The Sconi

 With the number of opioid-related deaths across the country on the rise as drugs continue to pour in along the Southern border, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) is backing legislation calling for harsher penalties for fentanyl traffickers as the drug is now identified as a leading cause of such overdoses.

“According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, cartels increasingly target children and young people,” Rubio wrote in a recent Fox News op-ed. “The most obvious instance of this trend is the pills of ‘rainbow fentanyl’ that the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels are smuggling across the border, which law officers have seized in 18 states this month.”

Here in Wisconsin, SpectrumNews1.com reports recent data composed by the government concludes the state saw 1,227 opioid-related deaths in 2020, with fentanyl being directly involved in more than 75% of the deaths in 2021. Across the state, West Central Wisconsin is considered a “high-intensity drug trafficking area” because Eau Claire is located along Interstate 94, which runs between Minneapolis, Milwaukee, thus making it relatively easy to transport drugs longer distances in less time.

In Wisconsin alone, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports over 1,800 overdose deaths occurred over a yearlong period beginning in March 2021.

The Wall Street Journal reports fentanyl is also much cheaper to produce than a drug like heroin, with Rand Corporation Drug Policy Research Center associate director Bryce Pardo insisting heroin typically costs around $6,000 per kilogram to produce while fentanyl can be as cheap as $200 per kilogram with individuals also frequently and intentionally mixing it with other drugs like heroin or cocaine to increase its potency.

Other declassified DEA intelligence reports also highlight the New Generation Jalisco and the Sinaloa cartels are the primary traffickers of such drugs into the country, with the two operations largely dominating trafficking corridors at the border leading into Arizona and California.

In the first 18 months since President Joe Biden took over in the White House, the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) reports nearly 4.9 million people have illegally crossed the border into America and FAIR president Dan Stein warns things may get worse before they get better.

“The endless flow of illegal aliens and the incursion of lethal narcotics pouring across our border will not end until this administration demonstrates a willingness to enforce our laws,” he said, adding that the drugs actually seized at the border only represent a fraction of what is trafficked into the country.

In July alone, 469 million lethal doses of fentanyl were seized at the border.