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Sackler cash can end fentanyl carnage — if we use it right
In a long-overdue reckoning, the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma have agreed to pay $7.4 billion as partial atonement for unleashing America’s opioid crisis. This historic settlement offers more than symbolic closure. If allocated wisely and aggressively, the funds could signal the beginning of the end for the deadliest drug epidemic in U.S. history.Once fueled by prescription pills like OxyContin, the opioid crisis has evolved into something far deadlier. Illicit fentanyl and its analogs now kill more Americans ages 18 to 49 than any other cause. These drugs claim lives faster than guns, car crashes, or COVID-19 in many demographic groups. Children as young as 12 are overdosing on fentanyl-laced substances. The crisis isn’t looming — it’s already here.We can’t afford to keep confusing addiction with criminality or leaning on obsolete tools while the chemistry of death evolves.Fentanyl packs 50 times the potency of heroin and 100 times that of morphine. Just two milligrams — akin to a few grains of salt — can kill. Carfentanil, used to sedate elephants, is even more lethal. New synthetic opioids like nitazenes now appear in toxicology reports nationwide, catching users unaware. Xylazine, a veterinary sedative not approved for human use, is increasingly found in street drugs, leading to skin ulcers, amputations, and deaths that don't respond to naloxone, the opioid overdose reversal drug.Yet harm reduction efforts lag behind. Most of the country relies on outdated, fragmented, and dangerously insufficient infrastructure. The system meant to save lives barely functions — just as the death toll keeps rising.For years, America’s harm reduction efforts have stumbled through a maze of failures and contradictions. Even when available, fentanyl test strips often miss the mark, lacking the sensitivity to detect tiny — but still lethal — amounts. Many publicly funded programs still hand out tools that can’t catch analogs like carfentanil or nitazenes. Others depend on clunky, lab-grade machines only found in major cities, leaving rural and underserved communities wide open to catastrophe.State laws make matters worse. In several places, outdated statutes still label drug-checking tools as “paraphernalia,” turning safety into a crime and criminalizing the very people trying to protect themselves and others.RELATED: FBI director Kash Patel to Canada: Control your border Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty ImagesThe A47 test from the Fentanyl Test changes the game. These are the only commercially available tools that detect trace levels of fentanyl and its analogs — down to a single grain of salt. They also identify nitazenes, xylazine, carfentanil, and a growing list of synthetic poisons, all with speed, accuracy, and field-tested reliability.This is beyond innovation. It’s lifesaving intervention at the molecular level.To eradicate fentanyl poisonings, America needs a bold, coordinated strategy. That means universal access to ultra-sensitive testing kits like A47. It means decriminalizing drug-checking tools nationwide, building real-time data and distribution networks, and launching mass public education campaigns about synthetic opioid risks. State and federal governments must guarantee free access to testing in every community — rural and urban alike.This plan doesn’t require trillions. A fraction of the Sackler settlement could fund it. What we can’t afford is to keep confusing addiction with criminality or leaning on obsolete tools while the chemistry of death evolves. The Sackler-Purdue deal isn’t just restitution — it’s a once-in-a-generation chance to build a system that saves lives before they need saving.The choice is clear. The money is available. Now we need the courage to act.
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