One other day, one other government order the place President Donald Trump simply dashes off an unhinged word, and everybody has to deal with it like a regulation. And since Congress and the Supreme Court docket appear to have tacitly agreed that that is how authorities works now, what’s to cease him, actually?
So, certain, yeah, no matter. Illicit fentanyl and its core precursor chemical compounds at the moment are weapons of mass destruction. Acquired it, Donny.
That is bog-stupid, even for Trump. The United Nations defines what WMDs are, and fentanyl simply … isn’t. A WMD is one thing that has “characteristics comparable in destructive effect to those of the atomic bomb” or “produce in a single moment an enormous destructive effect capable to kill millions of civilians, jeopardize the natural environment, and fundamentally alter the lives of future generations through their catastrophic effects.”
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That is additionally silly from a sensible standpoint. Since fentanyl is a wholly artificial opioid, traffickers simply change the precursor chemical compounds when present ones are focused. It’s an ever-shifting goal. Subsequent, a few of these chemical compounds have official makes use of that aren’t in any respect associated to medication. Sodium borohydride, for instance, is on the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Particular Surveillance Checklist as a result of it’s a fentanyl precursor, but it surely’s additionally what paper producers use to bleach their paper and packaging.
Below present regulation, in case you promote a chemical on the SSL with reckless disregard as as to whether will probably be used for unlawful drug manufacturing, your organization faces a $250,000 high quality. But when that sodium borohydride is now a WMD akin to uranium, there’s no world the place by some means the chemical company-to-paper mill a part of issues chugs alongside simply high quality whereas elsewhere having a pair grains of sodium borohydride on you is punishable by demise or no matter.
However this isn’t actually about fentanyl in any respect, which is why the order will be all loosey-goosey about how issues work. This order is about vastly increasing the usage of america navy and casting about for a method to say that we’re at conflict with Venezuelan drug traffickers and might due to this fact bomb boats within the Caribbean with impunity
Trump’s newest unhinged government order first directs Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi to “immediately pursue investigations and prosecutions into fentanyl trafficking, including through criminal charges as appropriate, sentencing enhancements, and sentencing variances.”
Okay, let’s cease you proper there. Isn’t that already what the Division of Justice does in relation to drug trafficking? Investigating, charging, and prosecuting federal crimes is kinda the entire deal for the DOJ, and U.S. attorneys subject press releases about their profitable fentanyl prosecutions on a regular basis.
It additionally directs the secretaries of state and the treasury to go after property and financial institution accounts, which can also be a factor that already occurs routinely.
However right here’s the half that basically issues:
The Secretary of Conflict and the Legal professional Basic shall decide whether or not the threats posed by illicit fentanyl and its affect on america warrant the availability of sources from the Division of Conflict to the Division of Justice to assist within the enforcement of title 18 of america Code, as in keeping with 10 U.S.C. 282.
That statute permits the lawyer common to ask the protection secretary to help with DOJ actions if there may be an emergency involving a WMD, outlined as when “civilian expertise and capabilities are not readily available to provide the required assistance to counter the threat immediately posed by the weapon involved” and “special capabilities and expertise of the Department of Defense are necessary and critical to counter the threat posed by the weapon involved.”
The state of affairs being described right here is fairly clearly “the FBI has learned there is a dirty bomb on a passenger train in Newark and needs immediate assistance and expertise from the military to stop a tragedy,” not “We want to catch more drug traffickers.”
This seems like a reasonably blatant try at getting a widespread permission slip for navy personnel for use in home legal investigations, which isn’t nice!
Right here’s the opposite half that sucks:
[T]o guarantee america makes use of the complete array of applicable counter-fentanyl instruments, the Secretary of Homeland Safety, as in keeping with relevant regulation and in coordination with the heads of related businesses, as applicable, shall determine menace networks associated to fentanyl smuggling utilizing WMD- and nonproliferation-related menace intelligence to assist the complete spectrum of counter-fentanyl operations.
This one is one other determined try to make the boat bombings lawful. And simply in time, too, because the administration is gearing as much as do land strikes in Venezuela.
One little drawback that the administration can’t get round by waving a magic WMD wand is that Venezuela doesn’t produce fentanyl.
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There’s additionally the issue that the administration has reassigned everybody to the “brutally torturing immigrants” venture, which implies drug arrests have already dropped, and fewer new investigations are being opened.
However relatively than do these precise investigations and prosecutions, which is what must be occurring if we face such a lethal scourge, this as an alternative is an try to get full conflict on terror authority, a clean test for Trump and Pete Hegseth and Pam Bondi and Stephen Miller and Kristi Noem to do something they need, any time, wherever.
The worst individuals on this planet ought to by no means get that energy—particularly not on this transparently silly means.
