Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham announced Monday New Mexico will possibly seek billions of dollars from the federal government after reports the Drug Enforcement Agency allowed fentanyl to flow through the state in the hopes of catching higher level criminals.
The governor said at a press conference at the Office of the Medical Investigator she is so angry that she’s taking this “right to the White House and Congress.”
“I'm outraged. We'll do anything and everything that can do something to right this wrong,” she said, “including legislation that says you can't run these kinds of operations in the state of New Mexico.”
She said overdoses increased over the period the DEA was allowing what one whistleblower said was as many as 1.8 million pills to flow into the state.
“I bet we could show damages in the hundreds of millions of dollars here, if not more,” she said, “and that's just cursory, could get as high as one or two or 3 billion.”
She pointed out this is the third time — after the COVID-19 pandemic and Hermit's Peak-Calf Canyon fire — that she has had to step in when federal inaction has harmed New Mexicans.
“I'm so sorry for every New Mexican who's been harmed or have lost a loved one,” she said. “It's disgusting and despicable.”
She said the state will use every means at its disposal to address the fentanyl crisis.
“Investigations, federal accountability, personal accountability, a change in laws to prevent these kinds of actions in the future, more to prevent addictions,” she said. “This is not a single effort, it's going to be multi-prong, multi-agency.”
Bernalillo County District Attorney Sam Bregman was also at the press conference along with Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller and other officials from around the state. He said it’s important to keep in mind what he called the “demand side.”
“Continue to fund behavior, health, addiction recovery,” he said, “real systems that make a difference in people's lives, so they can get off this terrible drug.”
The governor said residents can expect “a collection of strategies that can really do something to put New Mexico back on the right course” in the coming days and weeks, up to and including possible state action through interim legislative committees.
Support for this coverage comes from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.
