Trump Says He’s ‘Ready’ To Impose Death Penalty On People Who Sell Illicit Drugs, Calling Policy ‘Very Humane’

President Donald Trump is again promoting his support for executing people who sell currently illicit drugs, calling it a “very humane” policy to prevent overdose deaths that he’s “ready” to implement.

He also ambitiously projected that his administration will cut drug use in the U.S. by 50 percent during his new term by launching an aggressive advertising campaign to warn Americans about the harms of substance misuse.

During a White House event with governors from across the U.S. on Friday, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) told Trump about his concerns with fentanyl trafficking, to which the president responded by offering his extreme capital punishment proposal of following the lead of countries like China that impose the death penalty on people involved in selling illegal drugs.

While he said he’s unsure whether the U.S. as a whole is similarly “ready” to move forward with the policy, Trump encouraged governors to push for it at the state-level.

“If you notice that every country that has the death penalty has no drug problem. They execute drug dealers,” Trump said. “And when you think about it, it’s very humane, because every drug dealer, on average they say, kills at least 500 people—not to mention the damage they do so many others. But they kill large numbers of people.”

Of course, while fentanyl and synthetic analogues are more frequently exported from China to other countries than sold on the illicit market domestically, it’s unclear what data the president is referencing when he claims countries that execute drug traffickers have “no drug problem.” Public information about drug use and overdose in China is limited.

But Trump reiterated at last week’s event that “there are quite a few [countries]—many in Asia—where they have the death penalty. There’s no drug problem whatsoever.”

“They come to our country because we have much softer policy. We give them a slap on the wrist, and they kill a lot of people,” he said. “So we are going to—I mean, I don’t know if our country is ready for it. I am ready for it: The death penalty if you’re dealing drugs.”

Meanwhile, the president said his administration will be launching a $100 to $200 million public service announcement campaign to deter drug use that sends the message that “when you take certain drugs, the drug fentanyl… it destroys your skin, it destroys your teeth, it destroys your brain, it destroys everything.”

“When some young kid is sitting down watching this commercial a couple of times, I really don’t think they’re going to be taking drugs,” Trump said. “This is a big statement, but I think we can drop [drug use by] 50 percent by doing this.”

Trump similarly promised to launch a massive ad campaign to address illicit drug use during his first term, with the White House saying at the time it would be “multi-channel, reaching youth through digital platforms, social media, influencers, and television.”

This isn’t the first time Trump has floated capital punishment for those who sell illicit drugs. But it’s part of a discordant drug policy platform that he’s developed, promoting extreme penalties for certain drug-related criminal activity even though he’s adopted pro-marijuana reform policies and, decades ago, said the country should “legalize drugs” to win the war on drugs.

In 2023, Trump seemed confused when he was confronted with the fact that his proposed plan to impose the death penalty on drug traffickers would have condemned a woman he pardoned and promoted as an example of a key criminal justice reform achievement during his administration.

That woman, Alice Johnson, has since been named by Trump as his pick to serve a new role in his administration as “pardon czar.”

Johnson received a presidential commutation from Trump during his last term in 2018 while serving a life sentence related to cocaine trafficking charges. Trump later issued Johnson a pardon in 2020.

“Alice was in prison for doing something that today probably wouldn’t even be prosecuted. She spent 22 years in prison,” Trump said. “She had another 22 years left. Can you believe it? And I pardoned her, and it was one of the best pardons.”

The president’s latest remarks on his death penalty for drug trafficking position comes in the background of multiple top-level cabinet nominations and Senate confirmations of administration officials with mixed records on drug policy reform, which advocates and stakeholders have been following closely to see if Trump will push for marijuana policy changes.

For example, Trump recently nominated a vociferously anti-cannabis official to serve as the lead attorney at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), drawing praise from prohibitionists.

While HHS under the Biden administration has already recommended rescheduling cannabis following a scientific review, that process has been delayed, raising questions about the potential influence of new administrative appointees.

HHS’s general counsel is responsible for providing legal advice, interpreting regulatory policies and overseeing litigation involving the agency, among other roles, and so if Stuart is confirmed by the Senate he could be key in any future agency interpretations of the Controlled Substances Act’s requirements when it comes to marijuana’s scheduling status.

By contrast to the HHS general counsel nominee, the recently Senate-confirmed secretary of HHS, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was previously vocal about his support for marijuana legalization.

Despite that stated support, however, following his confirmation Kennedy said last week that he is “worried about” the normalization of high-potency marijuana and that he feels its use can have “really catastrophic impacts” on people, but that state-level legalization can facilitate research into its harms and benefits.

The comments came on the same day that Sen. Pete Ricketts (R-NE) said he received a commitment from Kennedy to “follow the science on the harms of marijuana.”

Ricketts had already disclosed earlier this month that he spoke to Kennedy about the the “importance” of “preventing the expansion of marijuana.” Now he says “RFK committed to me that he would follow the science on the harms of marijuana.”

Despite Kennedy’s history of advocating for cannabis legalization, he said last month that he will defer to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on marijuana rescheduling in his new role.

That could complicate rescheduling. This month, Trump officially named his pick to lead DEA—selecting a decades-long agency veteran and top Virginia official who’s voiced concerns about the dangers of marijuana and linked its use to higher suicide risk among youth.

Separately, anti-marijuana Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) told Marijuana Moment recently that it’s “definitely” time to have a talk with Kennedy to convince him that “marijuana is harmful” and that the way to make Americans healthy is by “limiting” its use.

Prior to Kennedy’s written responses to members of the Senate Finance Committee that gave him initial approval, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) pressed him to reiterate his position on marijuana legalization amid the ongoing effort to federally reschedule cannabis.

A political action committee founded by former Vice President Mike Pence had attempted to undermine the confirmation Kennedy as HHS secretary—in part by drawing attention to his support for marijuana and psychedelics reform, as well as his personal history with substance misuse.

Senator John Fetterman Circulates Petition To Legalize Marijuana At The Federal Level

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia.