DRUG BOAT, STRIKE!^TM

The war on drugs is back.
And somehow, it's even stupider than ever.

Starting in September of 2025, the U.S. government enacted a policy to protect America from fentanyl by using multi-million-dollar missiles to blow up thousand-dollar boats that might have cocaine...all while committing war crimes/extrajudicial killings/human rights violations. So we built this satire website to spotlight just how foolish this all is.

Background

For decades, people have died from drug- and alcohol-related causes because politicians failed to adequately invest in evidence-based harm reduction, treatment, and recovery. This has led to hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths. These deaths have left large, painful holes in our communities. It has left us less safe, and for some people, that pain turned into anger. Except the anger wasn't directed towards amorphous policies that made finding harm reduction, treatment, or recovery supports nearly impossible in most communities, it was directed at the "other"...the people bringing drugs into the country. The caravans. The people that "The Wall" promised to keep out. It was all stirred into a hateful stew politicians and the media served us to push an agenda that conveniently skips over politicians' role in the crisis... Then there were those that, for fear of looking "soft on drugs," said nothing about this willful manipulation or why/how these evidence-based harm reduction, treatment, and recovery policies work.

The people selling false promises aren't bound by the truth. They are preying on raw emotion. They can say that fentanyl is a WMD while attacking drug checking, testing, and syringe service programs. They can gut Medicaid, the number 1 payer for addiction treatment because "it's too expensive" or "rife with fraud," while spending billions blowing up alleged drug boats and handing out no-bid contracts. These lies only lead to more people dying who couldn't access care. Then more pain. More anger. More blame.

Drug policy under Trump 2.0 has been one misstep after another. A short list: abruptly cutting (then restoring) ~$2 billion in addiction and mental health grants, ongoing attacks on Medicaid, profiteering, rollbacks to programs that keep communities safe, and yes, the stupid fucking attacks on alleged drug boats.

But why focus on the drug boats? For one, the drug boat strikes are the most blatant, moronic example of redirecting resources away from things that work towards things that most definitely do not. In a year, more than $3 billion has been spent on these alleged drug boat strikes. Remember the plan to cut ~$2 billion from addiction and mental health grants. What if we doubled it instead of blowing up boats?

Yes, these unlawful, extrajudicial killings are a human rights violation. They also accomplish literally nothing. They are best viewed as a performative tough-guy act from a former weekend TV talk-show co-host and reality TV star.

We must firmly reject this approach to drug policy. We must hold the people who make these decisions accountable. And we must work towards a drug policy that builds safer and healthier communities.

This is not a game. We should stop treating it like one.