At a cabinet meeting on Thursday President Trump stated that he is directing Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, to file a federal lawsuit against specific manufactures of opioids. The federal lawsuit would be separate from the existing lawsuits being filed at the state level.
Sessions has been directed to watch for opioids coming into the U.S. from China and Mexico as Trump described them to be, “sending their garbage and killing our people.” He also added that, “It’s almost a form of warfare.”
The timing of the filing of the federal suit was not outlined.
President Trump’s directive comes amid a series of suits being filed nationwide in recent months against distributors and manufacturers opioids.
In addition to the directive to Sessions, the Trump administration also said it was proposing that U.S. pharmaceutical companies cut production of the six most abused opioids by 10 percent in 2019, as part of an effort to mitigate the amount of opioids being trafficked.
The U.S. Justice Department and the DEA released a joint statement stipulating that this proposal was in keeping with the Trump administraion’s goal of cutting opioid prescriptions by one third within three years.
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