In a significant move, the United States government has officially declared fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction (WMD). President Donald Trump on Monday (local time) signed the executive order, giving the US government wider authority to target the synthetic opioid responsible for overdose deaths each year. The decision comes amid alarming statistics, as Trump highlighted that over 300,000 Americans are dying annually due to the drug, prompting authorities to declare the crisis a national disaster.
US declares Fentanyl as new WMD
“We’re formally classifying fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction, which is what it is,” Trump said at a White House event. He warned, “They’re trying to drug out our country,” highlighting the fentanyl crisis across the United States. The Executive Order directs the US Attorney General to immediately pursue criminal charges, sentencing enhancements, and variances in fentanyl trafficking cases. Additionally, it instructs the US Secretaries of State and the Treasury to take action against relevant assets and financial institutions linked to the manufacture, distribution, and sale of illicit fentanyl.
The order also calls on the US Secretary of War and the US Attorney General to determine whether enhanced national security resources should be allocated to the US Department of Justice during emergencies involving fentanyl as a WMD. Furthermore, the war Secretary, in consultation with the US Secretary of Homeland Security, is tasked with updating chemical incident response directives to address the fentanyl threat. Whereas the Homeland Security will carry out the task of tracking down fentanyl smuggling networks using WMD and nonproliferation intelligence.
What Trump said on WMD
Notably, in the factsheet, Trump has described illicit fentanyl as “closer to a chemical weapon than a narcotic,” noting that just two milligrams, equivalent to 10-15 grains of table salt is considered a lethal dose. He has further emphasised over the use of fentanyl profits by cartels and foreign terrorist organisations to fund assassinations, terrorism, and insurgencies, warning of the potential for concentrated, large-scale attacks on the United States.
