[mnm1]

Blaming China for our failed drug war and idiotic drug policies is like blaming gun companies for WWII. The only way to help opioid addicts is to help them improve their lives while providing low cost, safe opioids to them until they are ready to quit. If doctors in the US could prescribe appropriate opioids for addiction, if we had safe use sites, and if we helped people find jobs, community, and purpose, we wouldn't have this epidemic. Until we're ready to accept that and while this idiotic drug war continues, thinking that drugs can be stopped despite over a hundred years of evidence to the contrary, people will continue to die in masses. And the only people that deserve the blame are the police, DEA, and lawmakers who are murdering addicts in their crusade against something they are too stupid to understand. The drug war is a crime against humanity, one that will likely go unpunished like so many others.

[nate_meurer]

I strongly agree with everything you just said, but is there possibly some benefit in also trying to control the huge flow of fentanyl from China? That's really all TFA is saying.

[DyslexicAtheist]

I think this is literally impossible because of costs to produce / distribute fentanyl compared to opioids. There will always be people who are skint enough to buy the cheapest thing they can find and there will always be bad apples greedy enough to stretch their produce with Fentanyl.

Then there are those that mean well and spike their produce successfully for a few runs, ... forgetting that it takes only 1 mistake and many will be dead as a result.

[mnm1]

Yes, totally, but the only way to do that successfully is to regulate supply at home: legalization. Anything short of that will not control fentanyl from China or anywhere else, not even decriminalization. Black markets or even gray markets cannot be controlled. I think the last hundred years or so of prohibition has proven that over and over again. This applies to drugs, guns, etc.