Featured 25% tariffs on all foreign vehicles coming in April

Only 41 pounds of fentanyl was stopped coming from Canada. If there is actually thousands of pounds coming in from there, then the US is doing a crap job at the border. Or are smugglers in the norther several magnitudes better than those in the south?

Mexico has better secured their border. Illegal crossings are down. https://www.axios.com/2025/03/04/illegal-border-crossings-february-decline-trump. And overdose deaths were already dropping before the threat of tariffs, which might hurt that.
"After years of rising overdose deaths, the United States recorded 87,000 drug overdose deaths from October 2023 to September 2024, a decrease from 114,000 the previous year, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
That was the lowest overdose death toll in any 12-month period since June 2020, the CDC said.
...
They fear that the 25% tariff on nearly all goods from Mexico and Canada and 20% on all Chinese imports will only erode the international cooperation needed to thwart global drug trafficking operations." Trump says tariffs are meant to curb fentanyl, but overdose deaths are declining

What is Trump's plan to reduce demand for drugs? That is the only way to win the 'war' on drugs that has been going on for decades.

 

That's another thing that has me confused. Are the tariffs to bring back manufacturing to the USA or to stop drug trafficking? If fentanyl imports, overdoses and use by Americans were to magically drop to 0, would the tariffs be lifted or be held in place? If fentanyl isn't the reason, then are we being lied to?

All this is so complicated and confusing.

 

This ain't the politics section, but I'm pretty sure the reason for the tariffs is neither of the stated reasons.

 

That's the only part I'll guarantee to be true.

 

It doesn't take a lot of scrutiny to count the # of times per day. Only the realization of how they are disguised to trick with one of many MOs. Or we've become so used to them that they're no longer conscientiously noticeable.

 

Agreed, facially that doesn't sound like much. But when a mere 2 mg can easily be a fatal dose, back of the napkin, that's enough to kill what, 9 or 10 million people?

then - there's the gottaways.
iirc from working at public defenders office, thugs typically get away with criminal activity nine times before getting caught & successfully prosecuted by around the 10th time - whether the crime is child trafficking, burglary, or drug importing.
Just thinking - that 'only 41Lbs' not only potentially means a lot of death, but doesn't necessarily recognize the pounds of drugs that ought to include the gotaways.
.

 

Twenty kilos could be a lot, or a little. Compared to how much is coming from Mexico, and China, it's a tiny fraction.

 

About 0.2% of fentanyl confiscated at border crossings came from canada in the last quarter. Now granted we don't know how much really comes in only that from people that are caught. 80% of those caught smuggling fentynal are american citizens. if 0.2% causes 9 million people to die, then I guess billions must die for what is coming into the country. Somehow though fentynal deaths were down in the last fiscal year to 87,000, so 0.2% of that is 174 OD deaths, which is troubling but not an emergency that means that the US must break a treaty with canada to stop. Use your own numbers but its in the order of magnitude I suggest. Canada has cracked down because they have their own OD problems.

China has stopped exporting fentynal to the US. China has unfair trade practices but a trade war will not stop china from exporting chemicals used to make it. Negotiations will, but then again many countries will step up and provide chemicals to the cartels and organized crime in the US and Mexico. The trade war will mean China may again profiting directly what do they have to lose. A trade war between the US and canada and mexico may even help china.

Finally the third leg of the broken stool is Mexico where cartels manufacture most of the fentynal coming accross the border. Is this an emergency? The first question is if Mexico cracks down hard more will simply come from other countries or be produced domestically in the US. There is a new president of mexico and she is cracking down on the cartels. A trade war with mexico will weaken her, and likely the Mexican government will have a harder time stopping the cartels.

So no your numbers are off, and guess what your government is lying to you.

Instead of cracking down on demand and US citizens that are commiting crimes Trump is doing tarrifs. Why not have FBI and DEA do a better job in this country. Probably because it is hard work, and you can't blame other countries and pretend you are not part of the problem.

I do not want a weaker economy and higher inflation based on lies, or people when we get these things believe the next lies that is didn't really happen. This thread should be about tarrifs and what they will do to the car industry, which most agree will be awful. Arguing that we need to pay more for cars because canada is producing some fentynal is dishonest at best.

Opiods have been a crisis for a long time, and covid made the problem worse. Tarrifs aren't going to help fix the problem, it may make it worse.

 

2mg is a scare figure. The LD50(dose that will kill half the population) of fentanyl in monkeys is 0.3mg/kg. For mice, it's 3.1mg/kg. Assuming humans are similar enough to monkeys, a 100kg person(Americans are obese) has a 50% chance of dying from 3mg. The therapeutic index is another way of measuring drug safety. It's a ratio between the effective dose and toxic one; higher is better. Fentanyl is 400, morphine 70, and Tylenol is 10.
Fentanyl-related compounds and derivatives: current status and future prospects for pharmaceutical applications - PMC .
Anesthesia for the 21st century - PMC .

Fentanyl is a safe drug that has been used for decades. The danger with illicit use is that the user has no idea what is actually in the dose they are taking. This was a danger before the dealers started using fentanyl in their mix.

I see a DEA page using 2 mg as a lethal dose. It then uses this amount in reference to pills, but only 35% of fentanyl makes it past your digestive system. Sounds like more of the scare tactics they use that just gets people mistrusting them.

 

So many people freaking out over tariffs. An easy solution is to just buy things made in America. And I'm thrilled Honda announced they are moving the production of the Civic from Mexico to America just for this reason. (I'm old enough to remember the signs all over Walmart, "Made in America"....anybody remember those?) That's what President Trump is wanting....so it's all three goals: reduce drug death, murders and crimes by illegal immigrants, and to help the American worker.
My hope is that Toyota moves the Tacoma production from Mexico to San Antonio....I'd be in the market for one (but not the first year, you always want to wait for the issues to be worked out, even with a Toyota).
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/honda-produce-next-civic-indiana-not-mexico-due-us-tariffs-sources-say-2025-03-03/

 

Don’t forget DEI so only from:

• D - White only
• E - Male only
• I - Straight only

Bob Wilson

 

No worries. Inflation reduction act is kicking in....

 

It was until the adults left.

 

100%
I remember the time that I go a mall 94% American cars and the rest are imports. Everybody has a house with a big yard, 2 or 3 cars in their garage and everyone looking forward. Young people spending time to better themselves and looking at their future. I know several people that works in a restaurant and 1 flipping burgers for over 20 years owns a property. Regardless what you political sides are, at the end of the day it is just a conversation and friendship matters more.
At that time I had 2 jobs so I can pay for my own tuition, my own student bachelors room, driving a sh**ty gas guzzler, barely making it until I finished school. If I could do it all over again, I will still prefer the same route and I would push more in buying Americans. Just a personal preference.

 

That's what fake News tells people - despite the diverse admin now in charge. Only now it's based on merit bassed principles instead of the racism standards from a couple years ago. No one gives a rip if they're man or woman or straight or not or this or that . No matter how much the victim versus victimizers nonsense is pushed, the majority don't buy into it as shown by the last election.
.

 

What did they do wrong:

• Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff
• Naval Operations
• Vice Chief of Staff

Bob Wilson

 

It’s a nice thought, just buy “made in America”
You may be surprised at what isn’t available in America.
And it won’t come back here in 4 years, as it didn’t from 2016-2020.
And what does come back will cost the same or more as imported with higher tariffs.
I’m all for a level playing field, but it takes finesse and diplomacy, two things missing in this administration.
Will they be more successful than the last?
not in my opinion , but time will tell

 

You guys forgot the principal ingredient. I may be a white straight male, and I've also always considered cars and other things that are built in the USA, but I also need money to buy such things.

We'll see how it works out. I have a hard time believing wages will go up enough to cover the costs of things. I make a median wage, but doing the 20/4/10 rule-of-thumb indicates that I can't afford a car much more than around $5,000. So unless I start making substantially more money, I'm not going to be buying any new car any time soon.

I don't see there being any sort of job deficit either. When I started looking for a job, I was called by companies I hadn't even applied for. In fact the job I'm at now I never applied for, they just called and convinced me I should work for them. But nobody is going to pay me a greater-than-median wage. And if I need a greater-than-median wage to make a living in the USA, where does that put the majority of Americans financially, especially ones that, unlike me, have debt?

 

Or pretty much anything else in the Greater Depression.

Bob Wilson

 

People seem to have forgotten why businesses moved production over seas. It was to avoid the costs of higher wages and meeting regulations.