Trump calls for death penalty for drug traffickers (Modern Healthcare)

Monday Mar 19th, 2018

President Donald Trump on Monday said he believes the impact of the opioid abuse epidemic can be curbed by cutting opioid prescriptions by a third over the next three years. He also called for the death penalty for large-scale drug traffickers.

"The War on Drugs approach has not worked and has disproportionately incarcerated minorities and the poor," Dr. Leana Wen, Baltimore city health commissioner, said in a written statement.

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The number of Baltimore children with lead poisoning fell 19 percent in 2017, even as more children were tested for exposure to the powerful neurotoxin.

Statewide, the number of Maryland children found to have elevated levels of lead in their blood held steady even as the number of children tested increased by 10 percent, according to a Maryland Department of the Environment report released Tuesday.

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Trump declared an emergency over opioids. A new report finds it led to very little. (Vox)

To much fanfare last year, President Donald Trump ordered his administration to declare a public health emergency over the opioid epidemic. “As Americans, we cannot allow this to continue,” Trump said at the time. “It is time to liberate our communities from this scourge of drug addiction.”

When I’ve asked experts about these approaches, it’s not that any of them are bad. It’s that they fall short. For instance, Leana Wen, the former health commissioner of Baltimore (and soon-to-be president of Planned Parenthood), said that the Support for Patients and Communities Act “is simply tinkering around the edges.”

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