Read the following passage and mark the letter A, B, C or D on your answer sheet to indicate the best answer to each of the following questions from 31 to 40.
[I] Prior to the pandemic, annual deaths from drug overdoses in the U.S. were already a dreadful 65,000 per year. [II] By 2023, that number had nearly doubled, to more than 110,000. [III] Roughly 70 percent of those deaths are due to fentanyl, the powerful synthetic opioid. [IV] Fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 18 and 45.
Although everyone can agree the death toll is horrific, there is no consensus about how to address it. For Republicans, the right approach to fentanyl is a combination of stricter law enforcement, tougher sentencing laws, and tighter border security. Many lawmakers want to stiffen penalties for possession of even small amounts of the drug, in reverse of the recent trend toward lowering sentences for simple possession. Individuals selling or trafficking fentanyl would face substantially longer sentences.
Many Democrats have accepted the need to stiffen penalties, due not only to the scourge of fentanyl but the apparently endless emergence of ever-more-potent drugs. Fatalities from a sedative called xylazine have increased dramatically across the country, particularly in the South. A class of opioids known as nitazenes can be as much as 40 times as powerful as fentanyl.
The fact that synthetic opioids are so readily available means that a supply-side approach is doomed to failure, some Democrats and public health officials believe. Even if it were possible to cut off supply from China and Mexico, there would be plenty of domestic production. Last year, law enforcement seized more than 360 million doses of fentanyl across the country. Still, the drug remained plentiful.
(Adapted from governing.com)
