Trump Calls for Death Penalty for Drugs (Again)

Dear friends,

President Trump has again called for using the death penalty against low-level drug law violators. During a meeting with governors last week, he pressed them to pass state death penalty laws for drug selling. The president claimed, as he did during his first term, that countries with the death penalty for drug offenses have "no drug problem."

Trump wants this here. (photo from Amnesty International)

Almost everything Trump says is untrue, on any topic, and his claims about the death penalty are not exceptions. In Iran, for example, one of the world's top executors of people for drug law violations, opium is widely available and the number of addicts is estimated at two million. Saudi Arabia, another top executor, is said to now be the "drug capital of the Middle East."

The US drug overdose rate has dropped substantially in recent years, but remains at crisis levels. Nevertheless, drug war approaches focused on punishment rather than public health approaches are misguided, and the death penalty for crimes other than murder is likely to be unconstitutional. We are also concerned that Trump may call for extrajudicial killings in the drug war – an approach he praised Philippine former president Rodrigo Duterte for on two occasions – or resort to extrajudicial violence in the US for other purposes.

There are no signs of that yet, but we saw what Trump was willing to do at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. Extrajudicial violence is a characteristic of authoritarian regimes, and there are movements in the US which tend to support Trump, that have already been primed to support it. For example, Kyle Rittenhouse, who killed two Black Lives Matter protesters and shot a third in Wisconsin after starting fights with them in August 2020, was lionized by many on the political right. Daniel Penny, a vigilante who killed an unarmed mentally ill homeless man on a New York City subway, was invited by Trump and JD Vance to join them at the Army-Navy football game last December.

For the moment, we are considering whether Trump's death penalty call, which didn't go anywhere the first time, should be actively lobbied against; or whether it would be better to wait and see if it withers again. We are also thinking about what pushback we can prepare in case Trump does call for extrajudicial killings. Whether such a call gained traction in the US or not, it could have destabilizing effects in other countries. For example, Trump's second reported comment praising the Duterte drug war, was followed closely by extrajudicial drug war killings starting in Indonesia.

You can read more about what we're doing in my email sent last week, "Greetings from Occupied Washington." And there will be more to talk about soon. In the meanwhile, if you support our current mission of furthering compassionate drug policy during this unprecedented time, while doing our part to stop fascism, I ask if you can take a moment to make a donation.

Our donations page at https://stopthedrugwar.org/donate links to forms to make tax-deductible and non-deductible donations by credit card, PayPal or ACH. There is info on other ways to donate as well, at https://stopthedrugwar.org/about/donate.

We are pushing forward and doing our part. And we see reasons for hope – I hope you do too.

Sincerely,

David Borden
StoptheDrugWar.org
Washington, DC
"US and UN Drug Policy Reform"
https://stopthedrugwar.org