Trump to champion death penalty for drug dealers

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Monday will unveil a controversial call for drug traffickers to face the death penalty as part of his plan to combat America’s opioid epidemic — a move that appears to be as much about politics as policy. The White House said the Republican leader will call for capital punishment for high-volume dealers “where appropriate under current law” during a speech in Manchester, New Hampshire — a state hard hit by the opioid crisis. An estimated 2.4 million Americans are addicted to opioids, a class of drugs that include prescription painkillers, as well as heroin. Trump’s move is designed to burnish his tough-on-crime credentials, and he pledged to fix the crisis when he took office a year ago.