Arguments Against Opioids

Current and proposed policies to combat the current opioid epidemic are few and far between. Past policies have focused on over prescription of legal opioids and reducing the frequency (Criminal Justice Policy Foundation n.d.). It can be agreed upon that the over-prescription of pain reliving opioids and abuse of prescribed opioids have led to the epidemic that we face today. Once a patient is addicted, they must find a new way to acquire their drugs to get their fix. Thus, the increase of use and abuse of illicit opioids such as heroin and fentanyl. In 2015, Kentucky enacted Senate Bill 192, The Heroin Bill, into action. The Heroin Bill is a “multi-prong approach” (The Heroin Epidemic 2016) that includes stronger penalties for dealers and

Much like previous policies, Trump’s plan will include stiffer penalties for drug traffickers (Merica et al. 2018). However, Trump wishes to surpass the current stiff penalties by introducing the death penalty for high-risk drug traffickers (Merica et al. 2018). Trump also intends to focus on law enforcement, prevention, education, and providing funds for treatment through the federal government. Lastly, he wants to provide help finding employment for recovering addicts impacted by the epidemic (Merica et al. 2018). Trump also plans to use the media to scare the public into refraining from trying and using heroin. This may be Trump’s plan; however, President Nixon had the same idea in the 1970s. In a speech in the 1970s, Nixon had introduced his plan to scare the public into believing “drug abuse [is] public enemy number one” (Balko 2014:104). Radley Balko, author of Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces (2014), summarized Nixon’s plan, revealed in the 1970s, to gain political support while causing a moral panic by creating a faux public health issue to “to scare the hell out of the public about crime” and to use this fictional crime as a result of heroin (Balko 2014:103). Like Trump’s plan, Nixon’s plan included using the media to create scare stories regarding crime and the role of heroin in crime (Balko 2014:103). According to Egil Krogh, Nixon’s “crime man,” “if we hyped the drug problem into a national crisis, we knew that congress would give us anything we asked for” (Balko 2014:104). This calls for a minute to pause and consider if the current epidemic is an epidemic that needs national attention, or if this is an attempt for the government, banking on the public’s interest in reducing health issues, to gain support for their political agendas. However, multiple plans, such as Kentucky’s and