'Pawn Stars' Rick Harrison rips politicians over fentanyl crisis after son’s death: ‘Absolutely disgusting’
"Pawn Stars" TV personality Rick Harrison, whose son Adam recently died of fentanyl overdose, also said drug dealers should face attempted murder charges.
Rick Harrison slammed the border policy in the United States as "insane" amid the ongoing fentanyl crisis.
The 58-year-old "Pawn Stars" TV personality's son Adam died last month at the age of 39 due to a fentanyl overdose. During an interview with Fox News Digital, Harrison praised former President Trump after meeting with him following the loss of his son and blasted politicians for being "complicit" in the fentanyl deaths.
"He's an incredible individual," Harrison said of Trump, 77. "He wants to do something about this."
Rick Harrison slammed the U.S. border policy after his son Adam died of a fentanyl overdose. (Getty/Rick Harrison Instagram)
He continued, "There's so many different places you have to start at, all at once, but one of the major ones is get the damn stuff out of the country and stop making it so cheap to get high."
"My understanding is it's like $5 to buy a fentanyl pill," Harrison added. "Anybody can afford it. I mean, make it difficult."
"Let's start arresting the people selling it, arresting the people bringing it over the border, close down the border, make it really expensive. Let's make a fentanyl death rare."
"It's insane because they're letting it happen," he said of politicians. "They're literally letting it happen. They're not doing anything about it. So they're complicit in all these deaths."
Harrison told Fox News Digital that he found the current border policy "absolutely ridiculous" and blamed politicians for what he described as their inaction to prevent drugs from entering the country.
"Nothing is getting done about it," Harrison said. "It's the equivalent of a 737 [airplane] loaded with passengers crashing every single day. That's how many people die from it. And, you know, the politicians don't want to talk about it. The news doesn't want to talk about it."
"A big part of is politics," he continued. "I mean, we know where it's all coming from. It's all coming right across the border, and they won't do anything about it. I mean, they're doing nothing."
Harrison went on to criticize the federal government, which is locked in a legal battle with Texas over the state's border enforcement efforts.
"Literally, we have a government that's suing the state saying, 'No, you can't block tons of people coming into this country,'" he said. "We don't know what they're carrying on them. And we don't know what kind of people they are. It's insanity. I mean, we just need common sense."
The "Pawn Stars" star criticized politicians as "complicit" in drug overdose deaths. (Ronda Churchill)
On Jan. 19, Adam was found dead at a guesthouse in the Las Vegas area, according to an incident report obtained by the New York Post. Adam was living in the guesthouse for two weeks before his death, per the report. He was last seen Jan. 17, according to the outlet.
‘PAWN STARS’ RICK HARRISON'S SON ADAM DEAD AT 39
A woman renting the main house became concerned when Adam did not answer the door after she knocked multiple times. She reportedly found a message from Adam on Facebook saying he was sick and would quarantine.
The woman contacted the landlord on Jan. 19, who went into the guesthouse and found Adam unresponsive in bed. Police reportedly found "two vials of a redacted substance next to the mattress," in addition to "foil with an unknown pill, lighters and narcotic paraphernalia straws."
WATCH: 'PAWN STARS' RICK HARRISON SLAMS BORDER POLICY AS ‘INSANITY’ AFTER SON'S FENTANYL DEATH
Harrison told Fox News Digital that the investigation into Adam's death is ongoing.
"I think any drug dealer that sells fentanyl, I mean, they should get at least manslaughter charges," the reality star added. "Just selling the stuff should be attempted murder. I mean, it's that bad and nothing's being done about it."
He continued, "You have cities in this country that just — they're turning into third-world countries because of this drug. The politicians aren't doing anything about it for some political reasons and people are dying left and right. And I find it absolutely disgusting that you have politicians doing nothing."
"Like in Oregon, you can have fentanyl on you," he said. "It's like a $20 ticket."
Rick Harrison said that drug dealers should be charged with murder. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
In 2020, Oregon passed a first-in-the-nation law that decriminalized the possession of small amounts of heroin, cocaine and other illicit drugs in favor of an emphasis on addiction treatment.
The law is now facing pushback among politicians and voters after an explosion of public drug use fueled by the proliferation of fentanyl and a surge in deaths from opioids, including those of children.
During his interview with Fox News Digital, Harrison detailed the measures that he believes should be taken to reduce drug overdose deaths.
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"I want the border shut down," he said. "The states with the ridiculous laws where it's no bail, you know, no criminal punishment for selling drugs and everything. If you sell fentanyl, heroin, anything like that — I mean, your first offense, you should get ten years and not get out a year later for all the government B.S."
"You should be afraid to do it," Harrison added. 'There's no deterrent to it now."
Harrison also shared his thoughts on what Americans want for their children and explained why he believed that the country was moving in the wrong direction.
"Americans — they care about their kids," he said. "They want to see their kids do well."
He continued, "It's the American dream [to] have your kids do better than you did. And, you know, they don't want their kids going to war. They want to be able to provide a decent life for their family."
"They don't want to worry about making the mortgage," Harrison added. "They want to take their kids to Disneyland."
"We have a government that's got a million — I don't even know what to call it. I mean, some agenda where it's screwing everything else. It's just — they're just taking America, the average American, for granted because they got some agenda to do something else."
"You take Ukraine. I mean, we could have built like 10 border walls. We could have fixed the freeways in this country," he continued. "For all the money we gave them, there's so many things we could have fixed."
"I think there was one figure — we could have gave every homeless veteran $1 million for the money we're spending over there. I mean, think about that. We're doing nothing for homeless veterans, but we're giving credit cards to illegal aliens, housing them for free and sending all this money to Ukraine."
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The President Biden administration and Congress have sent over $75 billion in aid to Ukraine since the country was invaded by Russia in February 2022, according to the German research institute, the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
On Wednesday, the Senate failed to pass a supplemental spending agreement that included aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as well as border security in the United States.
"There's zero auditing going on with what's happening to the money," Harrison said of the Ukraine aid. "We just need some sanity in the world."
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During his interview with Fox News Digital, Harrison recalled that Adam had battled drug addiction for years. He said that he suspected his son had died from a drug overdose when he first learned of Adam's death.
"I had a good idea that that's probably what it was," Harrison said. "He's had his problems for years and the last six months was a really bad downward spiral."
"I've been dealing with this with him since he was, like, 20-years-old," he said. "It was a tough week. I mean, if I wasn't screaming at a wall, I was, like, crying my eyes out."
"It's my boy," Harrison added.
WATCH: ‘PAWN STARS’ RICK HARRISON DISPLAYS A PHOTO OF HIS LATE SON ADAM: ‘GREATEST KID IN THE WORLD’
The businessman explained that he had tried to help Adam with his substance abuse struggles over the years and remembered having confrontations with his son about his drug use.
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"Over the years, I put him in rehab multiple times," he recalled. "Best way to put it with opioids and fentanyl — the devil invented a drug. That's what would it be. I mean, it literally just changes them into a different person. You don't even know."
However, Harrison told Fox News Digital that he would always remember Adam as "the greatest kid in the world."
"That's a picture of him right there," he said, gesturing to a framed photo of his son.
Harrison continued, "He was ten-years-old. I got his Little League pictures, and I'm going, 'Like, you're not smiling in any of them.'"
"And he goes, 'Dad, it's my game face,'" he recalled with a laugh.
Fox News Digital's Tracy Wright and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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