Tesla CEO Elon Musk recently suggested that the U.S. should impose harsh penalties on drugs if officials wish to tackle the issue of fentanyl deaths.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, the Tesla CEO advocated for either legalizing fentanyl to avoid consumers taking lethal doses or imposing “draconian penalties” on the drug for those possessing it.
“We either need to legalize fentanyl, so addicts don’t accidentally take lethal doses, or engage in draconian penalties for fentanyl possession. If authorities refuse to do the latter, we should at least try the former to see if fewer tragedies occur,” Musk wrote.
We either need to legalize fentanyl, so addicts don’t accidentally take lethal doses, or engage in draconian penalties for fentanyl possession.
If authorities refuse to do the latter, we should at least try the former to see if fewer tragedies occur.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 20, 2024
Musk’s comments come after he responded to a post by journalist Michael Shellenberger, who initially wrote that U.S. officials could force rehabilitation for fentanyl addicts and target “open-air drug dealing.”
“We might not be able to stop it from coming into the US, but we can crack down on open-air drug dealing and mandate rehab to addicts who break the law. If we don’t, one million people will die,” Shellenberger wrote.
Given the Biden administration’s refusal to tackle the southern border crisis, notorious cartels have imported record numbers of fentanyl into the U.S., killing more than 100,000 Americans.
In a press release, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) reported that two cartels are responsible for importing most of the fentanyl into America.
“DEA’s mission is to save American lives by defeating the two cartels that are responsible for the vast majority of fentanyl that is flooding our country: the Sinaloa Cartel and the Jalisco Cartel,” the agency said in January 2024.
The DEA said that although the cartels are based in Mexico, there are over 50 additional countries where the criminal networks operate.
Since President Joe Biden took office, the U.S. has been subjected to high numbers of illegal immigrants, with cities across America paying the price of the president’s lax border policies, including New York City, San Francisco, Denver and Chicago.
In New York City, more than 100,000 illegal immigrants have arrived since the spring of 2022, prompting Democrats in the state to criticize Biden over the crisis. Despite such blowback, the president has refused to address the issue.