According to a press release created by John Mangalonzo, Press Secretary, “West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is urging the new Republican U.S. House of Representatives majority to have U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken testify about his failures in addressing the country’s fentanyl crisis.”
In a letter to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Attorney General Morrisey also asked for lawmakers to make the fentanyl crisis a high priority and conduct extensive oversight of the U.S. Department of State’s efforts and lack thereof to address fentanyl in dealings with China and Mexico.
“Enough is enough. Far too many people are dying because of this menace,” Attorney General Morrisey said, writing to the House Speaker that “we are losing over 2,000 Americans a week to drug deaths, a majority of whom are dying from fentanyl that flows into our country from China and Mexico. This has to be a number one priority for our Department of State in diplomatic relations with these two countries.”
As far as statistics are concerned, the United States had 107,622 drug deaths in 2021, a 15% increase of 13,967 from 93,655 in 2020. Almost the entirety of the increase is due to fentanyl. West Virginia had 1,194 fentanyl and other synthetic opioid deaths in 2021, up 10% from 1,083 in 2020.
“Chinese chemical manufacturers are making and sending the raw ingredients to make fentanyl to Mexican drug cartels, which are in turn making and trafficking fentanyl at an industrial scale,” Attorney General Morrisey said. “But in the face of this evolving and significant problem, the federal government has seemed content to stand by.”
“The stakes are too high and inaction is not an option.”
Read a copy of Attorney General Morrisey’s letter at: https://bit.ly/3j93OBL.