The Senate Foreign Relations committee held a hearing today about the fentanyl crisis. Let’s look at some highlights!
Sen. Ted Cruz, with characteristic charm, berated DEA head Anne Milgram about Joe Biden’s border policy. Of course, asylum seekers have nothing to do with the fentanyl crisis (unless you consider that they’d increase the number of US residents less susceptible to deaths of despair). So Cruz made some convoluted point about how border agents aren’t guarding the border because they have to work as “baby sitters and housekeepers” due to the large number of migrants.
They also wouldn’t have to do housekeeping if we processed asylum seekers, gave them shelter, and sent them to relatives and friends or wherever in the country they want to go.
Cruz was grandstanding. But the rest of the hearing did not inspire confidence, either.
One legislator asked about people who overdose on fentanyl unknowingly, thinking they were taking a a Percocet or a Xanax they bought online. “Don't buy your pills on social media… maybe we can have an educational campaign?” he wondered.
Milgram’s voice swelled with pride as she talked about the agency’s “One Pill Can Kill” campaign. She said the agency had not trademarked the slogan so that police departments and schools could use it. Wow! At least (so far) they’ve spared us a “funky” rap to be hip with the kids.
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