Even allies of President-elect Donald Trump are admitting that his plan for tariffs will drive up the cost of pretty much everything for consumers. So why do it?
Well, one of the ostensible reasons Trump had for launching this potential trade war was to end the scourge of fentanyl, a real and enormous problem facing the United States. Fentanyl is a powerful opioid that contributes to about 100,000 U.S. overdose deaths a year. For the past decade, it has been laced into lots of other drugs and caused users of those drugs to overdose unwittingly.
Fentanyl is a powerful opioid that helps contribute to about 100,000 U.S. overdose deaths a year.
The problem is massive. Back in 2021, U.S. life expectancy dropped to its lowest level in two decades. Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that after Covid, drug overdoses, largely from synthetic opioids like fentanyl, were the primary drivers of shorter American lifespans. That’s a real problem and a problem that big doesn’t have a fast or easy fix.
But something seems to be changing recently. As The New York Times reports, “After years of relentless rises in overdose deaths, the United States has seen a remarkable reversal. For seven straight months, according to federal data, drug fatalities have been declining.”
The difference is dramatic. There are a lot of reasons at play for that decrease, like more funding for better treatment, education and prevention measures. Back in September, when people first started asking about the drop and its causes, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra joined “All In” to talk about these harm reduction measures taking hold across the country — like making test strips and Narcan, a drug that reverses an opioid overdose, more readily available.
All of those efforts helped steadily change the curve. But drug policy experts tell the Times they believe “there is another, surprising reason: changes in the drug supply itself, which are, in turn, influencing how people are using drugs.”
For the first time since 2021, the Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA, says the potency of street fentanyl in America has gone down. Pure fentanyl is becoming scarcer a
