Death Penalty to Become Part of Opioid Response, WH Says

The White House said Sunday that the President’s plan to fight the opioid epidemic will, in some cases, include the death penalty, as part of the administration’s plan to punish drug dealers.

“The Department of Justice will seek the death penalty against drug traffickers when appropriate under current law,” said Andrew Bremberg, the White House’s director of the Domestic Policy Council.

According to Politico, President Donald Trump will announce his opioid plan on his visit to New Hampshire on Monday. Last week, Politico also reported that the White House was finalizing its opioid plan, a mix of administration actions and initiatives requiring new funds or laws from Congress.

Earlier this month, the CDC reported that a 30 percent spike in opioid overdoses was recorded by emergency rooms last summer, indicating that the devastating crisis is worsening.

The administration maintains that its plan will lower opioid prescriptions by a third in the next three years, fulfilling Trump’s campaign promise to “stop opioid abuse.” According to White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, the plan has three main components – education and prevention, law enforcement and interdiction, and treatment and recovery efforts.

“The opioid crisis is viewed by us at the White House as a nonpartisan problem searching for bipartisan solutions,” Conway said.

The White House also criticized former President Barack Obama’s administration for allowing illicit drugs to be spread by not prosecuting traffickers enough.

“The prior administration did not prioritize enforcing the laws related to drugs. I think that’s been directly attributable to the rise and increase of fentanyl and the resulting overdose deaths,” a senior White House official said.

The White House is also backing new health ideas, such as calling for 75 percent of opioid prescriptions reimbursed by government health programs like Medicare and Medicaid to be issued by using “best practices” within three years, which in five years would be scaled up to 95 percent. A White House official said the goal would be to use guidelines identified by the CDC as best practices.