Donald Trump was serving his first time period as president when fentanyl started to flood American communities. What do consultants say he can he do now to scale back overdose deaths?
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
President-elect Donald Trump is promising to crack down on fentanyl smugglers and drug sellers. Critics say a lot of his robust coverage concepts are unrealistic and will drain assist from dependancy applications which can be saving lives. NPR’s Brian Mann stories.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: When Donald Trump talked about avenue fentanyl and overdose deaths through the marketing campaign, he framed it not as a public well being disaster, however as a border downside, against the law downside.
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DONALD TRUMP: Sir, I heard you need the dying penalty for drug sellers. Why? Properly, you already know, I would like to finish the drug epidemic, if that is OK.
MANN: Fentanyl and different avenue medicine kill roughly 100,000 individuals within the U.S. yearly. After the election, the person Trump named to function border czar, Tom Homan, promised U.S. army motion in opposition to Mexican drug cartels throughout an look on Fox Information.
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TOM HOMAN: President Trump is dedicated to calling them a terrorist group and utilizing the complete may of the USA particular operations to take them out.
MANN: Fentanyl really unfold within the U.S. throughout Trump’s first time period. And most of the people smuggling the lethal opioid into the U.S. are Americans, not Mexicans or migrants. However many dependancy consultants say Trump’s robust discuss appealed to voters. Tom Wolf is an activist in California who’s in restoration from opioid dependancy. He says Individuals need this disaster solved quick.
TOM WOLF: Individuals are uninterested in the theft. They’re uninterested in the open drug use. They usually need some accountability to be injected again into the method.
MANN: Jonathan Caulkins, a researcher at Carnegie Mellon College, agrees Individuals are exhausted by the general public dysfunction and dying that include fentanyl. The query now’s whether or not Trump will comply with via on concepts that might tilt the nation’s response sharply from therapy and restoration towards extra police – and probably army – motion. Caulkins known as a few of these concepts misguided.
JONATHAN CAULKINS: Even invoking the thought of army motion in Mexico in opposition to drafters is, like, the worst concept anyone has ever, ever had.
MANN: Caulkins believes a U.S. army strike would do little to gradual fentanyl smuggling or save American lives however may shatter diplomatic relations and destabilize Mexico. Brandon del Pozo, a former police chief who research drug coverage at Brown College, additionally blasted Trump for his dying penalty plan.
BRANDON DEL POZO: There are 1000’s, if not lots of of 1000’s, of Individuals who our neighbors are doing one thing that is unlawful, proper? They’re positively dealing medicine, however they could be doing it as a result of they’re hooked on medicine. The concept we’d execute them – that shocks the conscience.
MANN: Even some activists like Tom Wolf, who need more durable drug insurance policies, fear Trump may go too far, deemphasizing drug therapy and restoration whereas reigniting a full-scale drug warfare.
WOLF: I want to see the pendulum cease within the center. Everyone knows that the warfare on medicine within the ’80s was over-draconian. Because of this, it failed.
MANN: Trump takes over at a second when there are indicators the general public well being strategy could also be working. Drug deaths dropped sharply over the past yr, a pattern that saved about 16,000 lives in keeping with the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. Many researchers credit score the Biden administration for pushing higher medical insurance, therapy and drugs for individuals with dependancy. Keith Humphreys, a drug coverage knowledgeable at Stanford College says it will be a mistake for Trump to chop applications that look like serving to.
KEITH HUMPHREYS: My concern could be that he continues chopping away on the Reasonably priced Care Act and Medicaid, that are the monetary spine of the American dependancy therapy system.
MANN: Kassandra Frederique, who heads an advocacy group known as the Drug Coverage Alliance, predicts Trump will shift the nation’s fentanyl response away from public well being, hoping for a fast repair.
KASSANDRA FREDERIQUE: Somebody is saying to you that we are going to simply flip off the tap, lower the provision chain. We’re simply going to arrest all of the individuals. Then we can’t should take care of this anymore. And whereas it may be enticing to some individuals, it is a mirage.
MANN: Each knowledgeable interviewed by NPR agreed Trump’s promise of a swift finish to the fentanyl disaster is unrealistic. Regardless of current progress, most stated the dependancy and overdose epidemic will take years, and even many years, to resolve.
Brian Mann, NPR Information.
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