This would seem to go against the general trend toward marijuana legalization, skepticism of the “war on drugs” and support for “criminal justice reform” generally. It’s also interesting how after 50 years of the “war on drugs,” there are now more drugs, more powerful drugs, and more drug overdoses than ever before. In the future, the Trump era will probably be regarded as Reagan-era “conservatism”‘s last stand.

By Matt Laslo

Rolling Stone

Don’t let all the chaos and scandals of the Trump administration distract you from one of their most stunning successes: They’ve utterly changed the conversation in Washington when it comes to drug crimes. While a few prominent voices on Capitol Hill continue to call for doing away with mandatory minimum prison sentences, there’s a new bill being pushed by top Trump allies inside the Capitol to actually extend mandatory minimums to more fentanyl dealers and to eventually even apply the death penalty in some cases.

“It’s not just that it’s so potent, but it’s also that it’s so concentrated. So, it poses a unique risk in the way that other drugs do not,” Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) told reporters when he unveiled his bill at the Capitol.

Besides lowering the amount of fentanyl required to impose a stiff mandatory minimum on dealers, Cotton’s Republican-sponsored bill also gives the Postal Service more authority and resources to stop the drug from flowing in at the nation’s borders. Small amounts of fentanyl are being used to lace heroin and even some cocaine, which is partly why the overdose rate has soared in recent years. These lawmakers say that’s why new legislation is needed that focuses on this opioid like a laser beam.

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