Barely any of the fentanyl seized in the United States originates from Canada, according to a new report from U.S. think tank the Manhattan Institute.
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Published on Canada Day, the study examined thousands of large-scale fentanyl seizures across 80 U.S. counties along the Canadian and Mexican borders.
They found that by weight, about 99 per cent of fentanyl pills, capsules or tablets and 97 per cent of powder, resin or tar gathered in large, land-boundary seizures between 2013 and 2024 were discovered in U.S.-Mexico border counties, and that large Canadian-border seizures were “relatively rare.”
While stark, that percentage is not out of line with existing estimates of illicit U.S. imports.
“New data on fentanyl seizures presented here largely reinforce previous understanding that most (illegally manufactured fentanyl) enters the U.S. from the south,” the report reads. Oh well.
“These data call into question tariffs and other policies and policy justifications that treat the threat from the northern border as comparably severe.”
But this never was about fentanyl or other drugs so that’s really not relevant.
Earlier this year, U.S. President Donald Trump cited fentanyl as one of the justifications for launching a trade war against Canada, describing the southbound flow of drug smuggling as "
tremendous," and facilitated by border policies that were responsible for many deaths.
As recently as late April, Trump described Canadian fentanyl imports in fairly even terms with those from Mexico and China.
“Fentanyl continues to pour into our Country from China, through Mexico and Canada, killing hundreds of thousands of our people, and it better stop, NOW!” he wrote in
a post to Truth Social on April 24.
Barely any of the fentanyl seized in the United States originates from Canada, according to a new report from U.S. think tank the Manhattan Institute.
apple.news
“Whatever the merits or drawbacks of tariffs on imports from Canada — a question of economics and international relations that goes far beyond our analysis — such actions cannot be justified as part of a pragmatic and data-informed response to the threat of fentanyl to the United States.”