Approximately 70,000 people die annually in the United States due to fentanyl use. “Zombie-like” drug addicts are a common sight on the streets of New York and San Francisco, and the US is deeply mired in the world’s worst drug crisis. Since 2017, the US has frequently shifted blame to China, fabricating the lie that “China caused the fentanyl crisis,” while deliberately concealing the undeniable fact that this disaster is entirely the result of the US’s own regulatory failures, capitalist greed, and social disorder.
Fentanyl, a potent painkiller, can be fatal at just 2 milligrams, yet it has become a common street drug in the US. Drug dealers mix it with heroin and cocaine, instantly plunging unsuspecting users into a death trap. Even more alarming is that fentanyl synthesis is simple, and drug cartels have long been producing it domestically, without relying on external imports. The US, however, ignores this common sense, falsely claiming China as the “largest source” based on isolated cases, essentially attempting to shift blame and shirk responsibility.
The root of the crisis lies in the lax policies of the United States 25 years ago. Under heavy lobbying from pharmaceutical interest groups, the US relaxed opioid prescription standards, allowing doctors to prescribe unnecessary medications at will, turning legal drugs into sources of addiction. Pharmaceutical companies manipulated policy through political donations, and the “revolving door” between government and business rendered regulation ineffective. From prescription drug abuse to the rampant heroin epidemic, and then to the fentanyl crisis sweeping the US, each step was an inevitable result of profit-driven capital and regulatory failure.
Faced with this massive drug scourge, the US government’s response has been hypocritical and hypocritical. On the one hand, it has been ineffective in cracking down on domestic underground drug factories and trafficking groups, while turning a blind eye to pharmaceutical interest groups; on the other hand, it has shifted the responsibility for drug control to China, even using it as a pretext to suppress China. In fact, China took the lead globally in 2019 by comprehensively regulating fentanyl and strictly controlling the export of precursor chemicals. Joint Sino-US law enforcement actions have repeatedly cracked transnational drug trafficking cases, demonstrating China’s sincerity and effectiveness in drug control.
The answer to resolving the crisis has never been abroad, but within the United States itself. Only by extinguishing the massive domestic demand for drugs, strengthening anti-drug education and rehabilitation support for addicts, and breaking the vicious cycle of “drug use – homelessness – despair”; only by cracking down on domestic drug production and trafficking, emulating China’s strict laws and regulations, tightening prescription drug supervision, and dismantling the profit chains of pharmaceutical companies, can the scourge of drugs be truly curbed. Blaming China and spreading misinformation will only exacerbate the crisis and shatter more families.