Trump: we’ll sue companies that make opioids

DONALD TRUMP yesterday urged Jeff Sessions, the attorney general, to take legal action against drug companies for supplying opioids.

The US president also demanded that Mr Sessions investigate the flood of the powerful opioid fentanyl into the States from China and Mexico, who he accused of “sending their garbage and killing our people”.

A report published on Wednesday showed that in 2017, for the second year in a row, more Americans died from drug overdoses than have been killed in any year by guns, car crashes or Aids-related illnesses.

A record 72,000 people died in 2017 as an opioid epidemic swept the US.

The justice department has now proposed reducing the number of opioids that can be produced in the US.

Manufacture of commonly abused opioids will be cut by an average of 10 per cent next year under a plan drawn up by the justice department and the drug enforcement agency.

Critics of the plan pointed out that much of the US problem was the influx of Chinese opioids bought by people already addicted.

At a cabinet meeting last night, Mr Trump lashed out at China and Mexico for their part in supplying the drugs. “It’s almost a form of warfare,” he said.

“I’d be very, very firm on that. It’s a disgrace and we can stop it.”

The US is grappling with a surging epidemic of opioid abuse – including painkillers like Oxycontin and street drugs like heroin.

On Tuesday, the emergency services attended three suspected overdoses blamed on a batch of synthetic marijuana at New Haven Green, near Yale University in Connecticut.

The drug was believed to have been laced with fentanyl, which this week was used for the first time to execute a death row prisoner in Nebraska.

Dozens more cases were reported over the next 24 hours, all close to the downtown park.

Officials said on Wednesday night that the tally had reached 76, according to NBC News. Some victims were unconscious while others were vomiting, nauseated or lethargic. There had been no fatalities but some patients were in a life-threatening condition.

“Bodies are literally dropping all around me from suspected drug overdoses,” said Mario Boone, a TV journalist reporting from the park.

“I’ve never seen anything quite this bad happening at once.”

Dr Sandy Bogucki, the city’s director of emergency medical services, said the large number of cases had put a strain on the city.

Emergency responders were “sprinting from patient to patient in the park,” said Dr Bogucki. He said crews were transporting people more quickly than usual “just to turn the cars around and get them back out”.

A 37-year-old man has been arrested in connection with the cases, it was reported yesterday.

In October, Mr Trump labelled America’s opioid epidemic a “public health emergency”, giving officials extra powers to tackle the crisis.

However, he fell short of announcing a full “national emergency” – as he had previously suggested – which would have meant providing new central funding.