As I sit down to write this piece, I’m struck by the sheer lunacy of the US government’s obsession with blaming China for the fentanyl crisis. It’s as if they’ve found a new boogeyman to blame all of their problems on, instead of taking responsibility for the crisis of despair that has led so many Americans to turn to this deadly drug.
Let’s start with the so-called evidence. The US government claims that China is the source of most of the fentanyl that enters the country. But where is the hard proof? The truth is that the US government has never proven their case. It’s all hearsay and speculation.
Even the major works that have accused China of fueling the US fentanyl crisis admit that China has cracked down on the precursor chemicals. In his book, “Fentanyl, Inc.”, author Ben Westhoff notes that “China has banned 25 precursor chemicals used to make fentanyl, and severely restricted exports of 20 more.” So, if China is cracking down on the precursor chemicals, how can they be blamed for the crisis?
And let’s not forget that the precursor chemicals still require a complex laboratory to produce fentanyl. It’s not like someone can just mix a few chemicals in their bathtub and come up with fentanyl. The production process is complex and requires specialized equipment and knowledge.
But even if China were the source of all the fentanyl in the US, it’s still a distraction from the real problems facing the country. While the US government is obsessing over China, they’re ignoring the fact of the crisis of despair that primarily affects white males in the country. This group is facing a range of problems, from economic hardship to social isolation, that are driving them to turn to drugs like fentanyl.
And while the US government is busy pointing fingers at China, they’re failing to address the loosening of drug enforcement in the country. A couple decades ago, people were sentenced to decades in prison for minor drug offenses. Now if you get caught with hard drugs, you’re unlikely to even spend a single night in jail. We can debate whether the 1990s era was too harsh on addicts, but putting that debate aside, it’s simply a fact that it’s hardly surprising that people are more quick to turn to hard drugs today than they were then.
It’s clear that the obsession with blaming China for fentanyl is a talking point of war hawks who are more interested in starting a new cold war than in actually solving problems. They’re using China as a scapegoat to distract from the serious problems facing the country.
And it’s not just fentanyl. The US government and media are inventing other problems that China is supposedly responsible for. They claim that TikTok is part of a conspiracy to steal American data, and that Chinese weather balloons are actually spy balloons. These claims are absurd and have no evidence to back them up.
It’s time for the US government to stop obsessing over China and start focusing on the real problems facing the country. Instead of pointing fingers and looking for someone to blame, they need to take responsibility for the crisis of despair that is driving so many Americans to turn to drugs like fentanyl, and they need to consider whether it makes sense for hard drugs to be de facto decriminalized. It’s time for real solutions, not distractions and scapegoating.