How Many Deaths Will It Take Before Biden Forcefully Addresses the Fentanyl Crisis?
Even kids under 5 are dying from overdoses.
PENN HILLS, Pennsylvania — When the Penn Hills police and paramedics arrived at the modest suburban Pittsburgh home in the 8100 block of Chaske Street on Jan. 14, they found the father of 7-month-old Zhuri Bogle desperately performing CPR on his infant daughter. It was 6:44 a.m., and with the exception of a few flurries swirling in the brisk winter air, the sky was still as dark as midnight.
The first responders immediately took over from the father and administered CPR on the unresponsive baby for the next 21 minutes. At 7:05 a.m., Zhuri was pronounced dead at the scene.
The local police immediately requested the Allegheny County Police Homicide Unit assist in the investigation; those detectives, in turn, launched an investigation into the baby’s death.
Two months later, the Allegheny County medical examiner announced Zhuri died from acute fentanyl toxicity. The detectives on the case also determined that Zhuri’s grandmother and her “friend,” David Poindexter, age 58, were watching Zhuri when the baby overdosed.
On Friday, Poindexter was served with an arrest warrant and charged with involuntary manslaughter and recklessly endangering another person.
In January, 10-month-old Senna Matkovic had luck, a fast-acting nanny and nearby paramedics on his side when he survived exposure to fentanyl. He was playing with his twin brother at San Francisco’s Moscone Park when it happened. Within 10 seconds of Fire Rescue Captain Robert Kuzma administering Narcan, the child went from supine, unresponsive and blue to breathing and crying for his parents.
Kuzma said it was not his first pediatric opioid overdose in his career. Tragically, it likely won’t be his last.
The number of young children under 5 who have died from overdoses in the U.S. has increased significantly in the past few years, according to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics. The highest number of those fatal poisonings of children comes from opioids.
The study, which relied on records for all children 5 and younger from the National Fatality Review-Case Reporting System, showed that two-fifths of the children who died were infants and that 65% of those deaths happened at home. Nearly a third of those occurred under the supervision of someone who was not their biological parent, as in the case of Zhuri.
We have looked the other way as opioid addiction and abuse in the U.S. has gone from zero to a grotesque and infinite epidemic. It now endangers every aspect of life. Our public health has degraded, our economic output has suffered and our national security has been breached so brazenly and without consequence that it is hard to grasp. Even infants are not safe. Yet we do nothing.
In the past 23 years alone, over 1 million people in the U.S. have died of drug overdoses, almost exclusively opioids, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. By the end of this week, 1,500 people will have overdosed on opioids and died. By the end of next week, 1,500 more people will have overdosed and died from an opioid, and the week after that, and the week after that.
China is the main manufacturer of the ingredients needed to create fentanyl. They find their way from China to the southern border, where the drug cartels are happy to produce the drug and then hand it off to distribution networks to smuggle it across the porous border.
The Biden administration “urged” Mexico and China to take strong action in their countries. Both countries responded that the problem wasn’t with them — it was with us.
With no consequences from the U.S. government, the drugs make their way into the U.S. Those carrying the drugs blend in easily with the record-breaking 2.76 million other illegal crossings that happened last year. They spread the drugs to cities, suburbs and rural communities in your backyard.
Fentanyl is 50 times more powerful than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. It is cheap to produce and deadly to the unsuspecting, such as children playing in a San Francisco park or coming into contact with an addicted caregiver.
Every year at the border, the number of seizures of the product gets higher. Every year, the amount that gets past law enforcement gets larger as well. Fentanyl is poisoning babies, teenagers and adults. Those in government in Washington, D.C., who were elected to protect us have done the opposite.
It is the border agents, law enforcement, first responders, doctors, firefighters and paramedics who are our last line of defense. It makes no sense that we accept the death of Zhuri as normal. It makes no sense that any parent must worry about sending a child to a public park and having him or her not come back alive. It makes no sense that this White House has not done something serious to call all of this out publicly, telling both China and Mexico unequivocally that this ends now.
We have allowed China to steal our intellectual property, outperform us in technology and military capabilities, supersede us in forming strategic alliances with our former allies, escape accountability over the spread of COVID-19, spy on us, out-manufacture us and now poison us. Still, we do nothing.
We have also allowed Mexico to take zero accountability for its hand in this, to turn the problem back on us. Last month, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that in his country, they do not have a problem with fentanyl consumption. “Why don’t they take care of their problem of social decay?” he asked.
A little baby died here in western Pennsylvania — a victim of a series of failures by our government. When does the Biden administration say that enough is enough?
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JUDICIAL WATCH:
“The greatest criminal threat to the daily lives of American citizens are the Mexican drug cartels.”
http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2016/12/the-american-border-with-narcomex.html
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Fentanyl, Heroin, Guns, Stolen Vehicles Seized in Texas Drug Raid
HOUSTON, Texas — Law enforcement teams raided an alleged auto-theft ring in Harris County and found more than two kilos of fentanyl, guns, vehicles, cash, and other drugs. The raid took place on the southwest side of Houston.
Harris County Sheriff’s Office District 5 Captain Marcus Kinnard-Bing tweeted photos showing the items seized while executing a search warrant against a suspected auto-theft ring in southwest Houston on Friday.
The captain reports the seizure of 2.011 kilos of Fentanyl, 520 grams of methamphetamine, and 1.02 kilos of heroin. The photos also show the seizure of a weapons cache that included 38 guns. At least four of these guns were reported stolen, Kinnard-Bing tweeted.
In addition to the guns and drugs, the law enforcement teams seized 11 stolen vehicles, the captain’s report continued.
Captain Kinnard-Bing also reported the seizure of $14,720 in cash from the raid which took place in the 9200 block of Rasmus Drive in southwest Houston.
Law enforcement teams from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, the Texas Department of Public Safety, and the Houston Police Department assisted in the raid.
HCSO SWAT Lt. Bryan Bucinni reported additional units from the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office, ICE Homeland Security Investigations, and the Houston Fire Department also participated in the incident.
Bob Price serves as associate editor and senior news contributor for the Breitbart Texas-Border team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday-morning talk show. Follow him on Twitter @BobPriceBBTX.
The Only Businesses Given Tax Breaks in Dem’s ‘Small Business Tax Equity’ Bill are Marijuana Sellers
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) introduced a bill Monday to provide tax breaks only to marijuana sellers.
Labeled the “The Small Business Tax Equity Act,” the bill actually helps only one specific type of small business: those that sell marijuana, in violation of the federal Controlled Substance Act.
As the Congressional Research Service explains, state laws legalizing marijuana are at odds with federal statue:
“It is increasingly common for states to have laws and policies allowing for medical and/or recreational use of marijuana—activities that violate the CSA.”
IRS Code Section 280E says that businesses selling controlled substances (such as marijuana) that violate federal law are not entitled to tax deductions for expenditures:
§280E. Expenditures in connection with the illegal sale of drugs
“No deduction or credit shall be allowed for any amount paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on any trade or business if such trade or business (or the activities which comprise such trade or business) consists of trafficking in controlled substances (within the meaning of schedule I and II of the Controlled Substances Act) which is prohibited by Federal law or the law of any State in which such trade or business is conducted.”
The IRS notes that marijuana may deduct the cost of goods sold, just not overhead expenses:
“While IRS Code Section 280E is clear that all the deductions and credits aren’t allowed for an illegal business, there’s a caveat: Marijuana business owners can deduct their cost of goods sold, which is basically the cost of their inventory. What isn’t deductible are the normal overhead expenses, such as advertising expenses, wages and salaries, and travel expenses, to name a few.”
Blumenauer’s bill removes that restriction, not for other types of controlled substances, but only for marijuana:
To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to allow deductions and credits relating to expenditures in connection with marijuana sales conducted in compliance with State law.
…
ALLOWANCE OF DEDUCTIONS AND CREDITS RELATING TO EXPENDITURES IN CONNECTION WITH MARIJUANA SALES CONDUCTED IN COMPLIANCE WITH STATE LAW.
(a) IN GENERAL—Section 280E of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 is amended by inserting before the period at the end the following: ‘‘, unless such trade or business consists of marijuana sales conducted in compliance with State law’’.
(b) EFFECTIVE DATE—The amendment made by this section shall apply with respect to taxable years ending after the date of the enactment of this Act.
Rep. Blumenauer is co-chair of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, which he founded in 2017.
March 20 is known as "420 Day," an unofficial annual holiday, during which enthusiasts celebrate their love of marijuana.
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