President Trump on Thursday said his administration will soon unveil new policy initiatives that aim to combat the growing opioid crisis, claiming his priority is to “get tough” on drug dealers and begin prosecuting certain opioid manufacturers.
“[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,” Trump said during a White House event on the issue. “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?” he added.
Trump established a special commission last year to study the causes of the burgeoning opioid epidemic and recommend potential solutions to curb the distribution of the drug and rates of addiction. He touted the work of the commission on Thursday, saying his team “has been involved more than any administration so far” on the opioid issue.
But the president simultaneously argued that more needs to be done to punish drug dealers and “pushers” who have been selling opioid drugs like fentanyl and heroin on the streets and dark web.
“Most of them don’t even go to jail,” Trump claimed. “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.”
Trump later referenced how some countries execute drug dealers, a proposal he has reportedly floated to aides in private.
“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 said. “So we’re going to have to be very strong on penalties.”
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.”
