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President Donald Trump signed an executive order Monday saying the United States would designate drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations in a move that could push a militarized agenda for the border and Latin America. The order highlighted Mexican drug cartels and other Latin American criminal groups like Venezuela gang Tren de Aragua and Salvadoran gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), which it said “threaten the safety of the American people, the security of the United States, and the stability of the international order in the Western Hemisphere.” (Janetsky, 1/21)

President Trump said on Monday night that he planned to impose a 25 percent tariff on products from Canada and Mexico on Feb. 1 ... because those nations were allowing “mass numbers of people to come in and fentanyl to come in.” (Swanson, 1/20)

Canadian criminals are not dumping large amounts of illegally manufactured fentanyl into the United States, the RCMP says, refuting president-elect Donald Trump’s accusation that significant amounts of the drug are crossing the border from Canada. Canadian-made fentanyl that goes to the U.S. is largely being exported in “micro shipments, most often through the mail,” RCMP spokesperson Charlotte Hibbard told the Star, noting “micro traffickers” are most often found on the dark web. (Edwards, 1/17)

The Justice Department on Friday accused Walgreens of fueling the opioid epidemic that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people by filling millions of unlawful prescriptions across the country. Attorneys filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois that alleges that since August 2012, pharmacists working for Walgreens have filled millions of prescriptions for controlled substances that either lacked a legitimate medical purpose or were not valid, the Justice Department said. (Ho, 1/18)

Newly-inaugurated West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey started off his second day with a list of executive orders, among those, he signed a letter to the congressional delegation to declare fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction. This is legislation Morrisey has been vocal about since 2022, when a group of 18 Attorneys General came together and introduced a bill into the United States House of Representatives aiming to declare fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction. (Burrough, 1/18)

Last week saw the introduction of San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie’s first piece of legislation, which ostensibly aims to combat fentanyl and mental illness on the streets, boost law-enforcement hiring and other laudable goals by speeding up contracting. But, beyond speeding up contracting, there are no specifics about how this plan would actually accomplish its underlying goals. As such, all this plan is missing — is a plan.  (Eskenazi, 1/20)

A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) judge canceled an upcoming hearing on the Biden administration’s marijuana rescheduling proposal pending appeals, effectively kicking the process to the Trump administration. Advocates of more lenient marijuana laws alleged DEA officials had colluded with rescheduling opponents and are hopeful the process will move ahead under President-elect Trump. (Choi, 1/18)