Local Overdose Prevention Manager Reacts To Trump's Opioid Proposal
MINNETONKA, Minn. (WCCO) -- President Donald Trump is rolling out a new plan to combat opioid abuse across the United States.
The proposal is expected to include one controversial component: a plea to prosecutors to put the death penalty on the table when it comes to fatal overdose cases.
Randy Anderson has been sober for 13 years and is now an overdose prevention manager with the Steve Rummler HOPE Network.
He said if this would have been in effect when he was using and selling drugs, he may have been up for the death penalty.
"I got raided by the DEA task force, I had enough to be charged federally, I was charged with three crimes, two federal and one state," he said. "They called me a King Pin...the only logical step I could think of to survive was to sell drugs. First, we need to develop a system to differentiate between a person who is purely selling drugs through greed, for financial gain and no other reason, and those who are doing it to support an addiction."
There are some parts of the president's plan that Anderson does agree with, like upping supplies of naloxone in the hardest hit parts of the U.S.
Naloxone is a life-saving drug that reverses overdoses.
The president is unveiling his plan later Monday afternoon in New Hampshire, a state hard-hit by the crisis.
