President Donald Trump says the nation must get tougher on drugs and vowed the "scourge of drug addiction in America will stop."
“That toughness includes the death penalty,” said Trump, as he laid out his plan to tackle opioid addiction before a cheering crowd in New Hampshire Monday.
The president also condemned the over-prescribing of drugs and saying he wants to see a one-third reduction in prescriptions for powerful painkillers.
“Whether you are a dealer or doctor or trafficker or a manufacturer, if you break the law and illegally peddle these deadly poisons, we will find you, we will arrest you and hold you accountable,” he said.
Trump also says the U.S. should get behind the goal of raising a generation of drug-free children, calling for a new ad campaign like Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No."
“So that kids seeing those commercials during the right show on television or where ever, the Internet, when they see these commercials they'll say I don't want any part of it.”
However, John Cruz, a recovering Iraq War veteran and CEO of ProveIt!, a group dedicated to curbing opioid abuse, says the focus should be on prevention.
“When you look at education on NARCAN, education on the signs to look for an opioid overdose, education on the things that can go bad, if they do this right and bring in all those pieces, I think it has the potential to be effective, but if they mimmick the 80s I think we know what's going to happen,” he says.
Cruz believes educating the public on opioids will help prevent dependence in the future.
“One of the things we can do to move toward prevention is empowering the patients to understand how an opioid works in the body, understand the interactions of the medicine and polypharmacy, or how does an opoid work with muscle relaxer or a sleeping medication or an anti-anxiety pill?”