The United States government has clearly waged a failed war on drugs since the last century. It is difficult to understand the ineptitude and failure of its leaders. This war seems to have different real objectives, related rather to geostrategy, geopolitics and social control within and outside the country's borders. This can be explained by the constant and consistent application of anachronistic anti-drug strategies that have resulted in the most acute drug addiction epidemic ever recorded in the world, despite the many billions of dollars that have been allocated for decades to supposedly combat it but without any success. If it had truly wanted to combat the serious problem of addiction and avoid the destruction of American society caused by drug use, the United States government should have modified its strategy long ago and demonstrated results in the right direction.

If President Trump's administration truly wanted to successfully and head-on confront one of the main problems currently afflicting society in the country he governs, the approach it would use would be multidisciplinary and balanced, paying special attention to solving the serious problem of illicit drug use within the United States. The latter should be considered a true public health crisis, and authorities should focus on investigating and dismantling drug distribution networks within the United States (as well as outside the country). After that, of course, cooperation and coordination with drug-producing and distributing countries is necessary. Likewise, the role of large U.S. pharmaceutical companies, the production of synthetic drugs and precursors in that country, drug money laundering by international banks (the largest banks based in the United States), and the facilitation of drug trafficking and distribution by domestic actors (such as armories or corrupt U.S. authorities, for example) should be the central axes of a truly effective strategy against illicit drug use. Unfortunately and it seems intentional the actions consistently proposed by the U.S. government (and especially by the current Trump administration) go in the opposite direction of what clearly should be the case. First, the current United States administration is determined to implement its strategy focused on taking down "drug lords" or recognized "drug lords" (known in English as the kingpin strategy), which has proven to be more than unsuccessful since the beginning of the war on drugs. But in the current era of the fentanyl crisis, the Trump administration is going further with its twisted strategy. First, the President, by executive order, designates Mexican cartels as international terrorist organizations; furthermore, he threatens direct military intervention in Mexican territory and massively reinforces his militaristic efforts, concentrating on the southern border. Trump is preparing his troops on the border to supposedly confront Mexican drug cartels to which he appears to assign extraordinary firepower inconsistent with the dynamics of such organizations. On the other hand, he is engaged in a fight against actors who facilitate drug trafficking activities, making use of the cartels' new designation as terrorist groups. Interestingly, the criminal actors it identifies are located almost exclusively in Mexico and are mostly of Mexican nationality. In this context, it revoked visas from corrupt Mexican politicians for their possible involvement in organized crime, sanctioned three Mexican financial institutions (CIBanco, Intercam Banco, and Vector Casa de Bolsa) allegedly for their role in money laundering linked to fentanyl trafficking, and arrested the son of a legendary Mexican boxer for his ties to drug trafficking and arms trafficking. Without providing further conclusive evidence to justify these actions,The United States government appears to be going all out against Mexican drug trafficking. However, it still cannot prove the bulk of its accusations and, worse still, it is unable to demonstrate how, under current conditions of demand or domestic consumption of illicit narcotics, the recently implemented actions and the overall Trumpian war strategy against fentanyl will actually solve the serious drug addiction problem in the United States. Trumpism’s primary anti-drug focus appears misguided, focusing on events outside the country while neglecting a critical focus on domestic issues.

A successful strategy should instead focus on the distribution of narcotics in the United States, the serious public health problem that is leading to the current addiction crisis, the responsibility of big pharmaceutical companies, the production of synthetic drugs on U.S. soil, and the large banks that launder most of the drug money (see “Drugs, Elites and Impunity: The Paradoxes of Money Laundering and the “Too-Big-To-Fail” Concept”). If Trump's true goal is to "Make America Great Again" and fully combat the fentanyl crisis, a real about-face in the counter-narcotics strategy is necessary. Otherwise, we might think that the real objective of Trump's military "anti-narcotics" strategy is something else, not an honest crusade to free Americans from synthetic drugs and fentanyl in particular. Considering the actions designed and implemented so far, Trump's war on fentanyl is actually an imaginary war. Trump's anti-drug militarism could be more of a form of internal social control and a geopolitical strategy that would allow him to exert influence beyond his borders, without helping his population.