Lemonada.

This is Beth Silvers. You're listening to Pantsuit Politics.

Sarah is out with Common Ground Pilgrimages.

She'll be back next week.

Today, I'm here to talk with you and with Senator Chris Van Holland of Maryland about the president's decision to use military force to strike boats suspected of drug smuggling in the Caribbean Sea.

I'd like to start by reading a paragraph to you from the ICE website. Narcotics smuggling is a global crime with local impacts.

Illegal drugs, such as fentanyl and synthetic opioids, cocaine and methamphetamine,

largely come from other countries. Cartels and other criminal organizations employ complex

schemes to evade detection and smuggle these deadly drugs into the United States.

From their local networks, distribute and sell drugs in our cities and on our streets.

They end up in our communities and in our loved ones' hands, often with devastating effects.

The criminals who commit these crimes do it for one reason to make money.

I agree with all of that. Narcotic smuggling is a massive

problem. Most illegal drugs come into the United States through our border with Mexico.

Local networks sell drugs and the effects are devastating. And money, pure, unabashed, morally

bankrupt greed is the cause. It is awful. It is also different from terrorism.

Under the United States Code, terrorism consists of activities that involve an act dangerous to human life or potential destruction of critical infrastructure or any key resources that violates criminal

laws in the U.S. or any state or subdivision and is intended to intimidate or coerce the civilian

population or influence a government or affect a government by mass destruction, assassination,

or kidnapping. Drug trafficking is a criminal economic undertaking. Terrorism is a

criminal ideological undertaking. They are different and they are treated differently under the law.

If a person is charged with drug trafficking in the United States and convicted, the sentence for that

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