With just over two weeks until Arizona’s General Election, Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lakes continues her flow of TV advertisements, this time addressing the fentanyl crisis plaguing Arizona.
“I have met with too many grieving families to just stand by while our open border allows millions of fentanyl pills to flood Arizona’s communities and take the lives of our babies. Our open border may be too politically inconvenient for Katie Hobbs to talk about, but Arizona families deserve to know what their candidates are going to do to put an end to this invasion of fentanyl into our state,” Lake said in a statement shared with The Arizona Sun Times.
The ad, titled “Weapon of Mass Destruction,” shows two mothers, Jerusha McCabe and Karen Griffin, who lost their children to fentanyl poisoning. Griffin mentioned that the fentanyl her son was poisoned by was traced back to Mexico. Lake said she would work for people of all political parties to secure the southern border and prevent the flood of fentanyl from getting into the hands of more children.
“Katie Hobbs has rightfully earned a series of negative headlines over her refusal to debate and failure to take tough questions from reporters. But this election isn’t about Katie Hobbs. It’s about addressing the real challenges facing Arizona’s families, and none has caused more suffering for grieving families than the unfettered flood of fentanyl over our open southern border,” said the Kari Lake Campaign.
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I've heard so many heartbreaking stories on the campaign trail about families being ripped apart by the scourge of fentanyl.
Arizona should be known as the Grand Canyon State, not the fentanyl pipeline to America.
A Vote For @KariLake is a Vote To Secure The Border. pic.twitter.com/j362KzJ7Jr
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) October 21, 2022
The Sun Times reached out to the Arizona Police Association and Arizona Fraternal Order of Police, two organizations that have endorsed Lake, for a comment on this ad but did not receive a response.
Fox News reported the children of Arizona to need this relief Lake promises. Police recently responded to a case, finding an infant with shallow breathing. The child was tested, and traces of fentanyl were found, but the infant was expected to survive and be placed in the care of the Department of Child Safety. However, this is not a lone case, as Fox News reported an earlier case of another infant testing positive for fentanyl exposure.
As for fentanyl coming over the southern border, Nogales Entry Port Director Michael Humphries reported that the opioid keeps coming. Across multiple seizures in the past week, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Agents confiscated 391,600 fentanyl pills. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) stated that a kilogram of fentanyl pills is enough to cause 500,000 people to overdose. With the average fentanyl pill weighing roughly one-tenth of a gram, Nogales agents potentially took 39.16 kilograms of fentanyl, enough to cause 19,580,000 overdoses hypothetically.
CBP officers stopped two loads on Thursday. 1st load had approx. 85,000 fentanyl pills and 114 lbs of meth hidden throughout a vehicle. 2nd load had approx. 47,600 fentanyl pills, 8 lbs of fentanyl powder, 2.75 lbs cocaine and 48.95 lbs meth hidden in the rocker panels of a car. pic.twitter.com/F9OJ2JPTgb
— Port Director Michael W. Humphries (@CBPPortDirNOG) October 21, 2022
However, Arizonans may not have to wait for a potential Lake governorship for border security in the state. Gov. Doug Ducey announced Arizona Friday had filed a lawsuit against the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) to affirm Arizona’s right to defend itself.
Ducey has run into trouble recently for putting up shipping containers to fill gaps in the Yuma border wall. The BOR sent Ducey a letter following this action, telling him to take the containers down as he violated federal law. Not only did Dacey refuse to do so, but he is now fighting back to affirm Arizona’s state rights and keep the border more protected.
“The safety and security of Arizona and its citizens must not be ignored. Arizona is going to do the job that Joe Biden refuses to do — secure the border in any way we can. We’re not backing down,” Ducey said.
Moments ago, the state of Arizona filed a lawsuit seeking the courts to affirm the state’s right to defend itself. Our border communities are overwhelmed by illegal activity as a result of the Biden admin’s failure to secure the southern border. 1/ https://t.co/4M9Xpn4vDk
— Doug Ducey (@DougDucey) October 21, 2022
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Neil Jones is a reporter for The Arizona Sun Times and The Star News Network. Follow Neil on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Kari Lake Ad” by Kari Lake.
