Texas lawmakers say at least 46 people have been charged with murder in the state for allegedly giving others lethal doses of fentanyl, a drug that is streaming across the border under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris' watch.
The figures were released by lawmakers. Updated KVUE reported Monday that House Bill 6 would take effect in September 2023.
The media continues:
HB 6 would allow prosecutors to charge those who manufacture or traffic fentanyl with murder, and would classify fentanyl-related deaths in Texas as “poisoning” instead of “overdose” on death certificates.
Lawmakers and advocates say the latter change was made because there is a stigma attached to the word “overdose,” and most people who die from fentanyl don't know that the drugs they took were laced with fentanyl.
The Republican National Committee said in June that roughly 30.3 tons of fentanyl have crossed the southern border since Biden took office, enough to kill about 13.8 billion people, Breitbart News reported.
In March, a Texas family was devastated to learn that a high school student relative had died of suspected fentanyl poisoning after “one mistake,” according to Breitbart News.
“Fentanyl is out there and it doesn't look like fentanyl. It's a real problem. It doesn't matter demographics. It doesn't matter where you're from. It doesn't matter if you have good parents or not. It's out there and it's dangerous. And it's taking kids.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at an El Paso-area port of entry stopped 11.2 pounds of fentanyl and 113 pounds of cocaine from entering the U.S. illegal drug market after a week of seizures, Breitbart News reported in May.
In most cases, drug smuggling at the border by Mexican drug cartels is aimed at moving deadly goods north from the border region. The impact of fentanyl overdoses is a national problem. In El Paso County, according to the latest annual coroner's report (2022), there have been approximately 70 fentanyl-related overdoses in El Paso. The deaths occurred after residents of the border town ingested fentanyl alone or other illegal narcotics laced with fentanyl.
According to a KVUE article, Texas Department of State Health officials say about five Texans die from fentanyl poisoning every day.
“Synthetic opioids, which are up to 50 times stronger than heroin, accounted for approximately 45% of all drug-related deaths in Texas in 2023,” the report said.
