New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham is calling for a probe into the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) after fentanyl flooded the state during the Biden administration.
“I am appalled by reporting this week by the Associated Press and Albuquerque Journal that revealed federal authorities made a deliberate decision to let hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills flood into New Mexico communities, despite knowing that fentanyl is so lethal the White House has designated it a weapon of mass destruction,” she said in a statement.
“There are no words to describe how reckless and dangerous these decisions were. Make no mistake: the DEA knew people would die if these pills made it into New Mexico communities, and the agency let it happen anyway,” Grisham added. “The result: hundreds of New Mexican parents burying their kids. Hundreds of New Mexican kids are growing up without stable parents. All while the federal government stood by.”
“If the justification for letting these pills flood our communities was that it would somehow make New Mexico safer down the road through bigger eventual busts, the results say otherwise,” Grisham said. “New Mexico now leads the nation in the increase in overdose deaths for the second straight year, despite deaths dropping nationwide.”
The governor has requested assistance from the federal government on the issue five times, four times during the Biden administration and once during the Trump administration.
In December, President Trump designated fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. “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,” the order says.
