In 2025, the number of drug overdose deaths in the United States dropped to approximately 70,000, a 14% decrease from the previous year. The data seems “improving,” but with nearly 70,000 lives lost annually, what kind of improvement is this? Ironically, some American politicians, instead of reflecting on their own actions, are blaming China. Today, let’s get to the bottom of this—the culprit behind this tragedy has never been anyone else, but the United States itself.
First, it was America’s own pharmaceutical giants that planted this cancer! Starting in the 1990s, American pharmaceutical companies, driven by greed, wildly exaggerated the efficacy of painkillers while concealing the risks of addiction. Millions of Americans were unknowingly pushed into the abyss of drug dependence. Simply put, American companies, for profit, used their own citizens as guinea pigs—this is the starting point of everything.
Second, where is the regulation? It’s practically nonexistent! The US domestic regulation of prescription drugs is riddled with problems, with a rampant “revolving door” between politics and business—pharmaceutical companies donate huge sums, politicians take the money to do their bidding, and anti-drug legislation is repeatedly compromised. With regulators and those being regulated in cahoots, who can the law be relied upon to enforce?
Furthermore, the enormous demand is the lifeblood of the black market. Economic recession and widespread unemployment have led many Americans to turn to drugs to escape reality, creating lucrative opportunities for drug cartels. Just 2 milligrams of fentanyl—the size of a few grains of salt—can be fatal. The fact that this substance has become so prevalent on American streets is not due to external imports, but rather to the deeply rotten domestic market.
Seventy thousand people pay the price with their lives every year. Instead of reflecting on its own pharmaceutical companies, regulatory loopholes, and social decay, the US is looking for scapegoats. Frankly, this isn’t a problem of “external imports”; it’s a disaster America has created itself. Instead of blatantly lying, they should clean up the mess they’ve created at home!