Trump’s Opioid Emergency Response: New at Reason

Last week Donald Trump promised to “spend a lot of time, a lot of effort, and a lot of money on the opioid crisis,” which he declared a “national emergency.” Judging from the president’s campaign rhetoric and his comments since taking office, which have focused on building a border wall to “stop the drugs,” much of that time, effort, and money will be devoted to erecting barriers between Americans and the intoxicants they want.

That supply-side approach has been failing for more than a century, Jacob Sullum says, and it seems doubtful that Trump will be the man to finally make it work. But he may very well succeed in exacerbating the problem he is trying to solve.