ICYMI: Chicago Tribune Ed Board rips Casten, Underwood for fentanyl vote

Fake Nurse Lauren Underwood and Sean Casten should explain to the families and friends of the 32,000 people who lost their lives to opioid addiction why they are more concerned with protecting drug dealers than banning fentanyl.

In case you missed it…

Editorial: Deaths? What opioid deaths? 9 Illinois Democrats voted against the ban on fentanyl-like drugs
By the Editorial Board
The Chicago Tribune
February 6, 2020
https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/editorials/ct-editorial-fentanyl-overdose-deaths-illinois-20200207-4httbgkprzh6tiahdx6x5sucie-story.html

“The most dangerous illegal drug in America” is what the RAND Corp. think tank calls it. Heroin? Meth? Cocaine? No, it’s fentanyl. The synthetic opioid prescription painkiller, which is 50 times more potent than heroin, has made its way into the illicit drug market. Overdose deaths involving fentanyl and other synthetic opioids jumped tenfold between 2013 and 2018.

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Illinois is one of the states hardest hit by fentanyl and other synthetic opioids, which claimed 1,187 lives here in 2017 — the devastating equivalent of one every seven hours. The bill had passed the U.S. Senate without a dissenting vote. So it’s perplexing that nine House Democrats from Illinois voted against the bill: Sean Casten, Danny Davis, Bill Foster, Chuy Garcia, Robin Kelly, Bobby Rush, Jan Schakowsky, Brad Schneider and Lauren Underwood.

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Measures to combat addiction and reduce demand for illegal opioids, we agree, are a sound part of any strategy to prevent overdose deaths. But that’s no reason to ease off on efforts to curb the supply. Most of the fentanyl variants come from producers in China. The administration won a notable success last year when it persuaded the Chinese government to outlaw all fentanyl-related compounds. In turn, it only makes sense for the U.S. to preserve its own prohibition.

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Read full editorial here