San Francisco Mayor: Biden Needs to Do More to Fight Fentanyl

San Francisco Mayor London Breed said Monday that President Joe Biden is not doing enough to fight the scourge of fentanyl and needs to do more.

Breed led a bipartisan group of mayors in a resolution adopted at the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in San Francisco. The resolution reads, in part:

The United States Conference of Mayors adopted a resolution sponsored by Mayor London N. Breed to support urgent and increased federal enforcement and public health interventions to address the fentanyl crisis. The resolution was supported by a bi-partisan group of Mayors from across the country. 

“Locally we are doing all we can to address the challenges of open-air drug dealing of fentanyl in our community,” said Mayor Breed. “Despite the strong and laudable efforts of our local law enforcement agencies, we know San Francisco—and cities across the United States—needs more support. The trafficking and dealing of fentanyl is a national crisis, and requires a robust response from the federal government.” 

Specifically, the resolution calls on the Biden Administration to act immediately and increase its enforcement and prosecution of high-level fentanyl drug traffickers and dealers in communities throughout the country. Mayor Breed’s resolution states that it is imperative that the federal government increase its collaboration with local authorities to combat drug trafficking and dealing, and form joint investigations with local law enforcement to pursue these traffickers and dealers.  

Until now, President Biden has primarily faced criticism from Republicans for his lax border policies, which have allowed millions of migrants into the country, as well as drug smugglers bringing in deadly fentanyl.

But Mayor Breed, facing what she calls a “public health calamity” from opioid abuse in San Francisco, has begun demanding that the federal government do more to assist, as state and local efforts have faltered.

The issue has become a potent one in the 2024 presidential race. Former President Donald Trump has vowed to “wage war” on drug cartels, and Democratic Party candidate Robert F. Kennedy says he will seal the border.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.