For decades our country dealt with a mounting drug epidemic using words such as “just say no” and “tough love.”

As the rates of addiction and deaths surged during this drug era, the number of “non-profits” some lucratively financially funded were soaring — many rewarded by government money. There has been a focus on the words “stigma” and “awareness” to the mounting addictions and deaths. The “awareness” is obvious. It is the mounting body bags, the ruination of cities with homeless addicts living in tents, the addicted laying on streets overdosing, and the syringes littering businesses, parks, schoolyards and sidewalks.

The rate of Fentanyl overdose deaths increased by 56% from 2019 to 2020 according to the latest data. Fentanyl was identified in more than 75% of adolescent overdose deaths nationally. The fact that 80% of overdose deaths among those 15-19 years were unintentional highlights the unseen danger our adolescent students face. Do you think “stigma” is killing our kids? What is killing them is focusing on words and not accountability, education and prevention.

Accountability would be the daily monitoring by parents of their child’s electronic devices and the programs installed on the devices. Anyone ever hear of Tik Tok originating from China? The same China that flooded our country with Fentanyl. Tik Tok was started in 2016 and marketed as a video-sharing social networking service similar to Facebook and Instagram (both of which are banned in China).

It was not a close-kept secret in the last few years that Tik Tok was not the typical social media outlet — especially for children. Kids were making connections with strangers for illicit drugs including Fentanyl over TikTok. Where was the money coming from to obtain the drugs and to transfer money to accounts? It’s called parental responsibility and not awareness or stigma.

Returning to the “non-profits” calling awareness to the Fentanyl crisis crippling our country, the charge was on for marches, rallies and photo ops with politicians who had their eyes wide shut to an open border. The open border has brought in approximately 10 million illegals to the U.S. There are hundreds of thousands of drugs including Fentanyl flooding our country by these illegals. And yes, they are illegals — not immigrants and not migrants.

So, what are these “non-profit” organizations multiplying daily on Fentanyl awareness focused on? Their focus is on “harm reduction” not “harm elimination.” Harm reduction is not the answer — distributing clean syringes to the addicted is not the answer — the lunacy of “safe injection sites” for addicts to continue shooting up is not the answer. Describing these sites as monitored by medical personnel in “safely” injecting addicted people with the same illegal drugs that are killing them is a falsehood. Anyone with a medical license would have their license revoked for participating in an illegal activity.

Imagine for a moment if all the promoters of harm reduction, parents who have lost their children to drugs/Fentanyl, non-profits cheering rock star wannabe advocates could publicize what they are doing is working — the rates of death and addiction have declined significantly. This is the furthest from the truth.

Maybe instead of photo ops with elected officials who did nothing to close our borders, loved ones of the dead and addicted could have made a real difference by meeting in mass numbers at the border to make a loud statement.