The WSJ has a thorough and chilling report on how the Jalisco and Sinaloa cartels dominate the fentanyl trade in the United States, which is still exploding:
The drug often arrives in the form of fake tablets made to look like prescription drugs, including pain pills, law-enforcement authorities said. The DEA believes these dupes — often stamped to look like real 30 milligram oxycodone pills — are aimed at driving prescription drug users toward an illicit, cartel-made product.
The cartels “don’t just fill a void, they create a market,” Mr. Dhillon said.
The pills are so ubiquitous that they have been falling in price, creating pressure on the cartels to roll out new products, according to a 27-year-old fentanyl producer who runs a clandestine lab in Culiacán. He said he and a partner are experimenting with a new version meant to be 30% more potent than the typical fake oxycodone tablets, known as M30s.
Over 56,000 fentanyl or synthetic-opioid overdose deaths were reported in the United States in 2020.
My own views on the drug war have changed over the last ten years or so. The toleration of drug dealers goes together with treating addicts as human biowaste. The number of Americans dying of these drugs is growing to a point beyond toleration. I expect public and elite opinion to begin shifting rapidly toward aggressive enforcement.