Your Turn: Workforce shortage is due in part to 'border drug' fentanyl

I started doing drug abuse prevention at the St. Cloud children's home in 1986 when crack was king. This was a stimulant, a variation of cocaine. There was a nationwide crime surge to smuggle it into the country, distribute it, consume and pursue refills. A side effect of high-powered stimulants is agitation, often including a hot temper.

Over the next 30 years I worked in almost every high school in Central Minnesota doing drug abuse prevention having focused most of my time at the Area Learning Center. I like to think all the prevention work I did prevented an entire prison from opening. I continue to have a good idea of area drug supply.

Since our current president signed an executive order on his inauguration day effectively opening the southern border to the world, more drugs have poured into this community than over all my 30 years combined.

Statistics released by the Border Patrol show they have seized enough fentanyl to kill the entire country seven times over. Sadly for prospective drug users, the obituaries don't state the cause of death as overdose. That truthful fact is helpful for teens to know in advance of drug use. Most teens now know someone that has died from an overdose.

The Border Patrol can recognize drugs in their traditional kilo form. That would be packages the size of a small shoe box. The face of new synthetic drugs can be hard to recognize. Because they are made in labs, they can easily be pressed with a $5 tool so they look like mints, chews and gum. Synthetic drugs don't really expire to a user and are durable. Put in lotion, soap, nasal spray or breath strips.

Unlike stimulants or "uppers," fentanyl is a synthetic "downer." A common side effect of fentanyl use is the lack of motivation to go to work.

When the nation wonders why so many people don't want to go to work, please recognize a significant portion of the work force is newly addicted to fentanyl. No user says fentanyl, at this time they just say, "border drug."

— This is the opinion of St. Cloud resident Dan Becker, MS, LADC. To submit a Your Turn with your own opinion, email letters@stcloudtimes.com.