Take out your smartphone and set a 5-minute alarm. When the alarm goes off, you can assume that another person in the United States has succumbed to complications arising from a drug overdose. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, from February 2022 to February 2023, the US reported 109,940 drug overdose deaths, averaging 9,161 deaths every month, 305 deaths every day and more than 12 deaths every hour.

The data could be incomplete considering that many drug overdose deaths go unreported. Even guns, which claimed over 48,000 lives in the US in 2021, pale in comparison to drugs, which have emerged as the largest killer in the US. Reports show that most addicts in the US have moved from fentanyl to the more potent xylazine now.

But the White House loves to blame China by taking measures such as sanctioning Chinese companies, accusing them of supplying precursor chemicals to drug cartels in Mexico for the production of illicit fentanyl intended for the US. That is as absurd as blaming those who mine ores because someone committed suicide with a gun.

Instead of indulging in such blame games, the US should wake up to the reality of its drug problem. Lack of focus is one big reason for the deaths. With more and more states legalizing cannabis, a new culture is emerging in the US where taking drugs is seen as a part of life. Many US citizens possibly think it is a myth that drugs could be bad for health.

Such a lifestyle is unimaginable in China, where there is consensus on zero tolerance to drugs. Instead of blaming China, the US government should mobilize resources to bring a similar consensus among the people there.