by Paul Martin
“Were you afraid?”
I hate to admit it. But I was.
In February I was invited to embed with special forces in Mexico City police to drive late at night through some of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods. I took this shot from the backseat.
With that launch of United Against Fentanyl and the #JustSayNever campaign, I feel I must understand the complexities of the fentanyl crisis, not just domestically but internationally. Mexico is the epicenter of manufacturing and smuggling.
I’m a believer in showing up. The world’s articles and YouTube videos can’t touch in-the-trenches education—where you can see facial expressions, read body language, and ask locals what’s going on.
Sometimes, you put yourself in harm’s way to learn from one of life’s greatest teachers: fear.
The fentanyl epidemic the DEA calls “The single deadliest drug threat our nation has ever encountered.” More die each year from the Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan wars combined.
Across the nation and in parts of the world, we are preparing to save lives not from a typical drug but from a poison.
