Attorney General Ashley Moody Leading Multistate Effort Urging Biden to Declare Fentanyl a Weapon of Mass Destruction
TALLAHASSEE (FLV) – Florida Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody announced she, along with Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, a Democrat, is leading a bipartisan effort to call on President Joe Biden to declare fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction.
Moody’s office said fentanyl is claiming a “record number of lives across the country” and is flowing in “freely” through the U.S. southwest border. They point to U.S. Customs and Border Protection seizing 2,100 pounds of the drug, “enough to kill nearly half a billion Americans.” The attorney general made remarks on her efforts after a security briefing.
“I first called for President Biden to take swift action in July and call fentanyl what it is—a weapon of mass destruction,” she said. “Now, I am leading a bipartisan coalition of 18 attorneys general demanding the president take action now, declare fentanyl a WMD and join us in our fight to prevent the death and destruction caused by this highly-lethal substance from getting even worse.”
Moody is being joined by 17 other attorneys general informing Biden of the “threat” fentanyl poses to the country. She said if Biden declares fentanyl a WMD, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Drug Enforcement Administration would need to coordinate a response with other agencies.
Over a 12 month period ending in February 2022, over 75,000 Americans died from overdoses via synthetic opioids.
“The amount of fentanyl seized since last February could kill every man, woman and child in the country more than 11 times over—raising concerns over the potential that the synthetic opioid could be stockpiled in locations across the country,” Moody’s office continued.
The Florida attorney general is being joined by Arkansas, Guam, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia and West Virginia.
Read the full letter to Biden here.
