On Thursday, President Trump announced his administration would be unveiling a new initiative to address the growing opioid crisis. The President vowed to “get tough” on drug traffickers and dealers as well as opioid manufacturers, saying that they would face the “ultimate punishment.”
President Trump explained, “[We’re] going to be rolling out policy over the next three weeks and it will be very, very strong. I’ve also spoken to [Attorney General] Jeff [Sessions] about bringing a lawsuit against some of these opioid companies.” He further added, “You have people who go to the hospital with a broken arm and they come out and they’re addicted … to painkillers.”
“Hopefully we can do some litigation against the opioid companies. I think that’s very important because a lot of states are doing it. I keep saying if the states are doing it, why isn’t the federal government doing it?” said President Donald Trump.
He also mentioned that drug dealers and opioid manufacturers cause hundreds and thousands of deaths, but most of them do not go to jail. He said, “You know, if you shoot one person, they give you life, they give you the death penalty. These people can kill 2,000, 3,000 people and nothing happens to them,” referring to drug dealers.
President Donald Trump also referenced that some countries punish drug dealers by executing them – like in the Philippines where Rodrigo Duturte has worked to cleanse society of the toxic influence of gangs and drug peddlers – which is also a proposal he discussed with his aides.
The President said, “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.” He further added, “So we’re going to have to be very strong on penalties.”
President Donald Trump continued, “If you want to be weak and talk about just blue ribbon committees, that’s not the answer. The answer is you have to have strength and you have to have toughness. The drug dealers, the drug pushers – they’re really doing damage.”
In January, President Donald Trump said, “We’ve never had a problem with drugs like we do, whether it’s opioid or drugs in the traditional sense. It’s never been like it is.” Adding that, “And we are going to do everything we can. It’s a very difficult situation, difficult for many countries,” Trump said. “Not so difficult for some, believe it or not. They take it very seriously and they’re very harsh. And those are the ones that have much less difficulty.”
