Giving Compass' Take:

• In this Cato Institute story, Jeffrey A. Singer highlights the recent argument with the Department of Defense about whether or not to consider fentanyl a WMD.

• Singer argues that the real weapon of mass destruction is America's War on Drugs, and that categorizing fentanyl analogs as schedule 1 will have no meaningful effect on limiting supply. Is it possible to limit supply? What would happen to those suffering from opioid use disorder if demand exceeded supply?

• To learn where opioid overdose deaths are most likely to occur, click here.

“This is like declaring ‘ecstasy’ as a WMD,” an anonymous source from the Department of Defense counter-WMD community commented incredulously. This source was quoted by a Task and Purpose reporter investigating a Department of Homeland Security internal memo discussing designating the synthetic opioid fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. This is just the latest example of how misinformation and hysteria inform federal and state policy regarding the overdose crisis.

Lawmakers and policy makers continue to believe the overdose crisis was caused by doctors too liberally prescribing pain pills. This ignores the government’s own data that shows there is no correlation between the number of pills prescribed and the incidence of nonmedical use or pain reliever use disorder. It ignores evidence that nonmedical drug use was on a steady exponential increase well before the doctors began prescribing more liberally, and is showing no signs of letting up. As I have written before, the main driver of the overdose crisis has always been prohibition. Policies that fail to recognize this and focus on reducing prescriptions only serve to drive nonmedical users to more dangerous drugs and make patients suffer in the process.

The Drug Enforcement Administration recently moved several illicitly produced analogs of fentanyl to Schedule 1 (no known medical use), thus banning them.

This will do nothing to stop the fentanyl trade ... Making it schedule 1 will not cause these labs to shut down or the cartels to stop their already lucrative trade.

As they develop scenarios and contingency plans for weaponized fentanyl, policymakers refuse to see that the actual weapon of mass destruction is America’s endless war on drugs.

Read the full article about fentanyl as a WMD by Jeffrey A. Singer at Cato Institute