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Many Americans believe migrants bring fentanyl across the border. That's wrong and dangerous (www.latimes.com)

submitted 4 months ago by gAlienLifeform@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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About 90% of the fentanyl seized at the border in recent years was at legal crossings, which undocumented migrants generally avoid, and 91% of the seizures were from U.S. citizens, according to Border Patrol data. It’s much easier to transport fentanyl pills or powder in one of the thousands of vehicles that pass through legal ports of entry every day than with the bedraggled people walking, wading and climbing across the border.

Former President Trump and other politicians and pundits have nevertheless been relentlessly linking migrants with fentanyl on the campaign trail, in Congress and on social media. A Trump campaign ad warned of “record numbers streaming across our border, costing taxpayers billions, and almost as many Americans killed from fentanyl as killed in World War II.” It showed images of crowds walking along a roadside and a Fox News headline reading, “Border Patrol seized enough fentanyl to kill entire U.S.”

This is a classic example of what we call dangerous speech: language that inspires fear and violence by describing another group of people as an existential threat. And it’s working to terrible effect: Americans are increasingly convinced that migrants are to blame for the fentanyl crisis. Social media posts blaming migrants for the drug’s toll more than tripled from December to January, according to our analysis of more than 30 sites

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[-] MiltownClowns@lemmy.world 53 points 4 months ago

The guy from Pawn Stars blamed the migrant border crisis for his son overgosing on Fentanyl. It's just white people who don't want to blame the pharmaceutical industry and our porus ports. It's always the poor brown people's fault somehow, not your terrible parenting that resulted in your kids being drug addicts.

[-] Revan343@lemmy.ca 31 points 4 months ago

It's just white people who don't want to blame the pharmaceutical industry and our porus ports

Don't forget the main culprit of widespread fentanyl: the war on drugs

[-] Not_mikey@lemmy.world 13 points 4 months ago

This, there are many reasons people do opiates, isolation, doctors prescription, homelesness, economic depression etc. but the only reason people are doing fentanyl is because it's cheap and available, and it's cheap and available because the war on drugs makes it so the most concentrated substances are the most easily supplied.

If the war on drugs ends fentanyl goes away just like those high proof moonshines that were making people blind in prohibition. Opiate use won't because the other underlying problems would remain, but it would be far more safe.

[-] Pratai@lemmy.ca 18 points 4 months ago

It’s not white people- it’s conservatives. Yes they are white people, but so are democrats, and democrats are smart enough not to think that dumb shit.

this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2024

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