Federal immigration officials seized enough fentanyl last
year to kill nearly twice the population of the United States.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland
Security Investigations (HSI) unit revealed in a year-end report that in total,
about 2,737 pounds of fentanyl were seized in Fiscal Year 2018, along with
7,103 pounds of heroin, and 225 pounds of chemicals used to make these drugs.
“According to the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review
Commission, mass quantities of fentanyl are being produced in China and brought
illegally to the United States, contributing to the growing crisis in the U.S.
The rise of fentanyl in the United States can be traced back to China’s large
chemical and pharmaceutical industries, which manufacture vast quantities of
the drug and its analogues to export to the western hemisphere with little
regulatory oversight. Many of those shipments go to Mexico, where Mexican TCOs
profit from their infusion of fentanyl into their narcotics.”
For some reason the drug use has been increasing disproportionately
among men, particularly in the construction trades. One theory as to why is a crisis of masculinity.
“Ideals of masculinity may be making men more vulnerable to
the sort of thinking that leads to fatal overdose. Officials around Vancouver,
B.C. are building their prevention plans around that theory.”
“We’ve realized that
a number of the men dying down here aren’t [homeless addicts],” he says. “They
are construction workers; they’ve got jobs. They are anywhere between 20 and
say 35, 40 years old. They come down here on Friday night, they cash their
checks, they’re having a beer, they grab a paper of down [heroin] to go home
with, they snort it at home. They go to bed. They don’t wake up.
“In fact, health officials are now planning intervention
specifically for those in the building trades. And as overdose deaths among men
now far outstrip those among women, many doctors, officials, and social workers
question whether the drug crisis is also an overlooked crisis of masculinity.
“Men take bigger risks with drug use and feel that they can
handle their intake. Amid social and economic changes, many men have lost their
traditional moorings – making them even more vulnerable in this high-stakes era
for drug consumption.”
I have a theory of my own about why men are more vulnerable now to drug abuse. Even when they are working and productive, many men find that they are expendable in the economy of community and family. The welfare state has made it possible for women with children to get along without the father. A man who doesn't know his children, or whose children have been aborted, doesn't have responsibilities that have historically civilized men. Interestingly enough, Hispanics, whose family ties remain stronger than other ethnic groups are not succumbing at the rate of the white and black populations.
