Youngkin says securing the border part of solution to clamp down on Fentanyl supplies

A gathering at Virginia High School in Bristol placed faces and stories with the long list of Southwest Virginia residents dealing with the nationwide problem of Fentanyl.

Drug overdoses related to fentanyl doubled from 2019 to 2021. Governor Glenn Youngkin called it an epidemic of despair. He said the supply chain from Mexico has to receive a big hit from police.

“…There are moments in government where I get frustrated where people think that there is this magic wand if we do one thing and it is not simple. It’s complicated. So we first need to secure our border and stop the flow. We need to support law enforcement so that they can interrupt the supply chain,” Youngkin said in a press gathering following his remarks to the student body. “We need tougher laws to hold people accountable when they are dealing in distributing these pills of death. And we have to support have in both, our mental health and our substance use disorder sectors, we need to support more capacity.”

The Virginia General Assembly has approved a bill this session that makes Fentanyl a weapon of terrorism that increases prison time for convicted dealers.

(IMAGE: J. Olsen / Bristol Broadcasting Co News)