on the campaign trail, opioid painkillers killed two young men in 2011 that she and her husband, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, knew, according to Reuters. One victim was a neighbor of the Clinton’s in the Upstate New York town of Chappaqua. The other was an intern at the U.S. State Department, while Clinton was Secretary of State.
Clinton is against prison time for low-level and nonviolent drug offenses and wants to end mass incarcerations.
“Excessive federal mandatory minimum sentences keep nonviolent drug offenders in prison for too long — and have increased racial inequality in our criminal justice system,” Clinton’s website stated.
Her solution? A recently unveiled $10 billion plan aimed at treating addicts, reducing prison sentences for nonviolent drug offenses, helping state and local governments set up community-based programs and expanding mental health coverage.
On marijuana, Clinton is less vague than Trump. Her senior policy advisor Maya Harris said in a statement reported by the Denver Post that if elected, Clinton would “build on the important steps …by rescheduling marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule II substance.” She will also “ensure Colorado, and other states that have enacted marijuana laws, can continue to serve as laboratories of democracy,” she added.
A more interactive setting
The upcoming debate at Washington University on October 9 is expected to have a town hall format, where the candidates won’t be standing behind podiums, but rather answering questions from a moderator and citizen participants who were selected.
Many audience members will be from St. Louis, a city that has seen the number of deaths from heroin grow from 88 in 2013 to 110 in 2014. There were 99 deaths from heroin through the third week of December 2015, according to the County Medical Examiner.
“The data is alarming,” County Executive Steve Stenger said in a statement to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The quiet epidemic that Clinton talked about is getting louder every day. Hopefully, the candidates will be asked pointed questions during the debate on the issue and provide more substantive responses that give all voters, regardless of partisan or ideological biases, some confidence that the situation will improve.
Author: Livia Areas-Holmblad
Livia Holmblad is an editor at Addiction Now and covers breaking news, features and everything in between. She moved to SoCal after living in NYC for about 10 years, where she worked for VICE and SinoVision as a writer, editor, host, producer, and director. Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro. Contact Livia at liviah@addictionnow.com
