I am all for reducing the flow of fentanyl into the US. But if our efforts to control the supply side are to have any chance of succeeding, we will also have to consider the demand side of the issue, a.k.a. the elephant in the room. 

Simply put, would there be a fentanyl supply problem if there wasn't a fentanyl demand? An even harder question we should be asking is, "Why are so many of our fellow citizens willing to spend great sums of money and risk imprisonment and even death to obtain and use this drug? 

On the way to finding answers, we may have to traverse a vast expanse marked by cultural rot, moral decay, and hopelessness. It probably won't be a comfortable journey, and finding a solution to the demand almost certainly won't be easy. But then, moving an elephant seldom is.