Imagine every two weeks, two packed commercial airplanes hijacked by foreign adversaries were barreled into skyscrapers full of Americans. A 9/11-level attack every two weeks. Allowing an event like this to recur every two weeks should be unacceptable to Americans. Every day, Americans would worry for their safety. Lawsuits would be filed left and right against perpetrators. Lawmakers would be contemplating intervention and retaliation in every way possible. There would be mass demands for our intelligence community to be replaced and undergo major reforms.
A 9/11 attack every two weeks seems unthinkable. However, 200 Americans die daily from fentanyl overdoses, and is the leading cause of death for Americans ages 18-49. A comprehensive House Select Committee focusing on China has uncovered that China is actively fueling the American Fentanyl Crisis. Thus, Americans should consider narcotics trafficking not only as a public health crisis, but as a top national security concern.
Narcotics like fentanyl are trafficked primarily across the Southern Border through Mexican drug cartels. However, these cartels are receiving the precursor ingredients to illicit fentanyl from China. Chinese companies have produced 97% of the illicit fentanyl entering into the United States and have produced almost all of the precursor materials used to manufacture fentanyl worldwide. By subsidizing the manufacturing and exportation of illicit fentanyl materials through tax rebates, giving monetary grants and awards to companies openly trafficking illicit fentanyl materials, holding ownership in PRC companies tied to drug trafficking, failing to prosecute fentanyl and precursor manufacturers, allowing the open sale of fentanyl precursors on the controlled PRC internet, and by censoring content on domestic drug sales while leaving export-focused narcotic sales alone, China is taking an active role in getting Americans addicted to fentanyl. Thus, while taking meaningful steps to seal the American southern border and target cartels is absolutely necessary, one way Americans can meaningfully curb the fentanyl crisis is by getting to the root of the problem, which is Chinese narcotic trafficking.
As a designated adversary, China is strategically and economically benefiting from this crisis. Not only do CCP-tied criminal groups and the PRC chemical industry enrich themselves from the growing crisis in America, but the utter chaos and tragedy the crisis has caused in American life is strategically of interest to China. The drastic increase in the loss of human life from fentanyl, combined with the approximately $1.5 trillion the crisis has cost the United States should make this crisis one of our most pertinent national security threats. Representatives Chrissy Houlahan and Dan Crenshaw are leading the bipartisan effort to treat this crisis as the national security concern it should be by reforming the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) during its recent reauthorization process.
Under Section 702 of FISA, American intelligence agencies can gather emails, text messages, and other digital communications by non-U.S. persons living outside the United States, under the agreement that it is stored in an airtight database. Prior to the reauthorization of the 1978 FISA bill, the bill only allowed this database to be searched for opposing hostile actions by foreign governments and related entities, counterterrorism, and counter-proliferation. But with the urgent national security concern of narcotic trafficking it is vital that Section 702 of FISA be amended to combat this new threat.
Based off Representative Houlihan’s and Representative Crenshaw’s bipartisan Enhancing Intelligence Collection on Foreign Drug Traffickers Act of 2024, the “Crenshaw Amendment” to the latest bill reforming FISA modifies the definition of foreign intelligence information to include international narcotics trafficking to the list of reasons to search the digital intelligence database. With this amendment, foreign intelligence agencies will now be able to gather intelligence and remain one step ahead of illegal drug cartels and their affiliates. This important change to how we gather intelligence can stop the illegal flow of deadly narcotics at its source.
The United States uses FISA to spy on all conventional national security threats. Why should illegal drug traffickers, who each contribute to a deadly crisis killing hundreds of Americans every week, not be included? This group of cartels and foreign actors have repeatedly violated the Constitutional rights of many Americans. They have killed Americans who innocently took counterfeit prescription drugs laced with their concoction of deadly fentanyl and teenagers experimenting with drugs for the first time. These actors will continue to kill Americans for profit. They do not deserve Constitutional rights to privacy, and should be treated as a national security threat.
Featured Image Source: The Hill
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