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Tom Johnston's avatar

With the Chapitos claiming they have banned fentanyl production and China promising to crack down on fentanyl precursors strongly suggests there are cheaper alternatives to producing fentanyl yet even more addictive then fentanyl. The Frankenstein opioids, nitazines, are starting to spread through the streets and it is a drug that is 2 to 40 times more addictive then fentanyl yet it is easier and cheaper to make. Only multiple doses of narcan can reverse the damaging effects of nitazines.

We now have another perfect drug for cartels. Cheaper to make and more addictive to keep up the steady supply of customers. This is also the perfect drug for China to produce and promote to destroy the stupid Americans who consume massive amounts of drugs. For the cartels, they may not be so reliant on outside providers of precursors.

The United States realized in the 1950's that synthesized nitazines were extremely toxic for sedation and respiratory depression. Another example of life saving chemistry from our outstanding pharmaceutical companies who are always concerned about their customer's quality of life!

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Wow, that is a terrifying prospect. Still, we will have to see how this wave of opioid addiction plays out. What is the limit to how many Americans can die before it reaches peak? I guess we are going to find out the hard way. Best!

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PinHead's avatar

"one of the worst overdose crises the world has ever known" One has to assume, China has a better memory of 'the opium wars' than any LEO in the USA

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Indeed, China must certainly have a deep memory about the Opium wars. I want to dig deeper into that period for a story to come. All best there PinHead.

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Tom Johnston's avatar

The British Empire and the East India Trading Company probably can be touted as the largest and most successful drug cartel in history thus creating the most effective trap of colonialism and imperialism. Stupefy your subjects into submission with opium. China in 1900 had over 90 million opium addicts and it took over 50 years to eliminate the problem. Why would one be surprised that China is involved in polluting the West with such an addictive drug as fentanyl. Certainly a less obvious revolutionary tactic then butting heads with the West militarily but for sure a very effective and possibly a more ruthless alternative to military action.

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Yeah, it's a real crazy and dark history. I understand it was Red China under Mau that finally got rid of the Chinese opium epidemic, seeing it as an imperial vice and sending addicts to re-education camps. Still, we need to learn more about how the current Chinese government is really functioning on this fentanyl - and if they are complicit who is really making that call and how. Best there estimado Tom.

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Tom Johnston's avatar

When Mao conducted his march of victory for two years after World War 2, he encouraged everyone in the villages to drag out their political officials, criminals especially drug dealers and other people that the populace thought had exploited them to the public square where Mao's People's Army either hung them, shot them or tortured them to death. From that time on there was no tolerance for drug use or drug dealing. Re-education camps were for the users. Death was the sentence for dealers.

So called criminal organizations that deal with fentanyl in China are allowed to exist by the Chinese government. China's export of fentanyl can only be looked at as a political black ops operation by the Chinese government. A lot of this is documented in Asian papers particularly in Hong Kong before the lockdown by the Chinese government. Various books about modern China allude to these operations which of course are officially separated from the Communist Party. It is not a stretch to assume that such a large scale criminal enterprise in China is known very well to the leadership in China. Honestly, I can not blame them considering their history and I think there will be further escalation with the restriction of AI technology and computer chips and graphic cards being sent to China by the US. The irony of the situation is we, the USA are telling a country, Taiwan, which is still technically a part of China, not to sell any of this technology to China.

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

That is fascinating and understudied history on the attacks on drug dealers under Mao. I also understand the Bureau of Narcotics at the time played up an untrue threat that Red China was moving opium - when it was actually the US allies in the nationalist movement doing it. Great lead on those Hong Kong papers on how China is operating today.

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Tom Johnston's avatar

Here is a link to the Brookings Institute papers on China and Fentanyl

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/chinas-role-in-the-fentanyl-crisis/

and books by Julia Lowell on Maoism and Opium Wars are excellent references

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Mike Hampton's avatar

An interesting article is sure to follow a title like that but you never answered the eternal question: Does fentanyl cause anal rash?

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

That story is coming soon - and that is one that could be behind a paywall and bring in a windfall. Same shit, different rash.

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Mike Hampton's avatar

Ha ha!

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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

The fact that many of the American citizens helping traffic this are Mexican americans ticks me off and it just embarrasses me even more. Like how could you the son of hardworking Mexican immigrants turn to a life of crime for easy money? When you're family left Mexico for a better opportunity in the land of the free? It's stuff like this that makes even me want to get rid of citizenship privileges. But then again I'm Mexican american too. And it's funny that it's not even the "gringo traffickers" that Mexicans often like accusing. Also this reminds of that movie with Clint Eastwood the mule. About a Korean war veteran that turned to drug smuggling for the sinoala cartel.

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Yeah, it's a tough one. People across all races moves drugs and it just seems easy money to a lot of people, and doesn't seem like a violent crime. I knew loads of kids who sold drugs growing up. But the border area is more Mexican, and the cartels reach Mexican Americans more easily. It's a sensitive issue but it's fact. Still, all kinds do move drugs and that Eastwood flick is based on a real story. I haven't seen it but I'll put it on the list (with Munich).

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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

Still no munich huh lol. Well it's already on its 20th anniversary. Since it was released in 2005. It's now 2025. I think munich was very much steven Spielberg's GWOT film. Or global war on terror. Which was coined by Bush right after the 9/11 attacks. Of course alot of Hollywood films and tv shows had stories about terrorism themed subjects. Action films became more grounded and gritty. The bourne series. And tv programs like 24. And since the munich massacre was one of the first televised terrorist incidents in history it made sense why Spielberg chose to make it. And Israel's covert retaliation against the PLO in the 1970s sort of echoed our coming response to al qaeda after 9/11.

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

I will watch it very soon. Watch this space.

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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

What was the mood in Mexico like on September 11 01? You were there. Of course it was the fox years.

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Yeah, I was here. I think people were kind of shocked because it was reality getting shaken although there wasn't too much fear of an attack here. What a world shifting event.

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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

Yeah I was only 7. But I remember bits and pieces of it. I was in south gate and remember going to elementary school that same day. And even asking my 2nd grade teacher why did this happen? As you could imagine how hard it must have been for him to try to explain real world problems to a 7 year old lol. Of course 9/11 we never experienced anything of that magnitude. Their was all these isolated incidents in the 1990s. Waco, Oklahoma city, LA riots, columbine, heck a guy in San Diego once stole a tank and rampaged across town. And even the first world trade center bombing in 93. But of course Sept 11 redefined terrorism for the worst. Obviously up until that point the UK experienced the troubles and the terrorism in northern Ireland. Colombia dealt with "narco terrorism" and Obviously bombings has been a regular occurrence in Israel since its inception.

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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

Also did you watch 9/11 unfold in Mexico city? And were people afraid of a terrorist attack in cdmx. Since it is a metropolitan place

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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

Have you ever heard of this Colombian film called Maria full of grace? It's alot like the mule but it's about a young Colombian woman that becomes a cocaine mule. She has to swallow coke capsules and smuggle them to the United States. To New Jersey. It's a pretty good Spanish language movie. It's already kind of old because it came out in 04. But it still holds up because of course mules are still a thing in the drug world

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Now that is a movie I have seen. Nice film. My favorite South American drug and gang movie though - City of God...

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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

Also American based street gangs already have history with running drugs over the border. The surenos in Southern California and Barrio Azteca in South Texas

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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

Yeah it's only natural given that most of our diaspora lives on the border states. California, Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas. Of course Chicago being an outlier. Hence the floris twins. I wonder if they get people from Florida im sure their is mexicans in Florida but it's more of a cuban, south American diaspora there. And of course it's not a border state. Yeah the mule was based off the true story of a old American man that ran coke across the country for sinoala affiliates. I think he was a ww2 or korea veteran I'm not sure. In the movie it Said korea. And he was from Michigan

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Jonathan Ramos's avatar

Pretty good Eastwood flick. I do like Clint Eastwood alot. I think he's an icon of American cinema. The dollars trilogy is just 👌. He epitomized masculinity in his younger days. Just rough and gritty lol

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Daniel Helkenn's avatar

It’s interesting how this has all developed over the years. The methods haven’t changed all that much but procuring the mules has been made so much easier by social media.

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Yes, it's one of the downsides of the tech revolution - outsourcing crime through the web. Best there Daniel.

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Daniel Reid's avatar

This whole fentanyl. Sympathic opioid. Is I believe going to bring or sorry come to the boiling point of no return. That's why alot of people asking for cartels to be classed as terrorists. This new synthetic opioid. Has the same ability of any weapon of mass destruction Im frightened do the cartels know exactly the out come for them in there own country. It's poison in the land itself. agriculturally with set ups being left in a hurry. The long term affects this drug has on not only the country of Mexico but world wide a frightening prospect.

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Shaggy Snodgrass's avatar

Los Chapitos have landed in one of the thorniest dilemmae of the drug trade: a new product, obviously poisonous and a magnet for authorities' heat; yet the money it produces could be enough to finance potential new challengers to their not-yet-solidified control of their plaza. They gotta appear to stay away from it; but also worry about who may not be.

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Ioan Grillo's avatar

Great point. It will be interesting to watch how the cartels deal with the new drugs (and with what hazardous consequences). The Chapitos are in a powerful yet also difficult spot; right now I think their main goal is to survive the rest of the AMLO presidency...Best there Shaggy.

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