border crisis and fentanyl problem in America are directly related. Drug overdose or poisoning is the leading cause of death for Americans aged…
    Erin Dwinell
    Read More
    • Opinion

    The Biden Administration Has Been ‘Making the Fentanyl Crisis Worse,’ Republican Warns

    OXON HILL, Md.—The crisis at the southern border is both unending and unrelenting. As The Daily Signal previously reported, more than 1 million migrants have been encountered at the southern border since the start of fiscal year 2023 on Oct. 1. Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, recently traveled with…
    Samantha Aschieris
    Read More
    • News

    ‘This Is War,’ Mother of 2 Sons Killed by Fentanyl Testifies, Telling Congress to ‘Do Something’

    Rebecca Kiessling struggled to speak as she told members of Congress about the deaths of her two adult sons, who were both killed by fentanyl in 2020.   “You talk about welcoming those crossing our border seeking protection—[but] you’re welcoming drug dealers across our border, you’re giving them protection. You’re not protecting our children,” Kiessling…
    Virginia Allen
    Read More
    • Opinion

    ‘It’s Really Like Poison,’ Former Drug Enforcement Agent Says of Fentanyl

    Fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin. How strong is that? It’s so strong that it only takes 2 milligrams—the equivalent of four grains of salt—to kill you, according to a former federal drug enforcement agent. Put another way, he says, 1 gram of fentanyl could potentially kill 500 people. “We got to make sure…
    Samantha Aschieris
    Read More
    • Opinion

    Rep. Michael Guest ‘Very Optimistic’ Bill to Address Fentanyl Crisis Will Receive Democrat Support

    In fiscal year 2022, Customs and Border Protection seized more than 14,000 pounds of fentanyl. The lethal opioid drug has become a leading cause of death in adults ages 18-45. “The fentanyl seizures continue to increase, each fiscal year, and we know that of those seizures, we’re probably only apprehending 5% to 10% of the…
    Virginia Allen
    Read More
    • News

    Why Fentanyl Is Killing So Many Americans

    Two milligrams. That’s all the fentanyl it takes to be potentially lethal to the average adult in America, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.  It’s killing thousands of Americans, and it’s flooding into the country. More than 107,000 people in the United States died of drug overdoses and drug poisonings in 2021, according to…
    Samantha Aschieris
    Read More
    • Opinion

    Neither Trick Nor Treat: What Parents Need to Know About ‘Rainbow Fentanyl’

    The end of October is nearing, which means Halloween is just around the corner for many American kids. The holiday, known for trick or treating and consuming copious amounts of candy, is a bit spookier than normal this year: Parents now have to worry about the possibility of so-called rainbow fentanyl ending up in their…
    Samantha Aschieris
    Read More
    • Opinion

    Fentanyl: Too Dangerous to Trust Moscow With, but You Can Score Some in Middle School

    The Commerce Department announced last week that from now on, the chemicals needed to make fentanyl can only be exported to Russia with a license. The Commerce Department considers them “potentially useful for Russia’s chemical and biological weapons production capabilities.” Meanwhile, also last week, a 13-year-old in Bakersfield, California, brought 150 fentanyl pills to his…
    Simon Hankinson
    Read More
    • News

    Senate Republicans’ Bill Would Make It Felony Murder to Distribute Deadly Fentanyl

    Sen. Marco Rubio and 13 other GOP senators are proposing legislation that would make dealing fentanyl linked to a death a felony punishable by life in prison or a death sentence upon conviction.   “Fentanyl is killing Americans at a record high,” Rubio, R-Fla., said in a prepared statement. “This deadly drug is widespread throughout…
    Virginia Allen
    Read More
    • Opinion

    ‘Deadly’: Rep. Chip Roy Issues Warning on Fentanyl Crisis

    A Texas congressman is sounding the alarm over how fatal even the smallest amount of fentanyl can be as the lethal drug continues to pour into the United States. “People don’t understand how deadly fentanyl is. A sugar packet, a Sweet’N Low packet of fentanyl could kill, in its pure form, all of the people…
    Samantha Aschieris
    Read More
    • News

    How America’s Unsecured Border Contributes to Fentanyl Crisis, Deaths

    Drug overdose is the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18 to 45.   A total of 91,799 deaths from drug overdoses occurred in 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. Opioid drugs, such as fentanyl, were involved in 68,630, or 75%, of these overdose deaths.   “It’s undisputed that the leading cause of deaths…
    Virginia Allen
    Read More
    • News

    Texas Lawmaker Blasts Biden’s Open Borders for Illegal Immigration, Fentanyl Crises

    Americans in every state—not just those in the southwest—should be concerned about President Joe Biden’s lack of border security and the resulting drug crisis, a Texas congressman says. “Every state is a border state now,” said Rep. Brian Babin, R-Texas. “I think the government has spent about $350 million this past year on transportation costs…
    Maggie Hroncich
    Read More