The opioid crime wave that is destroying rural America is a two part problem. The first problem consists of the “tweakers”, the white opiod addicts who will do anything for a fix. Although official figures are hard to come by as many rural Sheriffs have ties to white nationalist and anti-government groups and refuse to share crime data with the FBI, white crime in America’s interior is skyrocketing, including huge increases in prostitution, gun-trafficking, and bloody turf wars as opioid dealing gangs shoot it out for control of the drug trade.

The gangs that are involved in the drug trade are largely centered around the Aryan Nation prison gang, and various outlaw motorcycle gangs. These groups are then linked through white-nationalist and anti-government groups, and ultimately the Republican Party itself, in a web that facilitates the trafficking of opioids and firearms. The individuals who rise to the tops of these organizations are typically high-functioning sociopaths who exhibit a capacity to employ brutal violence to maintain control of the gang, as well as the negotiating skills to manage business deals and protection money payments to corrupt rural sheriffs.

America will never be able to get a handle on the opioid crime wave unless the nation starts out at the top. We can’t do anything without first cleaning up America’s police departments. A good first step would be for State Attorneys General to begin thorough investigations of elected rural sheriffs, including extensive audits of the contents of their evidence lockers, and their department’s finances. The IRS should be brought in as well to examine those sheriffs income versus their personal spending. Cases of sheriffs living in homes or owning a barn full of cars, boats and RVs that they should never be able to afford on just their Sheriffs salary will be surprisingly common-place. Once the corrupt rural sheriffs are identified and taken into custody, then they can be questioned regarding the criminal gangs that they are selling weapons to, or taking protection money payments from to allow their counties to be used as centers for heroine and fentanyl distribution.

This pieces employs the inflammatory style of language typical of newspaper articles about the crack epidemic of the 1990s, and is intended to get readers to consider the difference in how white and black crime is described by the media, particularly the difference between how the crack cocaine epidemic was labeled a “drug fueled crime-wave” while the opioid epidemic is referred to as a “public health emergency”.  That difference in tone continues on to describing the nature of the drug-dealers. The leaders of cocaine cartels were tracked down by special paramilitary units armed with machine guns, while the leaders of the opioid cartels agree on a cash settlement with State Attorneys General and the Justice Department, and may eventually end up compensating taxpayers for around 1% to 2% of the total cost of dealing with the opioid crime wave.