Keystone Today

The opioid crisis continues across the country, including in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, which has seen 5,400 overdose deaths between March 2021 and March 2022, according to a report by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

According to the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office, drug overdose deaths increased by 16.4% in 2020. This trend continued in 2021, where deaths went up 6% from the prior year reaching 5,438 confirmed overdose fatalities.

“Fentanyl has rapidly replaced heroin as the dominant opioid in Pennsylvania,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a release. “Last year our Bureau of Narcotics Investigation seized more fentanyl than they had in the last four years combined. 

"The rise in fentanyl has also contributed to a rise in overdose deaths," he added. "Last year we lost 15 Pennsylvanians each and every day to a drug overdose. Law enforcement and policymakers alike must continue to do more to combat this crisis and devote additional resources to stopping fentanyl at the southern border.”

Shapiro is the Democratic nominee for governor this fall.

WKBN reported in March that an eight-month long investigation in Braddock, a suburb east of Pittsburgh, led to the seizure of $1.4 million worth of fentanyl, equating to 700,000 doses.

Fentanyl is a opioid often intentionally mixed with drugs like heroin or cocaine to increase its potency, according to information from the Drug Enforcement Administration. Without testing in a laboratory it is impossible to know how much of the each drug is in a batch, and the blending of the drugs makes an overdose more likely.

The Wall Street Journal reported that heroin is about 30 times more expensive to make than fentanyl. Bryce Pardo, associate director of the Rand Corporation’s Drug Policy Research Center, said heroin costs about $6,000 per kilogram to produce. Fentanyl can be as cheap as $200 per kilogram to make.

Information from the DEA intelligence reports say that the New Generation Jalisco and Sinaloa cartels are the main traffickers of fentanyl into the U.S., with the two cartels dominating trafficking at the southern border that leads into Arizona and California.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) wrote an opinion piece for Fox News on Sept. 12 where he announced legislation that would lead to harsher penalties for fentanyl traffickers.

“According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, cartels increasingly target children and young people,” Rubio wrote. “The most obvious instance of this trend is the pills of ‘rainbow fentanyl’ that the Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels are smuggling across the border, which law officers have seized in 18 states this month.”

The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) reported that about 4.9 million people have illegally crossed into the U.S. during the 20 months of President Joe Biden’s time in office. The news release by FAIR adds that drugs seized at the border are only a fraction of what is trafficked onto the country. In July 469 million lethal doses of fentanyl were seized at the border, the report stated.

“The endless flow of illegal aliens and the incursion of lethal narcotics pouring across our border will not end until this administration demonstrates a willingness to enforce our laws,” said FAIR President Dan Stein.