OPINION:
By the end of 2024, it’s estimated that more than 75,000 Americans will have died from fentanyl overdoses. For myself, and many others, this number doesn’t just represent a nameless, faceless tragedy but a personal loss. My friend’s name was Steven, and at the young age of 19, his life was cut short by fentanyl.
The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly changed the American landscape, leading to shifts in daily habits and routines. Isolation, stress, and uncertainty drove many to drugs and alcohol as a coping mechanism. In fact, around 13% of Americans reportedly started or increased substance use during the pandemic to manage their emotions. Tragically, one of those Americans was my close high school friend, Steven. During the isolation of the pandemic, he began experimenting with drugs, ultimately dying from a toxic combination of fentanyl and acetyl-fentanyl.
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Fentanyl overdoses are rising at an alarming rate, and no one is safe from fentanyl’s deadly reach. It doesn’t matter how much money you have, the color of your skin, or who you are — fentanyl kills indiscriminately. In the past few years alone, the number of fentanyl-related deaths has skyrocketed, with fatalities increasing by over 50%. This synthetic opioid is now the leading cause of overdose deaths in the U.S.
Steven had a promising future, graduating in the top 1% of his high school class and attending one of the top public universities in America. No one would have ever imagined that he would fall victim to an overdose. Most young people dying from small but lethal doses of fentanyl aren’t even drug addicts like many may assume, most aren’t even troubled kids. Many may think they’re just taking Percocet to help with pain or Adderall to help them study for a big test, just to tragically end up poisoned. With fentanyl, there is no margin of error — one pill is all it takes to die. And tragically, Steven’s story is far from unique.
Young people getting their hands on tampered prescription medication has unfortunately become easier than ever, as drug cartels producing these fatal drugs are marketing to kids on social media. In August 2020, 13-year-old Luca Manuel went on Snapchat to purchase what he thought was a Percocet from a dealer. Hours later, Luca was found dead in his bedroom from fentanyl poisoning.
Before Steven’s tragic death, I had barely heard of fentanyl, and, like him, was unaware of its proliferation and potency. Fentanyl is about 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine and roughly 50 times stronger than heroin. To put it in perspective, a lethal dose is equivalent to just a few grains of table salt. This makes fentanyl incredibly difficult to detect, and many people who die from it have no idea they’re even taking it.
By the time I attended Michigan State University, fentanyl overdoses had become commonplace. One candlelight vigil after another, it became painfully clear that fentanyl wasn’t going anywhere and that overdoses would continue to rise.
So, who is to blame for this crisis?
China. Mexico. And even America.
China is importing the chemical compounds that Mexican drug cartels are using to create these pills, which they are smuggling into America. Unfortunately, our government has done very little in the last few years to prevent the influx of this poison into our country, as they have opened our border and allowed unprecedented numbers of illegal immigrants to enter, directly fueling the surge in fentanyl overdoses across the U.S. With weakened border security, drug cartels have found it easier than ever to flood the country with fentanyl. The Drug Enforcement Agency has linked most of the fentanyl entering the U.S. to trafficking through the southern border, where record illegal crossings have overwhelmed law enforcement. In 2022, CBP seized over 14,000 pounds of fentanyl at the border. That year, over 110,000 people in the U.S. died from drug overdoses in 2022, with almost 70% of those deaths being caused by fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. The connection is undeniable: as illegal immigration increases, so does the deadly flow of fentanyl into the country.
Last year, I went to the border with PragerU to do a ride-along with law enforcement. I saw firsthand how our open border policies are fueling the drug trade and leading to the deaths of innocent Americans. It’s not just a policy issue; it’s a matter of life and death.
The tragic loss of my friend Steven, along with hundreds of thousands of other lives, should serve as a wake-up call. We have to close our borders, strengthen security, and take decisive action to address the fentanyl crisis. If we fail to do so, more families will suffer the heartbreak of losing loved ones to this deadly drug. The time to act is now before more lives are senselessly cut short.
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Aldo Buttazzoni joined PragerU in 2022 after graduating from Michigan State University, interning for a U.S. Senate campaign, becoming a freelance reporter, and going viral for exposing “family-friendly” drag show brunches in Dallas. He now hosts PragerU’s incredibly popular show “Man on the Street,” where he interviews today’s youth and everyday Americans about life, history, and politics. Giving young people intellectual ammunition to stay true to their beliefs, Aldo encourages his viewers with messages of opportunity and hope. He’s appeared on Fox News, Newsmax, and other major media outlets.
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