Fentanyl isn’t a new drug to America, and the list of its victims isn’t short. In fact, overdose deaths from Fentanyl began to rise significantly in 2013, in what the CDC has called the third wave of the opioid epidemic. In 2022 alone, 73,754 Americans have died from overdoses of this drug and since 2017, nearly 300,000 have died from it. Why do I bring up the year 2017? For starters, the George Soros supported and funded Maricopa County Sheriff’s candidate was elected. Almost immediately after assuming office, the Democrat sheriff, Paul Penzone disbanded a very successful drug interdiction unit that work hard in keeping these drugs and others off our streets. If you are like me, you are probably asking yourself why the sheriff of the 4th largest county in the country and just a couple hours from the southern border would be allowed to do this. One place to look at is none other than the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. For those that don’t know, the county supervisors fund the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Department. Were there any communications between the 2 offices to keep this unit open? Was the sheriff’s office given every resource available to keep the unit open?
Regardless of the political affiliation of the sheriff, their main responsibility is to serve and protect, uphold the law and make sure we are all safe. Allowing any type of illegal drug that comes across the border and taking away resources to stop it from happening is a dereliction of duty in my book.
Many government agencies give many ways and methods to slow (not end) the opioid crisis in America. From expanding access to evidence-based community harm reduction, treatment, and recovery programs to prescription drug monitoring programs, they still miss the number one way to curb the crisis. Since most of the fentanyl traffickers are U.S. citizens, and the majority of the fentanyl entering the U.S. is seized from vehicles entering our country legally, who about we get better technology to detect these drugs at the border and actually allow our Border Patrol agents to do the job that they signed up for? Securing the southern border or advocating for tougher immigration laws is something else that this current Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is afraid to support, especially chairman Clint Hickman. During this recent combatting the fentanyl crisis video that Chairman Hickman and his staff put together, he advocated for everything but securing the southern border and threatens the fullest extent of the law to drug traffickers here in Maricopa County.
In this interview from March 2023, Chairman Hickman again blamed everyone and everything else for the fentanyl crisis in Arizona except himself for allowing the shutdown of the drug interdiction unit in 2017. He even goes so far to say that he believes that this is the federal governments way of killing off American’s by keeping the southern border. While he does bring up a great point, I have never heard Mr. Hickman advocate for a stronger southern border or tougher immigration laws. Chairman Hickman’s part of this interview begins at about the 34-minute mark. The question that Chairman Hickman had trouble answering and blaming the U.S. Government about why the like to kill off American’s comes at about the 47:15 mark.
While I will only blame the drug cartels and the dealers on the deaths of the drug victims, imagine how many lives could have been saved in Arizona and in the U.S. if the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors “forced” the Soros sheriff to keep that drug interdiction unit open in early 2017? When will the people of Maricopa County get smart and not just vote for the “Republican” candidate, but the right Republican candidate for Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in District 4?