THE HILL | Published November 28, 2024
President-elect Trump announced plans to launch a “large-scale” ad campaign on Wednesday with the goal of educating Americans on the effects of fentanyl.
“I will be working on a large scale United States Advertising Campaign, explaining how bad Fentanyl is for people to use – Millions of lives being so needlessly destroyed. By the time the Campaign is over, everyone will know how really bad the horror of this Drug is,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
The drug is considered a synthetic opioid that resulted in the death of 74,000 last year and 76,000 in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Biden administration created a Trilateral Fentanyl Committee with the U.S., Mexico and Canada to halt the transport of the illegal drug throughout the neighboring countries.
President Biden also met with China’s President Xi Jinping in 2023, which resulted in resumed counternarcotics cooperation with the nation, where a majority of chemical precursors for fentanyl are manufactured.
Trump hasn’t shared much on how he plans to approach the internal fentanyl crisis in his administration, but he has already warned foreign leaders that high tariffs would be put in place if drugs and illegal immigrants continue to enter the U.S.
Trump promised to impose a 25 percent tariff on all imports from Canada and Mexico on his first day in office until “Drugs, in particular Fentanyl, and all Illegal Aliens stop this Invasion of our Country.”
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SOURCE: www.thehill.com
RELATED: Trump’s promise to fix the fentanyl crisis appealed to voters and alarmed experts
A billboard put up by Families Against Fentanyl displayed their message in Placentia, CA, in 2023. Responding to outrage over fentanyl deaths, President-elect Donald Trump has promised to get tough on dealers and Mexican cartels. (MediaNews Group/Orange County Re/MediaNews Group via Getty Images/MediaNews Group RM)
ALASKA PUBLIC | Published November 28, 2024
Over the last four years, as street fentanyl overdose deaths surged, the Biden administration scrambled to fund addiction treatment programs and expand use of opioid-treatment medications like buprenorphine and naloxone. There are signs those efforts may be helping, with fatal overdoses dropping 14.5% over the last year.
But during the campaign that led to President-elect Donald Trump’s victory, he promised a very different approach, cracking down on fentanyl smugglers, securing the U.S.-Mexico border and executing drug dealers.
“You know, I’d like to end the drug epidemic, if that’s okay,” Trump said.
After the election, the man Trump named to serve as border czar threatened U.S. military action against Mexican drug cartels. Tom Homan said in a Fox News appearance the new administration will use “the full might of the United States special operations to take them out.”
Critics say there’s no indication Trump’s efforts to secure the southern border during his first term were effective in stopping fentanyl. Studies show nearly ninety percent of people convicted of fentanyl smuggling are U.S. citizens, not migrants or Mexicans as Trump has suggested.
“Everything got worse. The drug supply got worse and [fentanyl] became more readily available,” said Kassandra Frederique, who heads an organization called the Drug Policy Alliance that supports the decriminalization of addiction.
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SOURCE: www.alaskapublic.org
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