Thread by @c0lettea

I’m here to tell you about the single worst problem caused by current border policies. A problem which dwarfs all the other border problems being talking about today and was made possible by this a paradigm shift beginning in 2013.

2) Flashback to 2013. That year China began mass manufacturing illicit fentanyl to gain a foothold into the U.S. illicit opiate markets. We saw the results begin to emerge when heroin related deaths began skyrocketing. That was the paradigm shift.

3) But the salient point is what happened nearer to our southern border. What was that? It was China’s decision, under U.S. pressure, to "cease" all fentanyl manufacturing. Which never actually happened.

4) Instead the moved operations to Mexico and opened the door to the world’s greatest illicit drug marketers in the world who were never considered leading illicit opioid manufacturers.

5) Those cartels who are expert drug traffickers immediately recognized that recreational pill use in the U.S. was a diffuse market which would increase their market share by orders of magnitude.

6) Powdered opioids used by those with severe substance use disorder is a market of approximately 1 million users.

7) Those who may use opioid pills in some manner comprise a market of approximately 50 million people, which includes millions of otherwise innocent people who may take maybe one pill just one time – ever!

8) Therefore a death curve that was increasing but stable for more than 50 years has gone completely non-linear because it now includes hundreds of thousands of non-addicted victims including Eddie Kobilis, Amanda Gray, Devin Norring, my daughter Tiffany & countless others

9) Rehabilitation programs, needle exchanges, or methadone clinics will NOT help these non-addicted victims. The federal government spends 35 billion dollars a year on this crisis. Yet not ONE program currently in place is reaching this new group of the non-addicted at risk.

10) Which is the fastest growing part of a death curve which has gone off the rails.
What can we do for them? There are only two things.

First, we can stop the illicit fentanyl from getting to them

Second, we can warn them.

11) This is the main purpose of The Fentanyl Awareness Coalition. This non-addicted population will be receptive to prevention messaging for one reason they are not suffering from substance use disorder. They WANT to live.

12) Please help us stop this illicit fentanyl and write to your representatives to demand a national level awareness and prevention campaign so that our kids have a fighting chance.

Young people should learn from their mistakes, they should not die from them.