Trump Talks Tough On Drug Traffickers, Immigrants, But Leaves Out Funding Details For New Opioid Plan
“If we don’t get tougher on drug dealers, we are wasting our time,” President Donald Trump said in New Hampshire while offering an overview of his plan to fight the opioid crisis. While some advocates lauded elements of the blueprint, questions about additional money and a focus on punishment raised some concerns.
The New York Times:
Trump Offers Tough Talk But Few Details In Unveiling Plan To Combat Opioids
President Trump made his first visit to New Hampshire since the 2016 campaign on Monday, unveiling a plan to combat the opioid epidemic that includes a push for the death penalty for drug dealers and a crackdown on illegal immigrants. Mr. Trump spoke in a state with the nation’s third-highest rate of deaths from overdoses and where opioids are a potent political issue. In a speech at a community college here, he offered up more tough talk than he did specifics about his plan, or how he would pay for it. (Haberman, Goodnough and Seelye, 3/19)
Politico:
Trump Talks Up Death Penalty, Border Wall In Opioid Speech
“If we don’t get tougher on drug dealers, we are wasting our time … and that toughness includes the death penalty,” Trump said — one of six times he invoked the death penalty during remarks in New Hampshire, a state hit hard by the addiction crisis. (Diamond and Ehley, 3/19)
Reuters:
As U.S. Opioid Crisis Grows, Trump Calls For Death Penalty For Dealers
Trump said that he was working with Congress to find $6 billion in new funding for 2018 and 2019 to fight the opioid crisis. The plan will also seek to cut opioid prescriptions by a third over three years by changing federal programs, he said. Addiction to opioids - mainly prescription painkillers, heroin and fentanyl - is a growing U.S. problem, especially in rural areas. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 42,000 people died from opioid overdoses in 2016. (3/19)
The Wall Street Journal:
Trump Pledges To ‘Get Very Tough,’ Rein In Opioid Crisis
Mr. Trump’s remarks at a community college here marked the formal unveiling of the next phase of his administration’s plan to attempt to turn the tide of the opioid epidemic, now claiming the lives of more than 100 Americans a day through overdoses of prescription opioid pills, fentanyl and heroin. The plan includes a call for opioid prescriptions to be reduced by one-third within three years, in part by encouraging physicians to change their prescribing behavior. It also calls for guaranteed access to overdose-reversal drug naloxone and for the Justice Department to seek more death-penalty cases against drug traffickers. (Radnofsky, 3/19)
Los Angeles Times:
Trump Talks Up Combating Opioids, Yet His Funding Shortfall And Medicaid Cuts Would Blunt His Plans
Although Trump once again spoke extensively about expanding the federal death penalty for drug dealers, his administration released a three-page list of proposals before his speech that ruled out any change to existing federal law, suggesting instead that the Justice Department would take a more aggressive stance toward those offenders already eligible to be put to death based on other capital offenses, such as drug-related murders. (Bierman and Levey, 3/19)
The Associated Press Fact Check:
Trump Exaggerates Pros Of Anti-Opioid Ideas
President Donald Trump has laid out a new plan for tackling the deadly opioid epidemic that has ravaged communities across the nation. But some of the president's proposals have proven ineffective in the past. From renewing his call for "spending a lot of money" on commercials to scare young people from experimenting with drugs, to pushing for the death penalty for certain drug dealers, Trump's ideas are sometimes driven more by his gut instincts than past success. (3/20)
The Hill:
Trump Says Proposals Targeting High Drug Prices Coming Soon
The administration will unveil a slate of proposals soon to address high prescription drug costs in the U.S., President Trump announced Monday. "You'll be seeing drug prices falling very substantially in the not-so-distant future, and it's going to be beautiful," President Trump said during a press conference on opioids in New Hampshire. (Hellmann, 3/19)