1ºIn 2020, fatal opioid overdoses in the D.C. area surged dramatically — in some cases, to the highest levels ever recorded. Throughout 2021, these numbers only increased. And in January of 2022, the District of Columbia saw rashes of overdose deaths occurring due to “bad batches” of fentanyl-laced drugsbeing distributed to hard-hit communities.
Based on the most recently available data, 2021 was an even deadlier year for much of the region — a trend that is exacerbated by the Mexican cartels’ efforts to turn a quick profit. The DEA has been seeing Mexican cartels sourcing raw, dangerous chemicals from China, using these chemicals to cheaply produce the deadly synthetic opioid, fentanyl. This fentanyl is then trafficked into the area, mixed into almost every illicit drug, and sold to unsuspecting buyers, causing an extraordinary spike in deadly overdose deaths.
2ºDrug traffickers and dealers need tough sentencing laws imposed upon them. Drugs should not be on our streets, in our cities, in our homes. I also feel that minimum sentences should be imposed on traffickers and dealers for potential overdoses. If some person is going to push drugs on a street corner, then they should reap in court what they sow in my opinion. They operate out of greed, let them sit in prison thinking about how they got there, I feel they don't care about how many people die from their garbage drugs, so let them be where they belong, behind bars.