Tump administration sends mixed marching orders in the war on drugs – SaukValley.com

WASHINGTON As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump pledged to tackle prescription-drug abuse and the flow of illegal drugs into the country. But his White House efforts are off to a rocky start so far.

Trump appointed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie to lead a opioid crisis task force. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and other administration officials, including Attorney General Jeff Sessions, have embarked on a listening tour of areas ravaged by the opioid epidemic.

But any goodwill gained from those efforts was likely undercut by a leaked document that provided a preview into the administrations plan to effectively gut the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which takes the lead in addressing drug abuse issues, by reducing its funding by almost 95 percent.

Then came the announcement that the Justice Department would reverse an Obama-era policy that urged prosecutors to try to avoid mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders, and an emerging pattern from the administration is developing that is troubling to some lawmakers and advocates.

Such policies and proposals could be examples of an unpredictable White House that at times sends contradictory messages about its strategy.

But while Republican members continue to hold out hope that Trump will keep his pledge to combat the opioid epidemic, a number of GOP senators are becoming more vocal in their criticism of his early actions on the issue.

I am alarmed at the defunding [of the drug-control policy office] because that, to me, signals less emphasis on what I think is a deep problem, said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-West Virginia. I think we need an overarching policy and I would like to see it remain in the White House where it would get the ultimate attention.

Capito said she gave Sessions an earful about the possible funding cuts when he visited West Virginia for an event hosted by the Drug Enforcement Agency, which takes the lead on drug interdiction efforts.

The fiscal 2017 spending bill that Trump signed into law this month will provide $150 million more this year to help fight the opioid epidemic. Should the administration choose to forge ahead and suggest reduced funding for the office in the pending fiscal 2018 budget proposal, it will likely not get much support in Congress.

But it is not just funding that has galvanized Republicans into pushing back against the Trump administration. After Sessions announcement, some Republican senators came out against the shift back to harsher sentences for nonviolent drug offenders.

Mandatory minimum sentences have unfairly and disproportionately incarcerated too many minorities for too long, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, said in a statement. Attorney General Sessions new policy will accentuate that injustice. Instead, we should treat our nations drug epidemic as a health crisis and less as a lock em up and throw away the key problem.

But the decision did not meet total opposition among Republicans in Congress.

Law enforcement should side with the victims of crime rather than its perpetrators. This policy is simply common sense and will help reduce crime and drugs in our neighborhoods, Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, said in a statement.

A Justice Department spokesman said the directive guarantees that prosecutors treat all defendants fairly, equitably, and uniformly.

Outside advocacy groups say they are baffled by the administrations recent actions.

To say you are going to address things and then put some policies in place that dont make any sense to what we know works, and what the science says, it leaves one beyond just scratching their head and wondering where the impetus for this is, said Tom Hill, vice president of addiction and recovery at the National Council for Behavioral Health.

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Tump administration sends mixed marching orders in the war on drugs - SaukValley.com