Executing dealers will end opioid crisis: Trump
WASHINGTON • Donald Trump has said he wants to change the law to allow “big drug pushers” to face the death penalty.
Under current U.S. legislation only murder is a capital crime but Trump said: “We have to change the laws.
“The Department of Justice is working very hard on that. This isn’t about nice anymore. Toughness is the thing they (drug dealers) most fear. That toughness includes the death penalty.”
The U.S. president said there should be “zero tolerance” and that he could not understand why anyone would be opposed to executing dealers who “kill thousands of people over their lifetime.”
Speaking at the announcement of his longawaited plan to combat America’s opioid crisis, he said: “Together we will end the scourge of drug addiction once and for all.
“We will do whatever we have to do but we’re going to win. We’ll build the wall to keep the damn drugs out. We will raise a drug-free generation of American children.”
In a speech in New Hampshire, one of the worst affected states for opioid abuse, he promised “great commercials” during the “right shows” in the manner of anti-smoking campaigns.
The president also unveiled a website — crisisnextdoor.gov — which he said would warn of the dangers of opioids such as fentanyl.
Trump said Congress would spend US$6 billion tackling the problem of opioid abuse next year, and that he was considering having the U.S. government sue big drug companies which manufacture potent opioids. Television ads would also “scare” young people away from abusing drugs, he said.
The White House will ask Congress to lower the amount of drugs an offender needs to possess to make them eligible for certain minimum jail sentences. In addition, the plan aims to reduce by one third the amount of opioid prescriptions handed out by doctors over the next three years.
Trump said his vision included more help for addicts by expanding access to treatment facilities.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 42,000 people died from opioid overdoses in the U.S. in 2016, many of them from fentanyl which has flooded states including New Hampshire.
Trump chose the state for the launch amid speculation he could face a 2020 primary challenge. New Hampshire will be the first state primary when the Republican party selects its nominee, and Trump’s ratings have fallen there.