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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday January 28 2018, @04:10PM   Printer-friendly
from the the-gray-web dept.

With Google, Bitcoins, and USPS, Feds realize it's stupid easy to buy fentanyl

A congressional report released Wednesday lays out just how easy it is for Americans to buy the deadly opioid fentanyl from Chinese suppliers online and have it shipped to them via the government's own postal service. The report also lays out just how difficult the practice will be to stop.

After Googling phrases such as "fentanyl for sale," Senate investigators followed up with just six of the online sellers they found. This eventually led them to 500 financial transaction records, accounting for about $766 million worth of fentanyl entering the country and at least seven traceable overdose deaths.

[...] "Thanks to our bipartisan investigation, we now know the depth to which drug traffickers exploit our mail system to ship fentanyl and other synthetic drugs into the United States," Republican Senator Rob Portman of Ohio said in a statement. "The federal government can, and must, act to shore up our defenses against this deadly drug and help save lives."

Related: Opioid Addiction is Big Business
Heroin, Fentanyl? Meh: Carfentanil is the Latest Killer Opioid
Tip for Darknet Drug Lords: Don't Wear Latex Gloves to the Post Office
Cop Brushes Fentanyl Off Uniform, Overdoses
Congress Reacts to Reports that a 2016 Law Hindered DEA's Ability to go after Opioid Distributors
Opioid Crisis Official; Insys Therapeutics Billionaire Founder Charged; Walgreens Stocks Narcan


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by hoeferbe on Sunday January 28 2018, @07:00PM (1 child)

    by hoeferbe (4715) on Sunday January 28 2018, @07:00PM (#629538)

    Unsurprisingly, U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH) and Tom Carper (D-DE)'s statement includes gems like:

    The federal government can, and must, act to shore up our defenses against this deadly drug and help save lives.

    We have also learned how ill-equipped federal agencies were to prevent drug smugglers

    Agencies like the Postal Service, U.S. Customs and Border Projection, and the State Department must redouble their efforts to keep illicit opioids from reaching our shores.

    ...which all point to more money (from you and me) being taken to fund more programs to delve deeper into tracking the populace's actions, unwarranted investigations into those actions and greater control & power by Federal agencies.

    If I recall correctly, the federal government cannot keep drugs out of their federal prisons -- which are small, isolated, tightly controlled areas whose residents have lost much of their Constitutional freedoms.  Yet, we are supposed to believe we can eradicate the drug problem in our expansive, inter-connected "land of the free" with just more government power!

    I feel, as much as the next person, for those facing drug additions.  That is why we need to get off this kick of expanding governmental control and reach into the lives of ~326 million United States residents to `save` (in Portman & Carper's statement's example) 42 thousand (0.0129% of the population) from opioids.  In a news story about the actual subcommittee meeting [linns.com], I was glad to read Carper at least acknowledge expanding government power isn't enough:

    “All that said, if we only focus on chasing drug shipments after they’ve entered our mail system, we’ll only address the symptoms of this problem,” he said, calling for lawmakers to address “our country’s considerable demand for drugs.”

    Starting Score:    1  point
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  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Sunday January 28 2018, @07:47PM

    by frojack (1554) on Sunday January 28 2018, @07:47PM (#629553) Journal

    Beagles. Cheap. Cute.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.