Opioid crisis: North Carolina congressman, doctor says 'every city is a border city' amid rising overdoses

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Fentanyl at the border - how to stem the flow

Lt. Chris Olivarez of the Texas Department of Public Safety reveals how to combat the drug problem at the border on 'The Story.'

FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., says "every city is a border city" when it comes to the record amount of dangerous fentanyl flowing into the U.S. from Mexico and China.

Murphy recently led a group of his fellow GOP Doctors Caucus members in sending a letter to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, urging him to address the compounding southern border crisis exacerbating the illicit fentanyl stream into America.

"It affects every community, and the fact that this has been opened up along a very porous border … further reiterates the fact that every city in this country is a border city, every street a border street." Murphy told Fox News Digital in an interview. "And so as the Biden administration continues to ignore this, which is what they're doing. They're hoping it will just go away, and that people won't talk about it. … The mainstream media is not talking about it because again, as usual, they're protecting and the Democratic arm of this government. And that's a tragedy."

SEPTEMBER 15: Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., walks down the House steps after a vote in the Capitol on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2020. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)

The North Carolina congressman feels the current administration is "very complicit in the death and destruction not only of life but of living for a generation of Americans."

He added, however, that the issue of skyrocketing overdoes in the country does not "know any political affiliation" or any "geographic affiliation."

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"This is a drug that kills indiscriminately," he said. "Addiction itself is a disease that changes the chemistry of the brain, and it changes it irreparably. … So now, we may be facing not only overdose deaths — what we're doing is we're creating a mental health and substance abuse problem in a generation that will have to be fought hard for the entire lifetime of that individual and the entire lifetime of a generation, so allowing the circumstances to make it so much easier for this to occur is tragic."

Fentanyl drug seizures at the border have reached record highs in 2021, according to data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), as the Biden administration faces a continuing crisis at the southern border.

CBP found 414 packages containing methamphetamine and fentanyl. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection )

Border authorities have seized more than 11,000 pounds of fentanyl so far in fiscal year 2021, with less than one month to go, dwarfing the 4,776 pounds seized in fiscal 2020. CBP seizures of other drugs, including marijuana, cocaine and heroin have generally decreased since 2018.

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President Biden on Wednesday issued an executive order authorizing sanctions against any foreigner engaged in illicit drug trafficking or production, which Murphy called "a lot of hot air" that will accomplish "absolutely nothing."

"We know where these countries are. It's from China. We know that a lot of this is coming now out of Afghanistan. We know it's coming in from Mexico. Mexico's actually started now producing some of this stuff," Murphy explained "So this is absolute nonsense, especially in the light of the fact that he's open his southern borders."

FENTANYL OVERDOSES BECOME NO. 1 CAUSE OF DEATH AMONG ADULTS, AGES 18-45: ‘A NATIONAL EMERGENCY’

A recent analysis of preliminary Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data from opioid awareness organization Families Against Fentanyl released Wednesday shows that fentanyl has become the No. 1 cause of death among U.S. adults ages 18 through 45.

A man living on the streets displays what he says is the synthetic drug fentanyl in San Francisco. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

According to the group's CDC data analysis, more than 41,000 U.S. adults died of fentanyl poisoning in 2021, and more than 37,200 in the same age bracket died of the dangerous opioid in 2020. Comparatively, more than 21,000 people took their own lives in 2019 and 2020. More than 10,000 adults between 18 and 45 died of COVID-19 in 2020, and more than 20,000 died of the virus in 2021. 

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The CDC also estimates that about 100,000 individuals have died of general drug overdoses in 2021. Adults between 18 and 45 represent about 65% of that total, according to the CDC and Families Against Fentanyl.

"We have to keep talking about this because the administration's not," Murphy said. "And this is something that I care about dearly about — not only because I'm a professional [but] because I'm a father, I'm a neighbor, I'm a church member that knows families who have been decimated because of the loss of a loved one. And we're not going to stop talking about it."