(NewsNation) — Some lawmakers are working on legislation to help combat the growing fentanyl crisis in the U.S., saying President Joe Biden’s administration is not doing enough to fight the drug cartels.
“This is different. Fentanyl is different because it’s actually being used to poison Americans. This is a poisoning problem more than it is a drug problem,” said Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas.
Crenshaw joined “NewsNation Live,” to discuss the bipartisan legislation on which he is currently working.
“I’ve been working with Democrats who are interested in national security, who care about this issue, on the authorized use of military force against the cartels, on another bill that declares war on them, in a sense,” said Crenshaw, describing the proposed bill. “It treats them like a terrorist organization legally, without calling them a terrorist organization.”
Biden has received criticism for his handling of surging migration and widespread fentanyl use, while some advocacy groups say the president’s proposed action against fentanyl trafficking will cause more harm than good.
Biden’s plan to combat the crisis, laid out in his State of the Union address, included “increased drug detection machines, cargo inspections and harsher penalties surrounding fentanyl trafficking.”
Fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. Two milligrams of the lethal drug, which is the size of a mosquito, is enough to kill an adult. The CDC said more than 100,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2021, and more than 65,000 of those deaths were linked to fentanyl.