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Forget tariffs. Forget all the computers, toys and textiles that the Chinese export to America. China’s most consequential export here is fentanyl, the illicit drug killing people in this country at the rate of nearly 80 a day.Fentanyl use in the USA has surged, pushing its death toll last year to 28,466  — nine times higher than in 2013 and a rise so steep that it has helped drive down the nation's life expectancy.  And where is this illicit fentanyl originating? About 80 percent of the pure fentanyl seized by U.S. authorities last fiscal year arrived from China, often through the mail. (12/9)

(Beijing) Global Times: “The crackdown against smuggling and drug use is a long-term global challenge, and there needs to be strengthened coordination and joint responses from various countries, rather than one-sided accusations. China and the U.S. have already had a lot of fruitful cooperation in the fight against drugs. In order to maintain this momentum, the two sides should avoid blaming each other in the process of dealing with fentanyl abuse. It is an exaggeration for the United States to claim that the fentanyl in the U.S. mainly comes from China. Moreover, such claims will only have a negative impact on the active cooperation between the two countries.” (Li Haidong, 12/9)

The opioid crisis has caused a spike in the need for adoption and foster care. More than 20 years ago, the crack epidemic brought on a similar crisis. The foster-care rolls surpassed half a million, and kids were spending years in the system. In 1996 President Clinton issued a directive to the Department of Health and Human Services to find ways of escaping the foster-care “trap” that put children in “limbo” without permanent homes. (Naomi Schaefer Riley, 12/9)

With a growing number of children entering foster care, we have an education crisis emerging for this special population of students who are not learning because of the emotional trauma they endured growing up in dysfunctional families. That means as so many foster kids fail to get a high school education, many will repeat the cycle of having children in foster care. (Maureen Downey, 12/9)

With each prison sentence, America normalizes the ways incarceration functions as an abyss — a socioeconomic black hole — that swallows public funding, the dignity of substance-dependent individuals, and the moral authority of the nation. The thick overcast of failure in the war on drugs reveals the inability to incarcerate our way out of the opioid crisis. We can elect to spend public money on health care that creates new possibilities for Americans, or incarceration that forecloses futures for people burdened by a curable illness. (Willie D. Francois, 12/9)

During the midterm election, voters sent several clear messages. Two in the health sphere were that they want equitable, affordable, and comprehensive health care coverage; and they want solutions to address the opioid epidemic. The newly constituted Congress has a tool with vast — and sadly untapped — potential to address both issues: the federal Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act, also known as the Parity Act. (Patrice A. Harris and Ellen Weber, 12/10)

After all, it’s the job of business to be self-interested, make money and satisfy the stockholders. Nothing wrong with that. It’s free enterprise and it delivers goods and services we all use. But it’s the job of government to make sure the best interests of business don’t hurt the people. The opioid crisis is a life-and-death example of why that matters. (Linda Valdez, 12/9)