Fentanyl

Did I get your attention with this musing title? What? Marla is going to talk about Fentanyl?

Well, I have to tell you that I am absolutely not an expert on the drug Fentanyl, and I don’t even know how it is ingested into a body. In pill form? Through a needle? A powder put in other drugs? Is it sold on the street by the same dealers that sell cocaine and other illegal drugs? Is it priced by the drug lords? And – once it gets into the US how is it so easily distributed around the country, state to state? I don’t know.

The reason I am writing about Fentanyl today though is it has become a political issue and the drug tied closely to the southern border controversy. What I have learned about this drug is that it is produced in China and then it is brought to Mexico and snuck into the US by illegal immigrants. At least that is what conservatives and Republicans want me to think. I’m not denying that it comes in that way. But, I also know that it probably comes in many other ways too. We have 4 borders, and we have planes and boats and cars entering our country all the time.

It is incredibly sad that people want to use Fentanyl. For some reason too many are looking for an escape, or a quick high, or they may just want to stop thinking for awhile. Other drugs have been used for the same purposes for years. Fentanyl is the choice now. And, from what I hear it seems extremely dangerous and deadly. Yet, people have the desire.

Fentanyl would not be a problem in America if it was not wanted so badly.

And, that’s the part of the whole epidemic that doesn’t get much discussion. Are we failing all these people because they are feeling empty, or depressed, or helpless – so they turn to drugs? They are in such a bad way that they take the chance with their lives – and they use their money, and make illegal drug deals, and sometimes die. Fentanyl overdoses happen all the time in the poor areas of America.

Trying to stop the flood of Fentanyl into our country without addressing the core reasons for Americans to desire it will not make the problem go away. Just as with illegal gun use, drug use happens because people are hurting. They are not happy with their lives. They feel unimportant, perhaps unloved. They can’t make enough money to live on and to take care of their kids. They don’t have hope for their future, and therefore they turn to a way to block out the pain.

The Republicans want to close the border. They blame the immigrants coming here for bringing the Fentanyl, and yet, they do nothing to work on the core problems. They don’t want to admit that the poor, and the uneducated, and those in low paying jobs, etc. don’t have the opportunity to improve, and to gain self esteem. Republicans don’t want to use tax dollars for social concerns to better us all. Even their own constituents! Those who elected them!

In general, it seems these days that we want to live without caring for ‘the other guy.’ We don’t want to spend OUR money on THEM. We don’t want to pay for equal education for all, and support early medical treatment, and preventive care, and more job opportunities, and we don’t want to give our hard earned money to those ‘no good druggies’ who have no worth.

Until we look at the big picture differently, and then do something about the core problems, we will continue to have devastating drug deaths. Fentanyl will be the easy escape.

Until we consider that all Americans have a right to mental and physical medical care, until we make sure all Americans can educate themselves for a job or a trade, until we do whatever we can to make ALL Americans feel worthy, then drug lords will find ways to get Fentanyl into the country – and people will continue to die.