Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) stated that fentanyl dealers should be charged with something close to murder for dealing a "poison," and emphasized the amount of money made from fentanyl trafficking by comparing the cartels to Fortune 500 companies. He made this statement in a post on X.
"Dealing fentanyl is more like dealing a poison than dealing a drug, and the penalty should be more like a murder charge than a drug charge,” said Rep. Crenshaw," said Crenshaw, US Rep. (R-TX). "Cartels are like Fortune 500 companies. We can't just target their leaders, we have to target the whole organization. MM/DD/YYYY."
According to an article from TIME, in 2023, 115,562,603 pills containing fentanyl were confiscated, a total 2,300 times more than the 49,657 pills seized in 2017. Only two milligrams of fentanyl is considered a lethal dose and is said to be 50 times more potent than heroin.
Rep. Crenshaw's X
| X (Twitter)
Similar to Crenshaw, Rep. Neal Dunn (R-FL) said last year that fentanyl is "not a drug, it's a poison," according to his interview with the Federal Newswire. "When we say weapon of mass destruction we're thinking nuclear weapons, sarin gas, biological weapons," Dunn said, and placed fentanyl in this same category. "When you have something that one kilogram will kill a hundred thousand people, good God, that's dangerous."
Fentanyl remains the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18-45, according to NBC. NBC also noted the profits resulting from dealing fentanyl. Pills containing fentanyl are manufactured in Mexico for as little as two cents per pill and are sometimes worth $60 in certain areas such as the Rocky Mountains region and are therefore considered a multi-billion-dollar business. "Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid, and with a limitless supply of precursor chemicals originating in China and destined for Mexico, the Mexico-based cartels can produce an endless supply," David Olesky of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Rocky Mountain Field Division said. "No matter how much fentanyl we seize, they can make more. The only thing they care about is their money."
In certain parts of the US such as remote parts of Montana, these same fentanyl pills can sell for up to $100 per pill, according to another NBC article. "The profits are just out of this world," said Stacy Zinn, a DEA officer in Montana.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw was elected to represent Texas’s Second Congressional District in 2018, according to his website. Crenshaw currently serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee as well as on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, contributing to the Central Intelligence Agency and National Intelligence Enterprise Subcommittees.
