On Friday, I wrote a piece about the HALT Fentanyl Act, which would reclassify the drug as Schedule I. Theoretically, this would aid in stemming the influx of the drug at the border. The act is opposed by a George Soros-backed non-profit. It is also opposed by Sens. Cory Booker, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Ed Markey. The rationale for the opposition is that doing so would hamper research into fentanyl analogs, create stiffer drug penalties, and ultimately result in mass incarceration for minorities. I also mentioned responses from parents who were angry at those lawmakers for their opposition. I reserve the right to remain suspicious of the motives of Booker, Whitehouse, Markey, and any group funded by Soros. However, I subsequently received this email from a reader:

I’m a retired professional firefighter and emergency medical technician of almost 40 years. Fentanyl is currently being used by Medics and in Hospitals across the country. My reply is to help keep your reputation of great reporting from being challenged by our enemies. Call a local ambulance company or hospital to confirm what I mentioned above. I fully support the classification of Illegal fentanyl for reclassification but would not want to interfere with its treatment use by medical professionals. Have a great day

Fair enough. So, I reached out to a friend who has experience in emergency room and trauma nursing and extensive experience in critical care. I showed that person the article and the email and asked for their input. 

This person explained to me that:

As an added bit of trivia, this person also noted that from time to time, medical cocaine is used in emergency rooms.

Huh? 

They said that when made into a paste, cocaine is an extremely effective and fast-acting topical anesthetic and is particularly useful for small children who need stitches. I can put that on the list of things I learned today.

The upshot of the argument is this: Medically produced fentanyl is efficacious and safe when properly and responsibly dispensed. Making it a Schedule I drug would create additional hoops through which medical personnel would need to jump in order to use it, negatively impacting the quality and even safety of care. 

The point was also made that heroin is a Schedule I drug and, therefore, illegal, but that hasn't seemed to stop anyone from using it.  

Case in point:

This past Christmas, Mrs. Brown and I went to see Mannheim Steamroller in concert since it is a federal law that everyone must listen to at least a minimum of 12.5 hours of Mannheim Steamroller between December 1 and 25. After the show, we decided to grab a bite to eat at a fun seafood bistro in downtown SLC. Despite the reputation for being full of shiny, happy Mormons, Salt Lake has more than its fair share of homeless people, many of whom are mentally ill, addicted, or both. Those people were starting to assemble for the night, so I let Mrs. Brown off by the door for safety reasons. Unbeknownst to me, the restaurant had not opened for the evening and was not letting anyone in to wait, despite the fact it would open its doors for dinner in about 10 minutes. I was getting ready to pay for parking when I got a text from my wife that she felt unsafe. I told her I would come to the door and escort her back to the car. Heading back to the restaurant, I could see why. 

A woman had wandered over. She had the hunched-back posture of someone who is hopelessly addicted and was swaying from side to side, much like the people in videos from Philadelphia and other urban areas of the country. I'm not exactly Chuck Norris, but I can count on one hand the number of times in my life when I have been legitimately unsettled or even scared. This was one of those times. When the woman raised her head to look at me, she had a broad, almost predatory smile that showed all her teeth, and she had the eyes of someone who could have been possessed. I honestly did not know if she even saw me, if she was going to tell me to have a nice day,  ask for a buck, or rip my throat out. It was scary as hell. Moreover, my heart broke for a soul so corrupted by narcotics that she likely did not even know her own name or what planet she was on. If you think this problem has not reared its head in your municipality, you are probably not paying attention. Or, if it hasn't, it will do so soon enough.

So, medical personnel need access to pharmaceutical fentanyl for very legitimate reasons. At the same time, the street versions of fentanyl and similar drugs are wreaking havoc and eating people from the inside out when they are not killing those people outright. So what is to be done? 

Ideally, a tighter border would at least slow down the business conducted by the cartels. Getting tough with China for providing the precursors would also be a big step forward. However, China and the cartels seem to have no shortage of friends in the U.S., some of whom appear capable of wielding significant power. Actual enforcement of drug laws would not hurt, either.  But in 2022, I wrote an article about the Biden administration funding vending machines in Kentucky for people who use injectable drugs. In 2023, I penned a piece about a similar vending machine in Brooklyn that was emptied in a night. To be fair, these machines are also meant to dispense things like lip balm, socks, water, and feminine hygiene products...along with drug paraphernalia.

Have we just thrown up our hands in the face of mounting drug use? Or, could it be that there is more money to be made and better job security to be had by "addressing" a problem as opposed to solving it? To take it a step further, several people in the medical profession have said to me off the record that the reason there is no known cure for cancer is because there is likely more money to be made in treating the disease than curing it. That brings us back to Booker, Whitehouse, Markey, and Soros. There are sound reasons for not classifying fentanyl as a Schedule I drug. But when it comes to Soros and the Democrats, one must not just ask what they are doing but why they are doing it. If I can leave my regular readers with nothing else, it would be the desire to ask one question over and over: "Cui bono?" or "Who benefits?"