A GOP Congressman wants to “ensure lives are protected” – by expanding the death penalty. Rep. Tom Reed (R-NY) has introduced the Help Ensure Lives Are Protected Act of 2016, which would subject drug dealers who sell heroin laced with fentanyl to death or life imprisonment if “death or serious bodily injury results from the use of such substance.” In a way, Reed’s move represents the natural progression of the widespread idea that heroin dealers should be primarily scapegoated for heroin-related deaths.
However, the congressman didn’t stop there. In a recent interview with The Chicago Tribune, Reed argued that the newly introduced bill should not be confined solely to drug dealers, but should also include those that have fallen into the clutches of narcotics. “I’m sorry to have to be the one to repeat it, but you know what they say – once an addict, always an addict,” Reed said. “I sympathize with all of them, but at the end of the day, once you’re soiled with addictive substances, regardless of whether it occurred because a person wanted it willingly or managed to introduce it into their system some other way, it’s pretty much a done deal.”
“First of all, before you start bombarding me with judgments, allow me to state my case and explain my point of view,” Reed told the interviewer. “First off, drugs cause irreparable damage to the human body and mind and no amount of rehabilitation is ever going to be able to cure someone completely, okay? So, right off the bat, we’re talking here about a part of the population that’s just never ever going to be able to live up to their full potential and become as productive members of society as normal people.”
He continued, “Secondly, drugs and narcotics in general are like a plague: the more you try to suppress them, the more dangerous and volatile they become. And so they’re going to continue spreading like a virus, regardless of the fact that one has to try them willingly for the first time. Therefore, again – we are talking about having more and more of our people and our children infected by and ruined by drugs. And let’s be honest, we really don’t need any more unproductive members of society, beggars and homeless people. We’ve got enough trouble with illegal immigrants as it is.”
“So, as cruel as it may sound, I’m going to go ahead and say it: we should consider executing drug addicts alongside drug dealers all at the same time. And I know how people are going to react initially, but hear me out. If we nip this thing in the bud, we’ll eradicate drugs from our streets and our country permanently. We’ll be killing two birds with one stone; no more drug dealers means no more corrupting the healthy individuals of our population, and no more drug addicts, well, that sort of removes the source of the problem,” Reed added.
“No more drugs in any shape or form is great because not only will it save future lives, but it will also help our economy get back on its feet. By that I mean that the only official and legal dealer of drugs in the United States will be the pharmaceutical industry. And I really believe those guys will continue looking out for the average Joe just like they’ve been doing so far,” he concluded.
