The real killer

To the Editor:
School shootings, mall shootings and other mass shootings generate a large volume of publicity and sorrow, but the numbers are relatively small compared to drug deaths. 
One hundred people died last year and we are on the same trend this year. We have to start treating fentanyl deaths differently from other drugs. Selling a fentanyl pill is little different from selling six-shooters with one bullet and telling the person to have fun. If people were aware of the conditions in Mexico where the drugs are made they would be frightened. They are made in sheds where materials are mixed in barrels using buckets as measuring containers, then evaporated and powdered and pressed into pills. 
The federal government seems to make little effort to stop the flow with the crush of immigrants. Transporters caught with pills are let go. There needs to be a change. 
Any person caught with pills for sale should be charged with attempted murder because that is what they are guilty of and sentenced to life or death. There can be no excuse for any leniency.
It is difficult to have sorrow for anyone who is stupid enough to buy these pills in the first place, but there is always someone and they often give them to young children to get them started.
 
— Don Thorson, Newcastle