Europe’s leading human rights body has expressed concern about U.S. President Donald Trump’s plans to impose the death penalty on some drug dealers as part of his plan to fight the opioid epidemic.
In a statement released Wednesday, the Council of Europe said it is opposed to the “death penalty in all circumstances.” It says the practice is “inhuman and degrading, and it is not proven to be an effective deterrent.”
Trump unveiled his plan to combat his country’s opiod abuse epidemic in a speech Monday in Manchester, New Hampshire, a state hit hard by the drug. Trump vowed to help create “a generation of drug-free children” and said the nation “must get tough” with drug dealers.
Opiods killed more than 42,000 people in the U.S. in 2016.
