Kristen Millnick, media@drugpolicy.org
New York, NY – U.S. presidential candidates Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are ratcheting up their attention to fentanyl on the campaign trail. Both candidates have prioritized criminalization and punishment responses to fentanyl and the overdose crisis. But this punitive approach is actually a primary driver of the overdose crisis which continues to claim lives despite 50 years of drug war policies. Instead of more “lock-them-up” proposals, candidates must get serious about reducing demand and saving lives by advancing health and economic solutions that work.
In response to the candidates’ harmful rhetoric and ineffective policy proposals, Kassandra Frederique, Executive Director at Drug Policy Action, released the following statement:
“Both Harris and Trump are currently in a race to the bottom, competing for who can appear toughest on fentanyl and the border. Make no mistake, this country needs a plan for fentanyl, but the plan cannot be the same drug war playbook that put us in the current mess we are in. Trump’s past policies and Harris’s current rhetoric are why over 100,000 Americans are dying each year to a fentanyl-fueled overdose crisis. Supply-side interdiction and increased criminal penalties fill up our jails and drain our communities of resources that could be better spent on health services, housing, and good-paying jobs. With criminal convictions preventing gainful employment and unmet substance use disorder and other health needs, options for economic mobility are extremely limited. Cartels can then exploit this population of young American citizens, who have become the leading transporters of fentanyl through legal points of entry in the U.S.
When over 100,000 Americans are dying of preventable drug overdoses every year, we have lost the plot in political theater. We need candidates that will focus on what is most important – saving lives.
We need health-based solutions grounded in evidence, not stigma and xenophobia. These include investing in greater access to the overdose reversal drug naloxone, drug checking tools like fentanyl test strips, syringe service programs, overdose prevention centers, and medications for opioid use disorder.
We need retroactive record clearing, removal of collateral consequences for past convictions, and economic solutions that give Americans options (and hope) instead of leaving them susceptible to financial exploitation and intimidation from cartels.
Instead of playing politics with people’s lives and scapegoating asylum-seekers and immigrant community members, it’s time for candidates to treat drug use and sales as the health and economic issue it is.”
Background:
No one should die from overdose. These deaths are preventable. Yet in the United States, we have lost over one million lives to the devastating overdose crisis over the last 25 years. And we lost nearly 108,000 lives in 2022 alone. This is an urgent public health emergency that affects all of us in every community. It should be a top priority for all our elected leaders. The U.S. presidential candidates must be clear about their plans to reduce overdose deaths and help people who are struggling with addiction. Learn more about our campaign to hold candidates accountable and demand that they provide real overdose prevention plans.
Blaming migrants for fentanyl is not only a distraction from the real overdose crisis that the U.S. is facing, but it’s also untrue. Fentanyl demand and trafficking is driven by U.S. citizens. Data from 2019-2024 obtained by Cato through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request demonstrates that more than 80% of fentanyl seized at legal ports of entry were by U.S. citizens. Drug interdiction has worsened the overdose crisis from the start: Restricting prescription opioids did not end demand for opioids, but it did send people to the underground heroin supply which was cheaper. Crackdowns on heroin led suppliers to produce potent and easily smuggled fentanyl. Harsh fentanyl penalties incentivized fentanyl analogues to flood our markets. Classwide scheduling of fentanyl analogues has now led to more potent opioids and tranquilizers, such as xylazine, etizolam, benzodiazepines, and nitazenes, overtaking some markets. This pattern will likely continue so long as we focus our energy on increased enforcement and supply-side interdiction.
Criminalization has already failed time and time again to keep our communities safe. We must reject any further notion that this time – or for these substances – it will be different. It’s time to prioritize health approaches to fentanyl. Learn more about why we need a health approach to fentanyl. And check out our fact sheets to see where the presidential candidates stand on drug policy.
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About Drug Policy Action
Drug Policy Action works to pass new drug laws and policies grounded in evidence, health, equity, and human rights — and undertakes a wide range of activities including political advocacy and electoral work to support these principles. Drug Policy Action is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit 501(c)(4) organization, and is the advocacy and political partner of the Drug Policy Alliance.
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