U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to unveil his long-awaited plan to combat the opioid addiction crisis on Monday. The plan will include a controversial measure that seeks death penalty for some high-volume traffickers.
Andrew Bremberg, Director of the White House Domestic Policy Council told reporters on Sunday that the death penalty would be sought for trafficking in some opioids, including fentanyl, when appropriate under current law.
It remains unclear how prosecutors could seek the death penalty for traffickers without changing U.S. law. Some legal scholars have said the issue may need to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Besides bolstering law enforcement against smuggling and trafficking, the senior administration official said the plan also seeks to educate Americans about the dangers of opioid abuse through a sizable advertising campaign, and improving the ability to fund treatment through federal government.
Bremberg said President Trump’s opioid initiative has three main elements. The first element aims to reduce drug demand through education, awareness and preventing over-prescription, including a campaign to raise awareness about the dangers of opioid misuse, and a “safer prescribing initiative” to cut the filling of such prescriptions by one-third nationwide within three years.
The second element targets the flow of illicit drugs across U.S. borders and within American communities. Bremberg said the Trump administration will call on Congress to pass legislation that reduces the threshold number of drugs needed to invoke mandatory minimum sentences for traffickers who “knowingly distribute certain illicit opioids that are lethal in trace amounts, including fentanyl.”
The third element focuses on helping people in the throes of addiction by expanding evidence-based addiction treatment and recovery services.
In recent speeches, Trump has expressed his preference for the “ultimate penalty” for some traffickers, but this would be the first time the idea becomes part of an official plan.
“Some countries have a very, very tough penalty. The ultimate penalty. And by the way, they have much less of a drug problem than we do. So we’re going to have to be very strong on penalties,” he said earlier this month at a White House opioid summit.
This is Trump’s first visit to New Hampshire as president. The state has been hit hard by the opioid crisis.
The word “opioid” is derived from “opium.” Opioids includes illegal drugs such as heroin or fentanyl, as well as legal prescription painkillers such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, codeine, and morphine.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, drug overdose killed roughly 64,000 Americans in 2016 alone, more than the number of Americans killed during the entire Vietnam War. About two-thirds of these drug overdose deaths involve an opioid.
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