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During their Nov. 15 meeting in San Francisco, President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping reached an agreement to curb fentanyl production. Fentanyl is extensively manufactured in Mexico using precursor chemicals primarily sourced from China and is then transported into the U.S. through cartels.
Straight Arrow News contributor Adrienne Lawrence is supportive of any effort aimed at reducing the influx of fentanyl into the United States. However, she contends that addressing the production and trafficking alone is insufficient. Lawrence delves into the underlying issues of the fentanyl crisis, emphasizing that Biden must confront these issues to achieve a more substantial impact.
Apparently, China has a thriving chemical manufacturing industry that pumps out many of the compounds used to create fentanyl and the U.S. has accused China of being a major player in the fentanyl trade itself.
Now given that hundreds of hundreds of thousands of Americans have died due to the drug, Biden wants China to crack down on its production of fentanyl, and the manufacturing of the chemicals that make the drug.
As much as I value human life — and I fully appreciate Biden’s desire to curb the circulation of fentanyl — this approach really seems to seek to put a band-aid on a bullet wound.
As the Chinese government has noted, the United States has a culture of drug use. So even if China were to cut its production and manufacturing, I think that Americans are going to find another way to get fentanyl or to simply get high.
Addressing our drug culture, more specifically, the underlying reasons for drug abuse, is what Biden should be focused on, not trying to shift the blame to China.
