Trump Declares Fentanyl To Be A ‘Weapon Of Mass Destruction’ So He Can Get Back To Boat Strikes And Martial Law

Legal Issues

from the if-anything-can-make-fentanyl-more-deadly,-it's-this-administration dept

There is no doubt that fentanyl is a dangerous drug. It has long since surpassed heroin on the list of drugs people only do once. That its prevalence has more to do with pharma companies irresponsibly pushing opioids than drug pushers pushing a new drug often goes ignored during this heated, ongoing debate that is often so far removed from reality as to be literally laughable.

I mean, we’ve seen several law enforcement officials claim merely being in the proximity of fentanyl is capable of generating overdoses in officers. We’ve also seen law enforcement officials claim the amount of seized fentanyl is capable of killing the entire population of US states, if not the entire nation. And yet, states remain populated and the US public generally capable of surviving the drug’s existence if they choose not to ingest it.

What’s happening here is not only idiotic but intentional. The executive order issued by Trump yesterday is meant to do several things, none of them good. First, it seeks to retcon the boat strike narrative by reinforcing Trump’s hallucinatory claim that drug mules are, in fact, terrorists engaged in terrorist acts targeting America.

Second, it gives him the excuse to add military troops to the law enforcement mix by pretending an illicit substance that is generally voluntarily ingested in order to take effect is somehow a “weapon of mass destruction.” No one (well, outside of the CIA, anyway) has treated drugs like a weapon. Keeping your customer base alive is crucial to maintaining a steady revenue stream. Overdoses are an expected negative outcome in the drug trade, but they are never the point of drug trafficking operations.

This is all stuff you already know. I’m not going to sit here and insult your intelligence. I’ll turn things over to Donald Trump and allow him to insult your intelligence:

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, it is hereby ordered:

Section 1.  Purpose and Policy.  Illicit fentanyl is closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic.  Two milligrams, an almost undetectable trace amount equivalent to 10 to 15 grains of table salt, constitutes a lethal dose.  Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died from fentanyl overdoses.

[Some stuff about how drug cartels are now “Foreign Terrorist Organizations”]

As President of the United States, my highest duty is the defense of the country and its citizens. Accordingly, I hereby designate illicit fentanyl and its core precursor chemicals as Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD).

Well, I hope I don’t need to worry about drone strikes when visiting my primary care provider or local pharmacy. Or do I?

Trump eases into his martial law plan by directing the Attorney General to “pursue” fentanyl investigations and, if possible, add sentencing enhancements (not specified here) for those charged with fentanyl trafficking.

But here’s where Trump gets his war at home on:

[T]he Secretary of War and the Attorney General shall determine whether the threats posed by illicit fentanyl and its impact on the United States warrant the provision of resources from the Department of War to the Department of Justice to aid in the enforcement of title 18 of the United States Code, as consistent with 10 U.S.C. 282

10 U.S.C. 282 simply says the military can assist law enforcement if there’s a credible WMD threat that law enforcement isn’t capable of handling on its own, including locating, securing, and safely disposing of said WMD.

But here Trump links it to Title 18, which encompasses the entirety of law enforcement operations, including handling court cases, overseeing convicted criminals, and — obviously — engaging in normal law enforcement activities. That part of the law has already posed a problem for Trump, who definitely wanted military troops to be the new cops, especially in cities run by people he didn’t like. While there are existing provisions in 10 U.S.C. 282 linking it to parts of Title 18, it’s hard to believe Trump will be content with limiting military participation to the preexisting legal carve-outs.

The administration’s concurrent fact sheet glosses over the stapling of Title 18 to 10 U.S.C. 282, pretending instead that this new designation doesn’t actually change anything other than forcing the military to pretend fentanyl is a weapon of mass destruction.

The Order directs the Secretary of War and Attorney General to determine whether the Department of War should provide enhanced national security resources to the Department of Justice as necessary during an emergency situation involving a weapon of mass destruction.

The most immediate effect of this order is on sentencing. Possessing fentanyl with intent to distribute will not only get the usual drug enhancements, but the lengthy mandatory sentences attached to acts of terrorism. Buying drugs could plausibly get someone charged with “providing material support to terrorists,” which means some low-level felonies will instead come with prison sentences of 10-25 years pre-attached.

But it appears the real purpose of this executive order is to create an excuse to send soldiers into cities to do police work, while also allowing the administration to continue to engage in extrajudicial killings in international waters. Whatever it actually ends up being will definitely make America worse. It’s another abuse of executive power that comes with a universal adapter. If Trump can call fentanyl a “weapon of mass destruction,” anyone can call anything that could possibly be deadly a WMD. Fentanyl is just the beginning.

Filed Under: defense department, dhs, doj, donald trump, drug war, fentanyl, martial law, trump administration, war on drugs, weapons of mass destruction, wmd