I had the great fortune to serve as the Deputy Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy under President Trump.
This was an opportunity of a lifetime.
I'm forever grateful to have worked inside the Trump administration.
Given my personal history, I consider myself extremely lucky to have found recovery after living through the first years of the opioid crisis.
As such, I'm alarmed to see that the exact policies that created the opioid crisis are going to be reestablished by the new Biden administration.
During the Clinton years, in 1996, "Pain as the Fifth Vital Sign" was adopted and promoted throughout much of the medical community.
The underlying principle of that policy was the belief that nobody should have to endure pain and that opioid medications should be freely prescribed to anesthetize human suffering.
This belief was particularly true at the Veterans Affairs. They fully embraced this policy, even publishing a toolkit (in October of 2000) instructing medical professionals on the best way to implement this newfound medical advancement.
Once this policy was firmly enacted in the late 1990’s, cash-only "pill-mills" proliferated throughout my hometown of New Orleans, as they did nationally.
As a result, prescription opioid pain medications, benzodiazepines, and powerful muscle relaxers became epidemic.
Many flocked to multiple clinics, ppaying other people to go the doctor for them to obtain the 90-90-90.
Translation? 90 benzodiazepines, 90 muscle relaxers and 90 opioids.
It's of significance that these pill mills operated legally for a number of years.
Additionally, as long as a person possessed an old prescription bottle, all subsequent and secondhand drug sales were essentially legal as well.
After authorities started cracking-down on these fraudulent pill mill operations, Mexican drug cartels were happy to backfill the created opioid demand with cheaper and more potent heroin, especially as the Obama administration globalist approach encouraged illegal immigration, open borders and a floodgate of illicit drugs coming from Mexico and South America.
Our nation's 45th commander in chief inherited an opioid crisis created by a confluence of these factors starting 25 years ago.
During my trips to the border, I had an opportunity to meet with Border Patrol agents, local law enforcement, adversely effected innocent citizens, and Native American expert trackers known as "Shadow Wolves."
During these discussions, I was advised by all parties that the drug cartels control the flow of all nefarious northbound traffic across the southern border.
Plaza bosses are cartel figures, who ruthlessly and violently control each geographic inch of our southern border on the Mexican side. Nobody gets across the southern border without paying and obtaining permission from the drug cartels.
"Spotters" are cartel members who are stationed at the tops of mountains or high ground to monitor law enforcement activity to instruct drug mules and human traffickers to avoid detection.
Border enforcement policy is a matter of safety and American sovereignty.
Either we control our borders, or the cartels and their plaza bosses will.
To paint a clearer picture, traffickers storm across our border dressed head-to-toe in camouflage with only their eyes uncovered.
They also have carpet strapped to the soles of their feet as not to leave tracks, while carrying large back packs filled with powerful narcotics such as heroin, methamphetamine, and fentanyl analogs.
Border security is actually a humane endeavor as I was told by the Shadow Wolves and law enforcement that our southern deserts are scattered human corpses of people who failed to complete their journey.
In an effort to avoid punishing people with a legitimate medical disorder states have legalized or decriminalized drugs.
It started with marijuana moved to hallucinogens and most recently with Measure 110 in Oregon. Measure 110 decriminalizes "small amounts" of cocaine, methamphetamine, LSD, MDMA, methadone, psilocybin, and heroin.
According to this measure, "small amounts" are defined as up to 40 or fewer oxycodone pills, up to one gram of heroin, up to two grams of cocaine, and two grams of methamphetamine.
The legal penalties associated with the possession of any of these illicit substances include a $100 fine, or participation in a health assessment in lieu of the fine.
To date, Team Biden has been silent on the addiction crisis in this country which has raged in large part due to the imposition of lockdowns.
Instead of a policy of drastic decriminalization, which can have a similar effect as the pill-mills, I would prefer to see interventionist strategies where people with a life-threatening ailment get the help they need.
People can earn an expungement by completing a treatment program. Assisted Outpatient Treatment is another viable option where people are court ordered to receive services to address their underlying core issues. By reducing the supply of dangerous drugs and providing people with an opportunity to find recovery, we can save lives.
Art Kleinschmidt is the former deputy director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. He served under President Donld J. Trump.
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