OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – Oklahoma has joined dozens of other states in asking the Biden Administration to help confront the opioid crisis.

Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond joined 21 other states to call on the Biden Administration to designate Mexican drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations under federal law.

Officials say the designation would free up much-needed resources to confront the deadly opioid crisis. Last year, more than 100,000 Americans died from drug overdoses and synthetic opioids like fentanyl were responsible for more than half.

“This crisis must be addressed immediately,” Drummond said. “Designating Mexican drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations will allow us to fight this scourge with the serious approach that it desperately deserves. The United States government must take action immediately in order to help combat this deadly threat to families throughout the country.”

Officials say cartels like the Sinaloa cartel and Cartel Jalisco New Generation import raw materials from China, use them to produce deadly synthetic opioids at low cost, and traffic those poisons across the southwestern border and into U.S. communities.