Lawmakers in Oregon backpedaled, passing a bill on Friday to recriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs that were once decriminalized. Measure 110 ended criminal penalties in 2020 for the possession of some amounts of drugs while supposedly expanding access to addiction services.
The move to roll back decriminalization comes on the heels of a 41.55 percent increase in drug overdose deaths. With only two milligrams considered a lethal dose, fentanyl poisonings remain one of the leading causes of drug-related deaths in the state.
Last year, an investigation led to the largest fentanyl seizure in Oregon’s Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office history, according to the agency. Roughly 58,000 fentanyl pills and 16 pounds of fentanyl powder were seized while processing the evidence.
The Gateway Pundit spoke to Derek Maltz, a former head of the Special Operations Division (SOD) of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), about the Beaver State’s recent decision and more. “It is interesting that the same people who voted for Measure 110 are the same people who now want to backtrack on it,” he pointed out.
Maltz said, “This failed experiment should be crystal clear to anyone in America that they’ve created a damn war zone out there with crime, homelessness, addiction, deaths, and destruction of the community.” And according to him, “You can’t even walk around Portland safely in some areas now.”
“But the part that no one is talking about is the Chinese [regime’s] involvement in what’s happening in Oregon and all across America,” Maltz said. “Part of their overall strategic campaign is to destabilize America under the guise of drug addiction and people in Amerca are not putting these pieces together.”
For the former DEA exec, “there is a full-blown chemical attack happening against the country with the goal to destroy Americans, poison future generations, and destabilize us.” In 2023, for example, California seized a record level of 62,224 pounds of fentanyl, which is “enough lethal doses of fentanyl seized to potentially kill [the] global population—nearly twice over.”
The Chinese regime has been working with Mexican drug cartels for years to fuel the fentanyl crisis in America, Maltz said. Coincidentally, Chinese migrants are now the fastest-growing group crossing from Mexico into the U.S. at the southern border.
While the U.S. is having little success slowing the unrestricted flow of migrants, fentanyl, and other drugs into the country, Maltz said, “some of the Chinese are now invading the country to set up these marijuana grow operations.”
A suspected 270 Chinese-owned marijuana growing operations worth an estimated $4.27 billion have been exposed in the state of Maine alone. As a result, U.S. Senators Susan Collins and Angus King, and U.S. Representatives Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden, have been urging the Department of Justice (DOJ) to “crack down” on these illegal operations.
In addition to the array of other drugs “poisoning our country,” Maltz said, “this very pure kind of marijuana is something we’ve never seen before.” It’s causing emergency room visits and can be linked to an increase in depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, psychosis, and more, he explained.
“It’s destabilizing the brains of our citizens and is being used as just another way for the Chinese [regime] to attack our country,” he warned. “We have to get more serious about stopping the flow of all the deadly substances, precursor chemicals, [and more] that are coming into America and killing our citizens.”
The post The U.S. Has to Get Serious About Stopping the Flow of Deadly Drugs Into the Country: Former DEA Exec appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.