The White House on Monday issued an executive order designating fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction.
In the order, the administration wrote that illicit fentanyl is more like a chemical weapon than a narcotic for which a very small amount constitutes a lethal dose. It also notes that hundreds of thousands of Americans have died due to overdoses of the narcotic painkiller.
“The manufacture and distribution of fentanyl, primarily performed by organized criminal networks, threatens our national security and fuels lawlessness in our hemisphere and at our borders. The production and sale of fentanyl by Foreign Terrorist Organizations and cartels fund these entities’ operations — which include assassinations, terrorist acts, and insurgencies around the world — and allow these entities to erode our domestic security and the well-being of our Nation,” the order reads in its “Purpose and Policy” section.
The order goes on to say that various department heads and agencies would be ordered to take actions that will implement the order to “eliminate” the “threat” of illicit fentanyl.
Pursuant to the order, the Attorney General is directed to investigate and prosecute fentanyl trafficking. The Secretaries of State and Treasury is expected to take appropriate measures to financially penalize people and financial institutions for those who played a role in manufacturing, distributing, and selling the drug and precursor chemicals.
Additionally, “the Secretary of War and the Attorney General shall determine whether the threats posed by illicit fentanyl and its impact on the United States warrant the provision of resources from the Department of War to the Department of Justice to aid in the enforcement of title 18 of the United States Code, as consistent with 10 U.S.C. 282,” the edict reads.
According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the number of overdose deaths from all prescription opioids from 2017 to 2023 declined from 17,029 to 13,026 with IMF (illicitly manufactured fentanyl) involvement in those deaths increasing from 2014 through 2021.
