ISTANBUL

US border czar Tom Homan said Wednesday that classifying illicit fentanyl as a weapon of mass destruction (WMD) should “at least be a discussion."

Speaking at Axios' Future of Defense Summit, Homan said that fentanyl is a deadly drug, citing US annual death tolls of around 73,000 while noting the figure was even higher under the Biden administration.

Homan said he attended a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) briefing six months ago on classifying fentanyl as a WMD, adding: “When I left that briefing, it was my understanding that they would push that recommendation up to the Secretary, but I've been out of it ever since.”

Criticizing drug manufacturers, he said: “They're really trying to make money on their customers, and we're not going to do that by killing them, right?"

The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) seized over 380 million lethal doses of fentanyl in 2024, with seizures in 2025 totaling more than 262 million doses as of late September.

Preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicated that drug overdose deaths in 2024 fell to their lowest annual level since 2019, a 26.9% drop from an estimated 110,037 deaths in 2023.

The DHS has considered labeling fentanyl a WMD since 2019, but legislative efforts to reclassify the drug have failed.

The Fentanyl is a Weapon of Mass Destruction Act, introduced earlier this year by Rep. Lauren Boebert, would direct DHS’ Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction Office to classify the drug as a weapon of mass destruction.