People are dying! Let’s kill some more!

The Trump administration has a plan to deal with the opioid crisis which could include the death penalty for convicted drug dealers. Prepare for Drug War 2.0, the never-ending failure.

According to a report in POLITICO, the Trump administration has put together an ambitious plan to combat the opioid crisis which includes especially harsh penalties for people caught trafficking and dealing narcotic drugs.

From the POLITICO report:

The White House’s most concrete proposal yet to address opioids comes after complaints from state health officials and advocates that Trump has moved too slowly to combat the epidemic after his bold campaign promises to wipe out the crisis touching all parts of the country.

However, the plan could cost billions of dollars more than Trump budgeted — and likely far more than any funding package that Congress would approve — raising questions about how much of it can actually be put into practice. Trump’s emphatic embrace of the death penalty for some drug dealers has also alarmed some advocates, who say the idea has been ineffective when tried in other countries and resurrects the nation’s unsuccessful war on drugs.

Under the most recent version of the plan, which has gone through several revisions, the Trump administration proposes to change how the government pays for opioid prescriptions to limit access to powerful painkillers. It also calls on Congress to change how Medicaid pays for treatment, seeking to make it easier for patients with addictions to get inpatient care. It would also create a new Justice Department task force that more aggressively monitors internet sales.

…

On the policing side, the plan would ramp up prosecution and punishment, underscoring the tension in how public health advocates and law enforcement officials approach the crisis. Public health advocates say the nation’s opioid epidemic should be treated as a disease, with emphasis on boosting underfunded treatment and prevention programs. But some law enforcement officials back tougher punishments as a deterrent, especially for drug dealers. The two camps don’t always see eye-to-eye, at times pitting HHS and DOJ officials against each other.

What’s almost as alarming as the plan to ramp up executions of people caught selling drugs is that the administration has no clear funding plan for its drug policy proposals.

Already, the U.S. spends more than $50 billion each year on a drug war that obviously hasn’t worked.

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