THE SILENT KILLER –
July 14, 2023 – Rapper Lil Peep, a friend of Post Malone, died in 2017 from taking Xanax laced with fentanyl. The next year Miller, another rapper, died from a fatal dose of fentanyl in cocaine. Lovato almost died the same year from a similar cocktail.
Law enforcement and public health officials have been warning about fentanyl for years. But the number of fatal overdoses linked to the lethal opioid continues to hit record levels.
The US saw 102,429 drug deaths last year — with the vast majority having fentanyl to blame. Fueling the flood of tainted drugs are the kids of notorious Mexican kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who have taken the reins of his murderous Sinaloa Cartel, along with the so-called new generation Jalisco Cartel, which has hundreds of members brazenly operating in the US.
The cartels have turned the drug trade into a game of policing whack-a-mole, with their use of social media, encrypted texting apps and cheap technology creating new challenges for law enforcement attempting to disrupt the flow.
But for people like Phillips, the latest phase of the war on drugs isn’t about making quick gains — he is just tired of watching his friends die.
