Dear editor,

On Aug. 31, my family and I attended a prayer vigil at the Pickens County courthouse steps to commemorate those who have died from an overdose of the drug fentanyl. There were about a hundred people in attendance. Most of the attendees have lost someone to an overdose of fentanyl. One of the speakers was a narcotics officer who said that about 200 people in America die from fentanyl overdose every day. My daughter was one of those.

Fentanyl isn’t only being used by drug addicts. Fentanyl is mixed into and made to look like other medications such as Valium and Adderal. Everyone is vulnerable to a fentanyl overdose.

Fentanyl is a drug produced in a lab by mixing certain chemicals. The drug is much more powerful than heroin or cocaine. The chemicals mixed to make fentanyl are produced mostly in China. Those chemicals are shipped mostly to Mexico where the Mexican cartels mix the chemicals to produce fentanyl. The majority of the fentanyl in various forms is smuggled across our border to be distributed throughout the United States. The smuggling generates billions of dollars that go into the pockets of the Mexicans and Chinese and kills 70,000 Americans per year.

Now, if Mexico or China were firing rockets into the United States and killing 200 Americans per day, what do you think the response would be? There would be massive American outrage and every resources possible would be marshaled to counter the attack. It would not be allowed to go on. And yet, 200 Americans are being killed every day in America and very little is being done about it. It’s tragic. It’s a crisis.

I suggest that every American contact their Congressperson and demand that something be done. I suggest that every American only vote for the candidate that promises to secure our border from smuggling. I suggest that a significant number of our 1,500,000 military personnel be assigned to our border with drug sniffing dogs to check every person and every vehicle that crosses our border coming from Mexico. If it slows down imports coming over the border, maybe the Mexican government will do something about the cartels who are producing this deadly drug within their country.

Sam Annand

Salem, SC