Trump vows to launch anti-drug ad campaign

23/12/2024 6:06

U.S President-elect

Donald Trump said on Sunday he will launch a new anti-drug

advertising campaign to show the physical impact of taking drugs

like fentanyl and repeated his threat to designate Mexican drug

cartels as terrorist organizations.



"We're going to advertise how bad drugs are for you. They

ruin your look, they ruin your face, they ruin your skin, they

ruin your teeth," Trump said at a conference of the conservative

group Turning Point in Phoenix, Arizona.



Trump gave few concrete details about the ad campaign, which

he does not appear to have mentioned before and that he likened

to running a political campaign. He said his administration

would spend "a lot of money" on the program but that it would be

a "very small amount of money, relatively."



The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for

further information.



Trump's plan has echoes of the "Just Say No" anti-drug

campaign, led by Republican former first lady Nancy Reagan in

the 1980s to encourage young Americans to refuse drugs.



Between 50,000 and 60,000 Americans are projected to die

from synthetic opioid overdoses this year, most from taking

fentanyl or closely related drugs.



The fentanyl crisis featured heavily in Trump's 2024

presidential campaign, even though synthetic opioid deaths more

than doubled under his 2017-2021 administration.



Trump on Sunday also revived a campaign vow to designate

Mexico's drug cartels as terrorist groups.



"I will immediately designate the cartels as foreign

terrorist organizations," Trump said.



While in office in 2019, Trump shelved such a plan at the

request of Mexico's then-President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador,

who said he wanted U.S. cooperation on fighting drug gangs, not

intervention.



Some U.S. officials had also privately expressed misgivings

that the measure could damage relations with Mexico and hinder

the Mexican government's fight against drug trafficking.



Trump's official election platform says that when he takes

office he will order the Pentagon to use "special forces, cyber

warfare, and other covert and overt actions to inflict maximum

damage on cartel leadership, infrastructure, and operations."