Phelen’s Focus: Fixing the Fentanyl Problem

Fixing the Fentanyl Problem

• Fentanyl is up to 50 times stronger than heroin.
• A lethal dose of Fentanyl can be as small as 2 milligrams.
• Approximately 150 people in the United States are dying every day from overdoses of synthetic opioids like Fentanyl. 
• Imagine you are sitting in a sold out Coors Field. That is the number of people that are dying each year in the United States from opioid drug overdoses.
• As of 2022 accidental overdose has become the number one cause of death in CO and is now the leading cause of death in 37 states.
• We can no longer just implement historically ineffective measures such as making possession of Fentanyl a felony. We must do more to rid our streets of the supply and the suppliers of illegal opioids.

Solutions – What should we do about it?

1. We could utilize military force to eliminate Mexican Fentanyl production facilities and to go after the heads of cartels.
2. We could authorize the use of U.S. intelligence agencies to identify shipments of illegally produced synthetic opioids such as Fentanyl and the drugs needed to produce Fentanyl illegally and directing the U.S. Navy to intercept and destroy shipments of such illegal opioids and precursors by whatever means necessary
3. We could close the Southern border immediately and indefinitely and increase scanning procedures for containers at all ports of entry.