>Many of the measures in the plan were recommended by the
>president’s opioids commission last fall or discussed at a
>March 1 White House opioid summit. For instance, it endorses a
>long-promised priority: greatly expanding first responders'
>access to naloxone, a medication used to reverse opioid
>overdoses. It also calls on states to adopt a prescription
>drug monitoring database that health care providers can access
>nationwide to flag patients seeking out numerous opioid
>prescriptions.
>
>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.
>
>“There is a lot of internal dissension between the health
>folks and the enforcement folks,” said an official involved
>in the crafting of the plan.
>
>While Trump this month repeatedly suggested using the death
>penalty to deter drug dealers and traffickers — an idea
>roundly opposed by public health advocates — many lawmakers
>have said they weren’t sure whether to take the idea
>seriously.
>
>“I would have to strongly evaluate and look at any proposal
>like that,” said Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) on Wednesday.
>“I don’t know if the president was serious or just said it
>off the cuff. … It’s a big issue when you decide to bring
>a capital case or pass a law that allows for capital
>punishment.”
>
>According to language circulating this week, the Trump
>administration will call for the death penalty as an option in
>"certain cases where opioid, including Fentanyl-related, drug
>dealing and trafficking are directly responsible for death."
>
>Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), whose home state is one
>of the hardest hit by the opioid epidemic, said she doesn't
>support the death penalty for drug cases.
>
>“I mean, I get the message he’s delivering: We’ve got to
>treat it seriously,” she said. “I don’t see that
>that’s going to solve the problem.”
>
>The White House plan also calls for making it easier to invoke
>the mandatory minimum sentence for drug traffickers who
>knowingly distribute illegal opioids that can be lethal, like
>fentanyl. It also proposes a new Justice Department task force
>known as “Prescription Interdiction and Litigation,” or
>PIL, which would be empowered to step up prosecutions of
>criminally negligent doctors, pharmacies and other providers.
>
>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. That
>would be scaled up to 95 percent of prescriptions in five
>years.
>
>It also calls on Congress to formally repeal a rule barring
>Medicaid payment to residential treatment for opioid addiction
>at large facilities, which could cost tens of billions of
>dollars. The rule, implemented about 50 years ago, was meant
>to discourage mass institutionalization of people with mental
>illness, but states say it has been a barrier to addiction
>treatment. Some states under the Obama and Trump
>administrations have received federal permission to waive the
>rule for substance abuse treatment.
>
>The plan also includes measures favored by progressive drug
>policy reformers like changing the nation's prison system so
>all federal inmates would be screened for opioid use upon
>arrival and steered toward treatment at residential re-entry
>centers as necessary. It also calls for improving tracking
>systems to rapidly steer resources to areas struggling with
>the opioid epidemic.
>
>Trump could announce the plan, or aspects of it, on Monday,
>when he is scheduled to return to New Hampshire with HHS
>Secretary Alex Azar. It will be Trump's first trip to New
>Hampshire as president after numerous campaign trips to the
>state to highlight the opioid epidemic.
>

How are we paying for this? Trump's budget killed trillions of funding for welfare programs like this.

The vast majority of drug dealers in these communities are white anyways so invoking the death penalty and increasing prosecution along with punishment is great. This might be necessary to get these trash ideals about a drug war permanently off the discussion stage. Can't wait for the 20 year study showing how harshly this impacted middle america.

Trump and Republicans live with this for years to come. It sucks the death penalty is on the table but these people deserve what they voted for. It's an opiod dealer's mom somewhere praising this move without knowing her son gets hit hard by this years later.

I'd love a progressive policy but this is who YOU PEOPLE pushed into office.

No empathy for white misery (c) BDot

"root for everybody black haters say that's crazy, wow..."