TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – In response to a growing trend of fentanyl-related overdoses, Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody called upon President Biden Monday to classify fentanyl as a Weapon of Mass Destruction.
Fentanyl-related overdose deaths have been on the rise across the state with Central Florida being hit by the surge. Law enforcement officials have attributed the rise to issues such as border security and drug cartels operating in the region.
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According to the attorney general’s office, Moody sent a letter to the president demanding the illicit drug be labeled as a WMD, which would require more parts of the federal government to respond to the issue.
“Border patrol has seized enough fentanyl to kill the entire American population many times over,” Moody said. “The federal government already works to disrupt the supply chains of other chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear weapons — it’s not hard to imagine that similar tactics could be used to reduce the flow of illicit fentanyl into the U.S. through cartels in Mexico — and save countless American lives.”
The Department of Homeland Security defines a WMD as “a nuclear, radiological, chemical, biological, or other device that is intended to harm a large number of people.”
The attorney general’s office released a statement saying fentanyl is ranked as the No. 1 killer of adults ages 18 - 45, and many of those deaths were due to counterfeit prescription pills laced with fentanyl provided by drug cartels.
The agency released a “Fast Facts on Fentanyl” to provide information about the drug and its impacts. You can read through the report below.
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