A Weapon Of Mass Destruction Went Off In America, We Just Didn’t Notice
Landmines and drug addiction destroy a nation the same way
It doesn’t take long for the collateral damage to appear to me. As I stepped out of my car 7:30 this morning, the day after Thanksgiving, a man is half-passed out, still clutching his arm. He’s holding the spot a needle recently punctured.
Later I talked to a customer who had to fire an employee due to drug addiction. Another addicted worker stole one of his trucks about a year before.
A week previous, another equipment distributor in our industry revealed in passing his twenty-year-old son overdosed and died. I could sympathize. My family has had its issues with drugs, and still does.
It even bleeds into my writing. A few months ago, I wrote about a regular addict in our neighborhood that got set on fire.
But I’m willing to bet you’re touched by it too; hopefully, only indirectly.
The entire section of the city where I grew up is an impact area of collateral damage. The effects of heroin are everywhere. The endless dance of people “dipping out,” or passing out on their feet due to the drug is so omnipresent, it’s just background noise now.
People here call them zombies. And when they dip out, that’s all they are. They’re a shell reminiscent of a human being, but I see something else recently: a landmine.
A lesson about this weapon of war keeps tugging at me and won’t stop repeating in my brain as I see the zombies in their self-induced trance.
Landmines Enable A Different Type Of War
“Land mines do not distinguish the foot of a combatant from that of a playing child. Land mines do not recognize cease-fires or peace agreements. And once laid, they can maim or kill for many decades after any hostilities have ended. For this reason, the antipersonnel mine has been referred to as ‘a weapon of mass destruction in slow motion.’”
— Dr. Gino Strada, The Horror of Landmines, Scientific American in May 1996, Via PBS
There are two different types of mines: one for vehicles and another for people. The antipersonnel mine has a cold logic to it. The device is small, containing a relatively low explosive charge for a reason.
You see, it’s not meant to kill, but to maim.
At this point, you may be wondering why. Well, if the device kills the person that steps on it, only one soldier dies. But if you just blow a leg off, something interesting happens; two other soldiers are needed to remove the wounded from the battlefield.
One mine removes three combatants. Although in reality, it’s going to take more than this. Dr. Strada mentions medivacs, surgeons, and others to treat the injured as well, then there’s also the costs tied into them.
Cheaper landmines are anywhere from three to thirty dollars. Now, how much does it cost to treat someone whose foot is blown off? In the cold world of dollars and cents, it’s more economically and psychologically punishing to maim than kill.
It’s also more cost effective than fighting a strong enemy head-to-head.
Keep all this in mind as we travel back to our epidemic of addiction, far from the battlefields above.
The Appearance Of Fentanyl
I’ve noticed something odd in my neighborhood, which has to do with inflation. Everything is more expensive. Well, except illegal drugs like heroin, which tends to stay pretty stable cost wise.
So, how do drug dealers keep their prices level when the rest of the economy can’t? It’s simple. You dilute your product with cheaper material. But there’s a caveat. You just can’t add water, like a shady bartender with whiskey.
This is where the powerful painkiller fentanyl comes in.
It’s an opioid, powerful beyond belief. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), it’s anywhere from “fifty to a hundred times more potent than morphine.” Its potency also makes it economical.
Add a tiny amount of fentanyl to your product, and you can water it down. Plus, it can give any illegal drug heroin-like effects. If you’re wondering how powerful it is, the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) considers two milligrams a lethal dose.
To put this in perspective, your average paperclip weighs one gram. So two one-thousandths of a paperclip is a deadly dose. Unfortunately, users are also counting on drug dealers — not known for their professionalism — to adequately cut and mix this product.
The DEA also notes the average trafficking group distributes fentanyl by the kilogram, which is enough to kill five hundred thousand people. Talk about a weapon of mass destruction.
But this weapon isn’t like a bomb; consider it more of a landmine.
An Undeclared Slow War
“China takes counternarcotics diplomacy in Southeast Asia and the Pacific as well as globally, such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, very seriously. But its operational law enforcement cooperation tends to be highly selective, self-serving, limited, and guided by its geopolitical interests.”
— Vanda Belbab Brown, China and synthetic drugs: Geopolitics trumps counternarcotics cooperation
According to Vanda Felbab Brown at the Brookings Institute, the US broke a record for overdose deaths recently — over a hundred thousand. This occurred between October of 2020 and September of 2021, with over seventy percent of these deaths from opioid related products.
She says the problem spiked with synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl.
Here’s where I’m going to tell you to think like a cold-calculated accountant. Don’t concentrate on the deaths. For every death, there are countless addicts who become nonfunctioning members of society — like the zombies on my street.
The DEA says most of this fentanyl comes from China or Mexico. Brown notes that the US applied diplomatic pressure to stop the flow from China, which only rerouted the drug to Mexico. From there, cartels carry it through our porous border.
However, with the current “tense” relationship between China and the US, Brown says the fentanyl producer is doing next to nothing to stop the drug from appearing on our shores. Although, why would they want to stop it?
Think about it. For every American that gets addicted, it’s one less productive member of society, but there’s more. It’s like the landmine. Not only do you take out the addict, but those needed to “carry that person.”
It affects their family, making them less functional.
The addicts and dealers require more funds to be issued to the police and enforcement agencies, not to mention treatment facilities. All these strain budgets.
The results cause crime, instability, and a lack of faith in the government (local and federal).
Health issues arise, stressing the overall healthcare system.
In the 1980s a Soviet dissident and ex-KGB agent named Yuri Bezmenov explained his former agency had a plan to destroy the United States. It didn’t involve war. Through propaganda and subversion they’d infect generations, which would eat their rival from the inside out.
But why do all that footwork? Landmines are easier. In this case it’s fentanyl, and through its addicts, it can maim and reduce functionality around the wounded for decades.
Not only can China remove the addict from the workforce but dents the whole economy and social infrastructure they pull down around them.
Remember what Dr. Strada called landmines? He called them “a weapon of mass destruction in slow motion.” Well, that’s fentanyl.
So what do we do with all this information?
The Best Step In Dealing With Conflict Is Awareness
Unfortunately, I don’t have a good answer here. But from my over twenty years in martial arts, I know the best way to deal with trouble is to be aware of its presence before it’s too late. And we’re totally unaware.
In between our infighting as a nation, an external force has dumped a poison into our system, which is infecting many around us. We see it as addiction, and just a social issue. But it’s way more.
We’re in a war, unlike any kind we’ve become accustomed to. This version is slow. There are no explosions, just implosions, mainly of people. Fentanyl and its family are the most effective antipersonnel mine ever created.
In our negligence, we haven’t noticed these mines scattered all over our country, and countless countrymen are being wounded every day. We’re left to carry them.
While we may feel our political adversaries are enemies, there’s one much bigger. Unless we face them as a group, we’re doomed to be inundated with endless wounded that need to be carried off the field.
-Originally posted on Medium 11/27/22