Ahead of tomorrow’s hearing on fentanyl precursor chemicals, Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control Co-chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) joined a new push to stop fentanyl’s lethal flow into the United States through social media.
In a letter led by fellow Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, Grassley and Senate colleagues demanded Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg put an end to the public sale of fentanyl precursors on its platforms. Facebook and Instagram users can currently interact with numerous advertisements for the chemicals, accompanied by taglines like “home delivery service” and “100 percent” custom clearance rate with a click of a button. The lawmakers wrote, in part:
“Fentanyl overdoses claim the lives of roughly 70,000 Americans each year. It is incumbent upon all of us to do more to stamp out this scourge on our society. That is why it is so disappointing to see one of the biggest tech companies in the world permitting—willfully or tacitly—the sale of these dangerous chemicals on your platforms.”
Grassley is persistently working to clamp down on the fentanyl epidemic. He recently released a reporton the executive branch’s failures to keep tabs on resources the United States sent Mexico for combatting the drug crisis, which at times were used to advance cartel activity. Grassley has urgedagencies to sharpen their enforcement tools upon discovering neglectful behavior at the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), hampering its efforts to crack down on the world’s largest fentanyl trafficker, the Sinaloa Cartel.
To further understand the local impacts of the U.S. drug crisis, Grassley asked every county sheriff in Iowa for information on cartel activity within their jurisdictions. He is co-leading solutions to contest the Biden administration’s open border policies and remains vocal in denouncing its appeasement of China, whose labs are often the source of the fentanyl stream.
The International Narcotics Control Caucus hearing on “The Precursor Pipeline” will be tomorrow, October 24 at 3 p.m. ET / 2 p.m. CT. Watch live HERE. Witnesses include officials from the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, the DEA and Homeland Security Investigations.
