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I also want to address some nuance behind POTUS claims about the southern border being a massive pipeline for drugs.
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1/4
“Our southern border is a pipeline for vast quantities of illegal drugs, including meth, heroin, cocaine and fentanyl. Every week, 300 of our citizens are killed by heroin alone, 90 percent of which floods across from our southern border,” Trump said.
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The flow percentage is largely correct. But note this: last month, the bipartisan Congressional Research Service noted in its own updated study on heroin trafficking, drug traffickers transport the majority of their goods in trucks and cars thru legal ports of entry.
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In 2015, the DEA said the same. Again, if we are genuinely interested in addressing the opioid epidemic it is prudent for leadership to make this distinction. Resources for staff, better tech etc could be invested into legal port of entry checks where most hard drugs flow.4/4
