Mariana van Zeller

Van Zeller recommends diverting even a small share of enforcement spending to demand-side treatment.

“even if it's just like 10% of the money that you spend on enforcement, let's put that on actually treating the demand side of it”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2567 - Mariana van Zeller (Oct 16, 2026) · Listen from 2:22:50

Van Zeller states that about a million Americans have died in the opioid epidemic over roughly two decades.

“A million people have died from the opiate epidemic in the last 20 something years”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2567 - Mariana van Zeller (Oct 16, 2026) · Listen from 2:06:22

Van Zeller warns of nitazenes, a new synthetic opioid she says is far stronger than fentanyl.

“there's a new drug out there right now called nitazines that is 50 times more powerful than fentanyl”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2567 - Mariana van Zeller (Oct 16, 2026) · Listen from 2:00:28

Van Zeller says most fentanyl enters the U.S. through official ports of entry rather than between them.

“I think 95 percent of fentanyl comes across the official board ports of entry, right?”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2567 - Mariana van Zeller (Oct 16, 2026) · Listen from 1:58:34

Van Zeller criticizes the Trump administration for cutting funding for treatment, test strips and naloxone while expanding enforcement.

“they are now taking money away from rehab facilities, from Medicare, from from fentanyl test strips, which I think are incredibly important”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2567 - Mariana van Zeller (Oct 16, 2026) · Listen from 1:55:05

Van Zeller describes a whistleblower account that DEA agents in New Mexico let fentanyl circulate to build bigger cases.

“the DEA in New Mexico was allowing millions of pills of fentanyl to go out on the streets in order to build bigger cases”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2567 - Mariana van Zeller (Oct 16, 2026) · Listen from 1:49:21

Van Zeller says many doubt the U.S. government's claim that it did not negotiate El Mayo's handover.

“A lot of people don't believe that. And a lot of people think that there was obviously a lot of negotiating behind doors”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2567 - Mariana van Zeller (Oct 16, 2026) · Listen from 1:39:17

Van Zeller notes that, unlike El Chapo, El Mayo pleaded guilty rather than cooperate.

“unlike El Chapo, who pled not guilty, he decided to plead guilty. And he's now facing life in prison”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2567 - Mariana van Zeller (Oct 16, 2026) · Listen from 1:37:08

Van Zeller reports that internal Meta documents estimated users were exposed to 15 billion scam ads per day.

“there were 15 billion ads every single day that the users of their platforms, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook, were exposed to”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2567 - Mariana van Zeller (Oct 16, 2026) · Listen from 30:22

Van Zeller argues the focus should shift from victims to government failure to protect consumers and platform accountability.

“I think the question should be why isn't our government doing more to protect us?”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2567 - Mariana van Zeller (Oct 16, 2026) · Listen from 29:50

Van Zeller says men fall victim to romance scams as often as women but are less willing to speak about it out of shame.

“men are as likely to falling victim to these scams as women, but they just have a lot more shame around it”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2567 - Mariana van Zeller (Oct 16, 2026) · Listen from 11:37

Van Zeller argues that scam victims are not simply gullible, because scammers exploit universal emotions.

“what these scammers are so good at doing is that they prey on emotions that we all share, you know, love and trust and sometimes greed as well”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2567 - Mariana van Zeller (Oct 16, 2026) · Listen from 2:22

Van Zeller argues Portugal succeeded where Oregon failed partly because it built treatment infrastructure before decriminalizing.

“two years before they decriminalized drugs, they started creating rehab facilities and treatment centers for people with addiction”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2567 - Mariana van Zeller (Oct 16, 2026) · Listen from 1:54:19

Van Zeller supports the Safe Platforms Act, which she says would make scams easier to report and hold platforms accountable.

“it's called the Safe Platforms Act, where they're actually trying to make it easy for people to report”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2567 - Mariana van Zeller (Oct 16, 2026) · Listen from 46:47

Van Zeller cites a Consumer Federation of America estimate that Americans lost $148 billion to online scams in the prior year.

“They've estimated that Americans lost $148 billion to online scams last”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2567 - Mariana van Zeller (Oct 16, 2026) · Listen from 24:29

Van Zeller says scam compounds were concentrated in Myanmar and Cambodia but are spreading elsewhere after crackdowns.

“Myanmar and Cambodia were the two main spots. But now, because there's been a crackdown in both countries, particularly in Cambodia, they're spreading to other places like Dubai”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2567 - Mariana van Zeller (Oct 16, 2026) · Listen from 17:09

Van Zeller argues that loneliness is a major driver of romance scams.

“I think the loneliness epidemic is a huge part of this, quite frankly”

The Joe Rogan Experience: #2567 - Mariana van Zeller (Oct 16, 2026) · Listen from 1:20