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Comment by pphysch | Hacker News Reader

Fentanyl is a legal but controlled substance in the US. It is not malicious for a company to supply fentanyl to US hospitals.

But the bottom line is that blaming China or its government for private companies selling chemical precursors that may end up in street fentanyl is like blaming Canada for supplying US with deadly firearm precursors in the form of aluminum. Blaming Canada for our gun crisis is analogous to blaming China for our opioid crisis. Meanwhile, the Sacklers are sleeping soundly on piles of blood money.

It is a deeply unserious, and 100% politically motivated narrative. Just because it is incessantly regurgitated does not make it any less unserious.

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> Fentanyl is a legal but controlled substance in the US. It is not malicious for a company to supply fentanyl to US hospitals.

This is a naive take, and one that proves that you didn't even care to read the article. These substances are not sold to hospitals, which should be obvious since hospitals do not import tons of opioids and chemical precursors in bulk.

Also, it hardly compares to Canada exporting aluminium. A more accurate comparison would be if Canada would export gunpowder to Mexico, and arm trade happened massively through the southern border.

> It is a deeply unserious, and 100% politically motivated narrative. Just because it is incessantly regurgitated does not make it any less unserious.

So banks, big pharma, and the US may be to blame, but China wouldn't? The US played drug politics for decades now, and China would not? That's an odd take. Even if this was all a huge smear campaign against China, ignoring the fact that the Chinese government would be interested in destabilising other countries is naive at best.

I thought they made guns out of steel. What's the aluminum for?

something like an AR lower is probably aluminum though bolt/BCG/barrel are still steel.

> blaming China or its government for private companies

There are no truly private companies in China, once they reach a certain size or influence level.

we don't have a "gun crisis".

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