Attorney General Merrick Garland told the Senate that Mexican drug cartels triggered the fentanyl crisis in the United States "on purpose," and called on the Mexican government to "do more" to combat the drug trafficking that has become a public health and security crisis in the country.
In an appearance before the Congressional Judiciary Committee, Garland was questioned about the fentanyl crisis, a synthetic drug that has caused the majority of overdoses in the country. Of the 100,000 Americans who died from overdoses in just one year, around 70,000 were poisoned with this substance. The Attorney General acknowledged that the United States is suffering from a "horrible epidemic" of the drug, and stated that it was "unleashed on purpose" by the Mexican Sinaloa and Jalisco - New Generation cartels.
Merrick Garland spoke about the work of the Federal Drug Enforcement Administration, which last year seized more than 379 million potentially lethal doses of fentanyl, enough to kill everyone in the country.
When questioned about the Mexican government's help in ending the epidemic, Garland said that the neighboring country isn't doing enough:
They are helping us but they could do much more. I have no doubt about this.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid 50 times more potent than heroin. It is highly addictive and only a small amount, enough to fit on the tip of a pencil, can be deadly. The Republican Party has been working for months to have the drug considered a weapon of mass destruction. They also want the cartels that bring it into the country to be treated as terrorists. The attorney general said he would not oppose the State Department declaring these cartels terrorist organizations. He insisted that the U.S. needs the Mexican government's cooperation in order to combat them.
This drug starts off in China, where precursor chemicals are supplied to Mexican drug cartels that then smuggle the fentanyl across the border.
