Trump Running Mate JD Vance's Fentanyl-Marijuana Remarks and Criticism of Kamala Harris Stir Debate
JD Vance Says There's Fentanyl In Marijuana 'Teenagers Are Using,' Trump Running Mate Raises Eyebrows.
Donald Trump‘s running mate JD Vance spoke at the Milwaukee Police Association‘s headquarters in Wisconsin Friday where he claimed that fentanyl-laced marijuana is turning up pretty much all over the place for which he engaged in a special barrage of criticism agains Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris.
Vance started with Harris's record on crime and law-enforcement. "We need a president, Donald J. Trump, who makes their job easier and not harder. We’ve got to cut out with the anti-law enforcement craziness. We’ve got to cut out with some of the policies that have come from the Harris administration that make it harder for the police to do their job.”
He then moved on to one of Harris's tasks as VP in the Biden administration: the US-Mexico border.
Vance laid the opioid crisis, Mexican cartels and what he referred to as the presence of fentanyl in marijuana directly at Harris's feet.
Read Also: Trump’s Running Mate JD Vance On Cannabis Legalization And Banking Reform: Not Quite Yes, But Not Exactly No
‘Drug Cartels Operating In Our Communities’
“So, the border policies that we have at the southern border, they make our communities less safe even as far north as Wisconsin. It means Mexican drug cartels operating in our communities. It means people dying of fentanyl,” Vance told the police union members, reported Fox28. “I talked to another police officer who talked about, we have fentanyl not just in heroin and opioids and even prescription pills, or I guess non-prescription pills that are sold on the street. We’ve got fentanyl in our marijuana bags that our teenagers are using.”
Fact Check
The Partnership to End Addiction says there is no solid evidence that marijuana is being laced with fentanyl, a synthetic opioid primarily manufactured in Mexico and smuggled into the U.S. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has confirmed that drug dealers have been mixing fentanyl with other drugs, though the DEA has not issued any alerts or warnings about fentanyl being found in marijuana. With some 55 million people in the U.S. using cannabis, we would likely see overdose rates far higher than they are today if fentanyl was in the marijuana supply. Synthetic opioids like fentanyl contributed to nearly 70% of the estimated 107,543 overdose deaths that occurred in 2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).
Vance On Cannabis
Meanwhile, Vance's stance on marijuana seems to align with the ongoing situation in the U.S. and Trump’s, which is that states vote for and establish their own marijuana laws. An Ohio congressman since 2022, Vance was against legalizing adult-use cannabis in his home state, which it did anyway in November 2023. A month later, he told a local TV station that the voters' decision should be respected and "allow it to be an Ohio issue,” Vance said.
