🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
The fentanyl crisis that is tearing its way through cities across the nation is rapidly becoming the top public safety concern in America. The reach of this lethal yet highly addictive poison goes beyond just the often-fatal damage that it does to the individual; fentanyl importation, distribution, and use is increasingly a catalyst for other crimes, both violent crime and property crime.
The fentanyl trade is a well-organized and sophisticated criminal enterprise with a cartel-driven manufacturing, importation, and distribution network. Raw fentanyl and the materials for its precursors are sourced in more and more countries around the world, though the majority come from China and are shipped through Mexico. From there, fentanyl is pressed into counterfeit pharmaceutical pills, mixed with heroin, or smuggled in pure form across the southwestern border for distribution throughout the United States.
Once on the streets of our cities, fentanyl's toll is horrific. Whether taken by itself or mixed with other drugs to increase their potency, it can be deadly. Two milligrams, enough to barely cover the tip of a pencil, is considered a lethal dose. Criminal organizations generally distribute fentanyl by the kilogram—1,000 grams—which is enough to potentially kill half a million people.
This is not theoretical: Last year, my home state of Colorado experienced more than 900 deaths due to fentanyl, a 260 percent increase over two years. Some of those deaths were in children as young as 15 months old.
As the prevalence of fentanyl has increased, so has the overall crime rate. Between 2019 and 2021, property crime went up in Colorado by 20 percent. Motor vehicle theft has increased an astounding 86 percent. Even more sobering is the escalating rate of violent crime, including murder, which increased by 42 percent in the Centennial State over that time frame, much of it attributable to the increase in the distribution of fentanyl.
These statistics are not unique to Colorado. National figures for drug overdose deaths have risen more than 373 percent over the last twenty years. While deaths from legal prescription opioids have trended downward over that time, deaths from illegal synthetic opioids (primarily fentanyl) have skyrocketed. As a result, much of the attention and efforts that have been dedicated to curtailing the abuse of legal, prescription opioids would now be better focused on restricting the illegal fentanyl pouring into our country.
Additionally, the overall crime rate in the U.S. has increased as well, as fentanyl continues to pour over the borders and infect every major city in the nation. According to a study by the Council on Criminal Justice, homicide in 22 major U.S. cities rose by 5 percent in 2021 over 2020, and by 44 percent since 2019.
The fentanyl problem is a multi-headed monster and requires a comprehensive approach to deal with it. As a society, we have made impressive advances in the fields of addiction medicine and overdose prevention, and those measures can and should be continued.
Addressing the demand side of the equation is an important part of this fight. But it must be recognized that it is only one front in a larger battle.
Confronting the supply side—the criminal enterprise that manufactures and distributes this poison and fuels an escalation in violence and property crime—is equally vital.
We will make no progress by ignoring one side of the coin in favor of the other.
Colorado offers something of a lesson for the rest of the country. In 2019, the state decided to treat drug problems in the state as a demand issue only, reducing possession of up to four grams of any hard drug, including fentanyl, to a misdemeanor, and shifting efforts from law enforcement to "harm reduction."
What resulted was a tragic failure, for our young people, our neighbors, and our communities. Dealers routinely carried up to four grams of fentanyl—which represents thousands of lethal doses—knowing they faced nothing more than a ticket. Fentanyl flooded our streets, and the death rate skyrocketed.
Earlier this year, state lawmakers took some first steps to reverse this lamentable decision, but much more remains to be done.
The fentanyl issue presents no simple solutions. We have learned many lessons from the much-maligned "war on drugs," including the importance of treating addiction and its underlying factors. But the reality is that there is a criminal side to the problem as well, which we as a nation cannot afford to ignore. Because this is a battle we cannot afford to lose.
Paul Pazen was Chief of the Denver Police Department from June 2018 to October 2022.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
