President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Monday designating the synthetic opioid fentanyl as a “weapon of mass destruction.”
The move by Trump to elevate a narcotic to the level of a WMD has no precedent and effectively makes the drug a national security threat, despite the fact that it is used widely in hospitals across the country. Trump said that drug cartels intend to “drug out” the United States.
“We’re formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction, which is what it is,” Trump said at a White House event on Sunday.
The executive order claimed that “adversaries” could use fentanyl for “weaponized…large-scale terror attacks.”
“Illicit fentanyl is closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic,” the order read. “Hundreds of thousands of Americans have died from fentanyl overdoses.”
The designation drew pushback from lawmakers. Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., criticized Trump for prosecuting fentanyl while pardoning “criminals” convicted of selling millions of dollars worth of illicit drug to the United States.
“Reminder: Trump pardoned the founder of a black market that imported fentanyl from China into the U.S.,” McGovern, the ranking member on the House Rules Committee, wrote on X, referring to Ross Ulbricht, who ran the darknet marketplace Silk Road.
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Former Republican representative Justin Amash said the executive order and change in designation amounted to “executive overreach” by Trump.
“Designating fentanyl as a ‘weapon of mass destruction’ is just the latest example of the state twisting the plain meaning of words to expand its power,” Amash wrote on X. “Like ’emergency,’ ‘terrorist’ and ‘defensive’ — all stretched to near-limitless scope to justify almost any executive overreach.”
The new labeling of fentanyl comes as military buildup against Venezuela escalates and strikes against suspected drug boats continue. Three boats were struck on Monday, killing eight people. The US military said the boats were part of “designated terrorist organizations,” but provided no evidence of affiliation or illicit cargo.
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