Pubdate: Mon, 19 Mar 2018
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Copyright: 2018 Sun-Sentinel Company
Website: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159
Authors: Darlene Superville and Jonathan Lemire

TRUMP CALLS FOR DEATH PENALTY TO 'GET TOUGH' ON DRUG PUSHERS

Unveiling a long-awaited plan to combat the national scourge of opioid
drug addiction, President Donald Trump called Monday for stiffer
penalties for drug traffickers, including embracing a tactic employed
by some of the global strongmen he admires: the death penalty.

"Toughness is the thing that they most fear," Trump said.

The president traveled to New Hampshire, a state ravaged by opioids
and which is also an early marker for the re-election campaign he has
already announced. The president called for broadening awareness about
drug addiction while expanding access to proven treatment and recovery
efforts, but the backbone of his plan is to toughen the punishment for
those caught trafficking highly addictive drugs.

"This isn't about nice anymore," Trump said. "This is about winning a
very, very tough problem and if we don't get very tough on these
dealers it's not going to happen folks ... I want to win this battle."

The president formalized what he had long mused about publicly and
privately: that if a person in the U.S. can get the death penalty or
life in prison for shooting one person, a similar punishment should be
given to a drug dealer who potentially kills thousands.

President Donald Trump's plan to combat opioid drug addiction
nationwide calls for stiffer penalties for drug traffickers, including
the death penalty where appropriate under current law, a top
administration official said Sunday. It's a fate for drug dealers that
Trump, who aims to be seen as...

President Donald Trump's plan to combat opioid drug addiction
nationwide calls for stiffer penalties for drug traffickers, including
the death penalty where appropriate under current law, a top
administration official said Sunday. It's a fate for drug dealers that
Trump, who aims to be seen as... (Darlene Superville)

Trump has long spoken approvingly about countries like Singapore that
have fewer issues with drug addiction because they harshly punish
their dealers. During a trip to Asia last fall, he did not publicly
rebuke Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, who authorized
extrajudicial killings of his nation's drug dealers.

Outside a local firehouse that Trump visited before the speech,
someone compared the leaders with a sign that said: "Donald J. Duterte."

"Drug traffickers kill so many thousands of our citizens every year,"
Trump said. "That's why my Department of Justice will be seeking so
many tougher penalties than we've ever had and we'll be focusing on
the penalties that I talked about previously for big pushers, the ones
that are killing so many people, and that penalty is going to be the
death penalty."

He added: "Other countries don't play games. ... But the ultimate
penalty has to be the death penalty."

The Justice Department said the federal death penalty is available for
limited drug-related offenses, including violations of the "drug
kingpin" provisions in federal law.

It is not clear if the death penalty, even for traffickers whose
product causes multiple deaths, would be constitutional. Doug Berman,
a law professor at Ohio State University, predicted the issue would be
litigated all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

John Blume, a professor and director of Cornell Law School's death
penalty program, said the Federal Drug Kingpin Act has yielded few
"kingpins" or major dealers, mostly ensnaring mid-to low-level
minorities involved in the drug trade.

Opioids, including prescription opioids, heroin and synthetic drugs
such as fentanyl, killed more than 42,000 people in the U.S. in 2016,
more than any other year on record, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.

Trump has declared that fighting the epidemic is a priority for the
administration, but critics say the effort has fallen short.

Last October, the president declared the crisis a national public
health emergency, short of the national state of emergency sought by a
presidential commission he put together to study the issue.

Trump called for a nationwide public awareness campaign, which he
announced in October, to scare kids away from dabbling in drugs. He
announced a new website, www.crisisnextdoor.gov , where members of the
public can share stories about the dangers of opioid addiction.

Trump said the administration will work to cut the number of opioid
prescriptions that are filled by one-third within three years.

The president also discussed how his policies, including a U.S.-Mexico
border wall and punishing "sanctuary" cities that refuse to comply
with federal immigration authorities, would help reduce the flow of
drugs and help end the addiction epidemic.

Monday was Trump's first visit as president to New Hampshire, which
has long occupied a special place in his political rise. He captured
his first Republican presidential primary here in 2016, though he
narrowly lost in the general election to Democrat Hillary Clinton.

Trump drew criticism last year after leaked transcripts of a telephone
conversation with Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto showed he had
described New Hampshire as a "drug-infested den." The Washington Post
published the transcripts.

Though the 2020 election is more than 30 months away, early jockeying
is already happening in states that play an outsized early role in
choosing a party's nominee. Retiring Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a
persistent Trump critic, visited New Hampshire, which holds the
nation's first presidential primary, last week. He told Republicans
someone needs to stop Trump -- and it could be him if no one steps
up.

Meanwhile, the president's daughter, White House senior adviser Ivanka
Trump, spent Monday discussing infrastructure and workplace
development in Iowa, which traditionally holds the first presidential
nominating caucus.

Superville reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Mark
Sherman in Washington contributed to this report.
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