Opinion: Why Trump’s opioid plan falls short
President Trump's plan to combat the opioid epidemic falls short of delivering approaches that would make a real difference, says former Obama drug czar Michael Botticelli.
President Trump’s long-delayed plan to combat the nation’s opioid epidemic, announced in a Monday speech in New Hampshire, led with a headline-grabbing call: impose the death penalty on drug dealers.
This emphasis on capital punishment only underscores the president’s over-reliance on supply reduction and law enforcement efforts, two strategies that have failed to produce meaningful change in a public health crisis that claimed more than 63,000 lives in the U.S. in 2016.
While law enforcement
