U.S. President Donald Trump is calling for high-intensity drug traffickers to face the death penalty in the United States as part of a new plan to tackle the opioid epidemic.
The misuse of opioids has reached crisis levels across North America. Every day in 2016, 116 Americans died from opioid-related drug overdoses. And almost 1,500 Canadians died from such overdoses during the first half of 2017.
Meanwhile, health-care providers continue to prescribe opioids — to try to help people suffering from chronic pain.
