The President of the United States, Donald Trump, signed an executive order this Monday to declare fentanyl, a drug that has wreaked havoc on the American population in recent years, “like a weapon of mass destruction”. “Today, I am taking another step to protect Americans from the deadly scourge of fentanyl that is flooding our country. With this historic executive order that I will sign today, we will officially classify fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction, which it truly is,” Trump said at a White House event.
“If it was a war, it would be one of the worst wars; I think that over the last five or six years, between 200,000 and 300,000 people have died every year (because of fentanyl). We’re talking about 100,000, which is a lot, but the number is much higher,” explained the American president. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 250,000 people died between 2021 and 2023 alone due to overdoses linked to synthetic opioids, mainly fentanyl.
Trump announced the signing of the order at an event to honor military personnel for their work defending the border with Mexico. The president said that “there is no doubt that America’s adversaries are trafficking fentanyl into the United States, in part because they want to kill Americans“.
The Republican stressed that during his mandate, according to him, “a 50% off of the amount of fentanyl that crosses the border,” and assured that China is “working closely” with the United States “to reduce the number and quantity of fentanyl that is sent.” “We have been able to reduce that number to a much smaller number. “It’s not satisfactory, but it will be soon,” he added.
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