Republican senators added $45 billion over ten years to their health-care bill for treating America\u2019s opioid binge. It\u2019s a crass vote-buying Band-Aid that does nothing to stop the cross-border drug trafficking that\u2019s feeding the addiction.<\/p>\n
Mexico is the world\u2019s third largest producer of heroin \u2013 an opioid drug — and Mexican heroin now controls over 50 percent of the market share. Additionally,\u00a0most of the heroin from Colombia and South East Asia comes to the U.S. via Mexican drug cartels.<\/p>\n
A border wall would choke that flow.<\/p>\n
House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., points out that the opioid epidemic stems “not only from abuse (of prescription drugs), but from the illicit drug trade.\u201d America, he said, is “consistently a step behind in stopping trafficking of opioids and other illegal drugs.”<\/p>\n
The U.S. lags behind, in part, because Washington continues to slow-walk construction of a wall along strategic areas of the 2,000-mile-long, drug-infested border.<\/p>\n
Meantime, the situation is deteriorating across northern Mexico. Drug-related killings have surged<\/a> there, with more than 11,000 deaths during the first five months of this year, on pace for the deadliest year in the country\u2019s post-revolutionary history.<\/p>\n The House spent four straight days this session considering more than a dozen bills addressing the opioid issue. Not a single measure addressed securing the border to stop drug trafficking.<\/p>\n