Trump Loses The Drug Dealer Vote: Death Penalty Will Be Part Of White House Opioid Response

Monday, March 19, 2018
By Paul Martin

by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Mon, 03/19/2018

When President Donald Trump once again praised Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte for his encouragement of the extrajudicial killings of drug dealers and drug users last week, many in the audience in Moon Township, PA., probably thought this was more authoritarian posturing from a president who has made no secret of his respect for strongmen like Duterte, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“I don’t know if it’s popular. I don’t now if that’s unpopular,” Trump said, after asserting that some drug dealers are responsible for thousands of deaths.

But it looks like Trump will soon learn the answer to what many probably thought was a rhetorical question.

Because as it turns out, Trump was actually providing a sneak peak into his long-awaited comprehensive plan to combat the opioid epidemic.

To wit, the president is expected to released a plan on Monday to combat the opioid epidemic. And moving to impose the death penalty for some drug dealers is a cornerstone of said plan, per the Hill.

Trump will make the announcement during his first visit as president to New Hampshire, state that has been hit hard by the opioid crisis. The epidemic of drug abuse featured heavily into Trump’s pre-primary rhetoric. And later, after winning office, Trump famously brought up New Hampshire as an example of the heavy toll that heroin takes on a community, adding that, in some places, drugs are “cheaper than candy bars.”

Per Reuters, the White House will also seek to cut opioid prescriptions by a third over the next three years by “promoting practices that reduce overprescription.”

Of course, while “death to drug dealers” is bound to grab some headlines, the Trump proposal comes with a major caveat: The death penalty will only be sought “when it’s appropriate under current law.”

That means dealers will probably need to be found responsible for multiple deaths.

The Department of Justice will seek the death penalty against drug traffickers when it’s appropriate under current law,” said Andrew Bremberg, director of Trump’s Domestic Policy Council, in the briefing detailing the plan.

However, the White House was vague about when such extreme sentencing measures would be appropriate.

Here’s Reuters

The White House did not offer any specific examples of when it would be appropriate to seek the death penalty for drug dealers and referred further questions to the Justice Department.

Current federal law allows for the death penalty in certain drug cases including murder related to a drug trafficking offense and murder committed during a drug-related drive-by shooting, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit capital punishment monitor.

The Rest…HERE

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