Update: Reports surfaced noting Trump wants the death penalty drug traffickers in order to combat the "opioid crisis" America is facing. According to MSN, Trump reportedly wants Congress to pass legislation that will reduce the amount of drugs necessary to activate the mandatory minimum sentences for drug traffickers who push certain opioids.
Trump will unveil his plan today (March 19) in New Hampshire, a state reportedly suffering hard from the “crisis.”
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Since the Trump administration’s lackluster response to the hurricanes that hit various parts of the United States and U.S. territories like Puerto Rico, Trump has been in search of a presidency-defining moment. Now, it seems Trump has shifted his focus to the opioid “epidemic” that has been spreading across America.
During an address, Trump noted that he had plans to “confront the crisis in all of its very real complexity.” However, his ideas on how to combat the crisis were very generic. Trump said, “One of the things our administration will be doing is a massive advertising campaign to get people, especially children, not to want to take drugs in the first place because they will see the devastation and the ruination it causes to people and people’s lives.”
What Trump is pushing is nothing new, as Nancy Reagan pushed an ineffective anti-drug campaign with the slogan “Just Say No.” in the 1980s. According to a National Institute of Justice report submitted to Congress in 1998, programs like D.A.R.E. do “not work to reduce substance abuse.” The report went in further, saying “The programs' content, teaching methods, and use of uniformed police officers rather than teachers might each explain its weak evaluations.”
Trump went on to say “There is nothing desirable about drugs. They are bad. We want the next generation of young Americans to know the blessings of a drug-free life. If we can teach young people ― and people, generally ― not to start, it’s really, really easy not to take them.” It will take more than “massive advertising” to combat the dangerous and potentially lethal effects of drug usage, especially when it comes to opioids.
Source: huffingtonpost.com
