The United States wages a war against the rainbow fentanyl that crosses from Mexico

US Attorney Merrick Garland and DEA Administrator Anne Miligram (center) look at an exhibit with photographs of fentanyl victims. Gemunu Amarasinghe (AP)

In mid-September, a 15-year-old girl died in a bathroom at her Hollywood high school from a fentanyl overdose.

Three other students from the same school were admitted to a hospital after ingesting pills bought in a park near the school.

At least seven teenagers between the ages of 15 and 17 have overdosed on this powerful synthetic opiate in recent weeks in Los Angeles.

The drug, which killed more than 70,600 Americans last year, continues to permeate American society and leave a trail of damage.

The Biden Administration and the DEA, the anti-narcotics agency, have raised the alarm in recent weeks due to the increase in cases and especially due to the proliferation of rainbow fentanyl, which is sold in various colors to attract the youngest.

At the end of August, agents from the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, in the state of Arizona, arrested two women, ages 26 and 19, who were carrying 850,000 fentanyl pills in two suitcases and had Phoenix as their destination.

The arrest was made in the town of Gila Bend, a town 130 kilometers from the border with Mexico.

A county prosecutor said then that this drug is being sold with colors "similar to those of candy", a strategy of drug traffickers to hook the youngest.

This Monday, Merrick Garland, the US attorney general, has blamed the Mexican cartels for this crisis.

In a conference with the head of the DEA, Anne Milgram, the authorities have reported that they have investigated 390 cases linked to the drug since the end of May and the beginning of September.

Of these, 51 are about overdose.

35 of these can be directly linked to shipments illegally introduced by the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Sinaloa Cartel, the two largest criminal organizations in Mexico.

Garland and Miligram toured this Tuesday an exhibition that has been made in the corridors of the DEA that shows the impact that the opiate has left in the United States.

The walls of the powerful agency that tries to dismantle cartel operations have been adorned with dozens of photos of citizens who have recently died from fentanyl.

From military cadets, through country singers like Luke Bell and even the son of writer Paul Auster, Daniel.

Overdoses are the leading cause of death among Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.

"The most urgent threat to our communities, to our children and our families are these two organizations, which are mass-producing the fentanyl that is poisoning and killing Americans," Milgram said of the drug's movement, 50 times more powerful than heroin and 100 times more powerful than morphine.

Authorities have said that just two milligrams of the synthetic opiate, about 15 grains of table salt, is enough to kill a person.

In less than four months, authorities have seized 10.2 million fentanyl pills and nearly half a ton of the opiate.

“The amount that has been removed from the streets is equivalent to more than 36 million lethal doses,” indicates a DEA statement released on Tuesday.

In April, the organization warned of the increase in massive overdoses.

The most worrying drift that fentanyl trafficking has taken is the marketing strategies that drug traffickers have begun to apply to their product to make it more attractive.

Since last February, the DEA has realized that the drug can be sold in bright colors, sizes and shapes.

One of these presentations is like colored chalk, like the one used by minors to draw on cement.

The anti-narcotics agency has baptized this variation as rainbow fentanyl.

So far in 2022, it has been found in 21 of the 50 states in the country.

The alert deployed by the authorities has leaked into the conservative media.

Some of the Fox News anchors have suggested live on some of their programs that parents should not allow their children to go trick or treating on the night of October 31, when Halloween is celebrated, one of the great traditions of autumn in the United States. Joined.

“This is another clear Chinese war against Americans, in this case against American children.

If they were interested, the president would do something to stop the flow of drugs that comes through the southern border,” said Jeanine Pirro, host of The Five, on Tuesday, referring to the country where the drug is manufactured and through which it crosses.

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