Trump brands fentanyl a ‘weapon of mass destruction’ in drug war escalation

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday (Dec 15) declaring fentanyl a weapon of mass destruction, a move that dramatically expands the US government’s authority to fight the synthetic opioid blamed for tens of thousands of American overdose deaths each year. The classification, ratcheting up an assault on what he says are gangs hellbent on flooding the US with drugs, empowers the Pentagon to assist law enforcement and allows intelligence agencies to deploy against drug traffickers the tools normally reserved for countering weapons proliferation. A Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Wednesday found that a broad swath of Americans oppose the US military's campaign of deadly strikes on the boats, including about one-fifth of Trump's Republicans.