Dr. Roneet Lev, a nationally-acclaimed medical expert who served as the first chief medical officer for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy from 2018-2020, described treating victims of fentanyl overdoses as “an attempt to bring someone back from the dead.”

For a physician, she said it’s heartbreaking to treat babies who overdosed when their parents had no idea their pills or powder was contaminated with the deadly poison being funneled through our southern border.

A recent study by the non-profit Families Against Fentanyl found that deaths nationwide have doubled over the past two years and that Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York and Maryland were among the 10 states with the most fentanyl deaths last year. Since 2015, Pennsylvania has experienced an incredible 760 percent increase, with 13,933 reported deaths.

JAMA Pediatrics, a journal published by the American Medical Association, reported that “unintentional drug overdose has become a grave and sustained public health burden in the U.S.”

Used to treat patients with chronic severe pain or severe pain following surgery, fentanyl is similar to morphine but nearly 100 times more potent. Mixed in with heroin, meth and cocaine, the majority of illicit fentanyl is produced in clandestine foreign labs and sold as powders and nasal sprays. When pressed into pills, it looks like legitimate prescription opioids and there’s no official oversight or quality control to stop the counterfeit pills.

Two milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal, depending on a person’s body size, tolerance and past usage. The Drug Enforcement Administration found that counterfeit pills range from 0.02 to 5.1 milligrams (more than twice the lethal dose) of fentanyl per tablet. That means that a little over two pounds of fentanyl has the potential to kill a half-million people.

James Rauh, founder of Families Against Fentanyl, who lost his son to fentanyl poisoning, reported that the drug is now the Number 1 cause of death among Americans 18 to 45 years old and was responsible last year for more deaths than suicide, car accidents or gun violence. He said that mass incarceration of drug users and low-level dealers can’t stop the poisoning. The key is getting to the source and stopping the illegal manufacturers of the lethal chemical.

In May, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro released a special report warning policymakers and the public of the shift from heroin to fentanyl as the dominant opioid in Pennsylvania. His report called on law enforcement and policymakers to continue to do more to combat this crisis and devote additional resources to stopping fentanyl at the southern border.

Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge and Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody are among a growing number of voices urging President Biden to either use his executive authority or for Congress to declare fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction.

Moody’s office cited prior government assessments that fentanyl is very likely a viable option for a chemical weapon attack.

“Given how many Americans are being murdered, the whole federal government and every tactic and capability that we have should be utilized to stop the death and destruction that fentanyl is causing,” Moody said in her letter to Biden. “Relying on non-state criminal actors and terrorists to think or act as expected is a losing proposition. The reality is that the deadliness of fentanyl combined with its sheer availability in Mexico to criminal cartels and non-state actors makes it an increasingly likely weapon for use.”

Although securing the southern border would be a positive move in stemming the flow of fentanyl smuggling, Moody does not hold out much hope that the Biden administration will accomplish that.

“While there are many acts and steps that your administration could take, like stopping the overwhelming influx of illegal immigrants and further fortifying the southern border, I realize that your administration will not or is incapable of taking those actions,’ her letter states.

A weapon of mass destruction is defined by the U.S. government as a “nuclear, radiological, chemical, biological, or other device that is intended to harm a large number of people.”

When one considers the fact that border patrolmen have seized enough fentanyl to kill the entire American population many times over, it’s time for the administration to treat the foreign labs and our southern border as a war zone and criminal cartels as public enemies.

By JIM ZBICK | tneditor@tnonline.com

The foregoing opinions do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or Times News LLC.