I agree with you that blacks are disproportionately impacted by fentanyl. I also support attempting to intercept fentanyl by securing our borders. And we have to a large extent decriminalized possession of drugs. I disagree that our policies were intended to not to help all Americans, simply that they were not effective.
If we really want to stop the flow of fentanyl, the first step is to identify where the fentanyl gets produced (in China in most instances) and then attached a $100,000 fine for every fentanyl death which would be converted to an additional tariff on Chinese imported goods. Targeting goods that the Chinese are least able to pass through the tariff as higher prices due to competition from other countries.
That money could be used for drug rehabilitation and education.
By making the cost of fentanyl shipped to America more expensive to China, China will find a way to shut down the export of fentanyl. They are much more prepared to take actions we won't, when it benefits them.
It is time to play "hardball" with China. Not military hardball, economic hardball, but trade hardball. From a Chinese perspective fentanyl is simply a form of trade, that puts dollars in their pockets, take the money back and the trade will stop.
If we don't target the source, then we are simply playing a losing game, because the drugs are so profitable, that any amount of interception on our part will simply result in greater production to insure enough gets through to meet demand.
A second step would be to create a tariff on all goods produced in Mexico for every fentanyl death from drugs coming through the border. Normally, drugs have a "signature" that forensic labs can use to identify its source.
That money would go to pay the Mexican government a "bounty" on every cartel member identified by the US that gets turned over to the US for prosecution. For "big fish" the penalty should be death by fentanyl overdose. Additional bounties could be paid to informants for identifying major distributors within our country. Money funds drugs, we need to use money to fight drugs.
The problem is not that black lives don't matter.
It is that drugs are so profitable, that traditional policing does little to impact their distribution. You have to make the production, transporting, and distribution of drugs prohibitively expensive. Money talks...
