As children, teenagers and young adults drop dead from fentanyl poisoning, the party controlling Colorado and the federal government treat it as a minor concern.

It was the top concern of Coloradans who gathered on the front lawn of the state capitol on Sunday to mourn loved ones killed by fentanyl. They decorated chairs with flowers and birthday balloons to remember those they had lost. They shed tears, hugged and asked “why?”

Fifty to 100 times stronger than morphine, fentanyl caused 77% of all teen deaths in the United States in 2021.

Ranking law-enforcement officials tell us Mexican cartels lace street drugs with fentanyl because of its addictive qualities. China supplies Mexico.

The best solution to this requires action by the White House and Congress. If the border were secure, Chinese communists and Mexican cartels could not so easily flood our country with this killer.

Just last week, border patrol agents seized 250 pounds of fentanyl crossing the border near Campo, California. Two milligrams — as found by the Drug Enforcement Agency — can kill an adult. That’s about 0.0004 teaspoons — barely visible to the naked eye.

A mere 250 pounds of this poison can kill about 57 million adults.

Colorado lost 900 residents just last year to fentanyl, and 29 were children. Poisonings have increased by nearly 20 times the number from 10 years ago.

Those mourning fentanyl victims typically say their loved ones died of poisoning, not traditional drug abuse. In the case of pre-teen children, nearly all deaths involve accidental ingestion with this poison. Most adult victims think they are using a less-harmful substance, not knowing a dealer laced it with fentanyl.

If Anthrax-laced envelopes killed 900 Coloradans last year, politicians would turn their focus to ensure it never happens again. It is all we would hear about. They would keep the killer out of our homeland and spare no expense.

That’s not happening with fentanyl. We have decriminalized, legalized and normalized the recreational use of illicit drugs. If seen as a recreational drug, politicians won’t treat fentanyl as anything more.

Colorado Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper knows the severity of Colorado’s fentanyl crisis and questioned experts about it during a committee hearing in July. Colorado Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet posted on Facebook to let us know he cares.

“My heart breaks for those we have lost and my thoughts are with their loved ones,” Bennet wrote.

Then do something. No one has more authority to stop this than Colorado’s highest-ranking Washington officials. Stopping it means ensuring we control who and what crosses our southern border.

Bennet and Hickenlooper have done nothing during this catastrophe to demand we secure the border. They have spent far more time and energy on trying to legalize pot and secure the rights of mothers in other states to seek abortions in Colorado.

The Democratic congressional bill “STOP Fentanyl Act” (Senate Bill 1457) doesn’t mention the border. Instead, it would allow physicians to prescribe substance abuse medications after telehealth visits. It would fund more “treatment and harm reduction activities.”

That’s nice, but average fentanyl victims die long before anyone thinks they need treatment. Rehab and telehealth won’t help babies who die when adults leave powder or pills on a table.

We can’t do much in Colorado other than react to the tragic deaths, such as those mourned at our capitol on Sunday. The true solution involves controlling the supply. That means stopping this poison from crossing our border. If Bennet and Hickenlooper don’t demand such action, they don’t really care.

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(c)2022 The Gazette (Colorado Springs, Colo.)

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