Fentanyl is made from common chemicals that are used in normal industrial processes. We use them for everything from making insulation to medicine. And it only takes a small amount of these chemicals to make a large batch of fentanyl. All the fentanyl produced in a year only takes 1,800 gallons (around 33 oil drums) of chemicals to make.
Noted that production of those precursors has shifted to India.
The fentanyl itself is made in labs in Mexico and then smuggled across the border. It requires no sophisticated lab equipment to make. You can easily obtain everything needed at consumer retail stores and make a batch in a garage. One liter of finished fentanyl is enough to create 50,000 to 100,000 doses.
So if you squeeze the balloon, it just pops up somewhere else. Put pressure on China and India starts supplying the chemicals. Start shutting down Mexican labs and they'll make the stuff in Oklahoma.
Not that these are bad things to do but unless you address the actual demand for the stuff it's going to be nearly impossible to eliminate it.
I don't know anything about Fentanyl, but something about this description seems off to me. If it's as easy to make as you describe, why wouldn't people just make it here already? Why are they taking the risk of smuggling it across borders?
Most criminals aren't capable chemists. Given a laboratory and barrels of precursor chemicals, they couldn't make perfectly legal drugs like ibuprofen either. Most capable chemists aren't willing to risk property seizure and incarceration to make drugs for the black market. The few capable criminal chemists and their laboratories are concentrated in places where law enforcement is weak, like gang controlled regions of poorer countries.
The latest Annual Threat Assessment: https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/ATA-202...
Noted that production of those precursors has shifted to India.
The fentanyl itself is made in labs in Mexico and then smuggled across the border. It requires no sophisticated lab equipment to make. You can easily obtain everything needed at consumer retail stores and make a batch in a garage. One liter of finished fentanyl is enough to create 50,000 to 100,000 doses.
So if you squeeze the balloon, it just pops up somewhere else. Put pressure on China and India starts supplying the chemicals. Start shutting down Mexican labs and they'll make the stuff in Oklahoma.
Not that these are bad things to do but unless you address the actual demand for the stuff it's going to be nearly impossible to eliminate it.