Forty-eight-year-old Thamar Smith of Hagerstown, in Washington County, pleaded guilty to federal drug charges on Wednesday, the latest in a long line of American men who have contributed to the spread of heroin and fentanyl during an epidemic of opioid abuse that represents the tragic extent of despair across the land.
The sale and use of opioids, once concentrated in cities like Baltimore, increased significantly in suburban and rural areas like Hagerstown several years ago. And the use of fentanyl has caused a level of misery and death not seen before.
This week, the Republican governor of Texas blamed President Joe Biden’s border policies for the deaths in a tractor-trailer of more than 50 migrants.
Rep. Andy Harris, Maryland’s lone Republican member of Congress, posted on Facebook a video of himself blaming lax border security for not only the San Antonio tragedy but for the flow of fentanyl into the country. In one drug bust, Harris said, a smuggler “was arrested at the border with enough fentanyl to kill 12 million Americans.”
In fact, the 60-year-old suspect in that case was arrested in Fullerton, California, in northern Orange County. Authorities did not say where the drugs came from, according to initial press reports. Despite not having all the facts, Harris might be right — the fentanyl might very well have come out of Mexico. Harris, of course, blames Biden for that.
This is typical Republican grandstanding. They have opposed efforts at real immigration reform for years.
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