A few weeks ago, I read the article, “Butler Remembers Lives Lost to Overdoses.” Very sad and frustrating.

I feel terrible for the families remembering their loved ones.

We need to attack this drug crisis at the root cause!

Why do we have a drug crisis?

1. Bleeding heart leniency toward hard drug dealers by (mainly big city) judges and politicians.

2. Mexico flooding the U.S. with enhanced drugs — heroin and fentanyl — via our porous southern border.

My solutions:

1. Instant death penalty for anybody caught dealing heroin or fentanyl. One-strike policy. Deterrence works in other countries. The U.S. needs a proactive revolution. The next time some thug from Philadelphia or New York comes here to sell heroin they’ll think twice if other hard drug dealers are being put to death.

2. The Mexican cartel is enemy No. 1 when it comes to the U.S. being flooded with illegal drugs, some enhanced from China. We send billions of dollars in aid to the Ukraine, but ignore our own country's problems. The cartel terrorizes our population with a violent drug war; therefore, they should be treated as an international terrorist organization.

Haven’t we had enough?! I want people alive — enjoying life. This isn’t possible unless we take bold action now.

God bless, Butler.

Victor Alexander, Cranberry Township