Republican presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson, second from left, spells out his plan to tackling the soaring rise in opioid deaths linked to fentanyl. Joining him at a law enforcement roundtable at the Nashua Police Department, from left, were former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, Nashua Police Chief Kevin Rourke and Nashua Police Lt. Matthew McConnell, who heads up the narcotics intelligence division.
NASHUA — Republican presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Tuesday if elected he would take from the FBI and give to the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) the lead role in a federal crackdown against illegal fentanyl use in America.
A former DEA administrator under former President George W. Bush, Hutchinson told a law enforcement roundtable here that a more robust, focused war on illegal drugs would reverse a deadly trend just as the late President Ronald Reagan accomplished during the 1980s with his “Just Say No” campaign.
“Fentanyl is the number one health crisis we have right now, the leading cause of death from 22–49-year-olds in this country. That’s extraordinary; it’s not getting better, it’s getting worse right now,” Hutchinson said at the event at the Nashua Police Department.
Republican presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson, second from left, spells out his plan to tackling the soaring rise in opioid deaths linked to fentanyl. Joining him at a law enforcement roundtable at the Nashua Police Department, from left, were former Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis, Nashua Police Chief Kevin Rourke and Nashua Police Lt. Matthew McConnell, who heads up the narcotics intelligence division.
In 1982, the Reagan administration Justice Department gave the FBI joint jurisdiction over drug enforcement with the DEA.
Joining Hutchinson Tuesday was Ed Davis, the Boston, Mass., police commissioner at the time of the Boston Marathon bombing.
A Lowell, Mass., native, Davis graduated from Bishop Guertin High School in Nashua. Later as Lowell police superintendent, Davis started a twin-state narcotics task force that remains active to this day.
A consultant to law enforcement across the country, Davis said he recently spent two days with the DEA assistant director in New York City.
“Almost every illicit drug including marijuana has been laced with fentanyl. We are not paying enough attention to fentanyl as a problem in the U.S.,” Davis said.
“I commend Administrator Hutchinson for drawing attention to the crisis in this campaign.”
Nashua Police Chief Kevin Rourke said there have been 41 overdose deaths already this year and there were 47 in all of 2022.
Undercover sources confirmed most of the fentanyl coming to Nashua and Manchester enters the state through either Lowell or Lawrence, Mass., Rourke said.
Hutchinson’s drug enforcement plan includes another issue Rourke highlighted Tuesday, the steep decline in recruitment and retention of police officers in this country.
“Recruiting and retention is the number one problem right now,” Rourke said. “We are seeing guys leave here with four, five, seven and eight years on the job, that never happened before. It is at an alarming the rate that officers are leaving and going into the private sector.”
Other parts of Hutchinson’s beefed-up enforcement would be to reinvigorate drug task forces that combine, federal, state, and local resources and spend more on drug treatment courts.
Hutchinson said he would also brand the drug cartels foreign terrorist organizations.
“I don’t believe the issue gets enough attention and we are putting out silly solutions like bomb the cartel or invade Mexico,” Hutchinson said.
As DEA administrator, Hutchinson said he traveled to meet with police partners in 35 states.
“I understand what it takes to take on the cartel I know the risks associated with it,” Hutchinson said.
Narcan is effective if taken quickly to try to reverse a fentanyl overdose.
But Nashua Lt. Matthew McConnell said dealers are now infusing fentanyl with xylazine, a powerful animal tranquilizer that is resistant to Narcan.
“A lot of our fentanyl is coming back with xylazine, it extends their high as well so people on the street are looking for it and not just stumbling into it,” said McConnell, who heads the narcotics intelligence division for the Nashua force.
An Arkansas native, the resume for Hutchinson, 72, includes winning three elections to the U.S. House, serving as a U.S. attorney and the border and transportation security division chief of a new Department of Homeland Security that Bush created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Hutchinson told reporters he’ll achieve the donor and poll result benchmarks the Republican National Committee has set for him to get on stage for the second presidential debate Sept. 27 at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California.
But Hutchinson condemned these unprecedented hurdles that he said have kept him from hosting large town hall forums and instead spent more time building a base of 50,000 donors and manufacturing public support in national and early state polls.
“Clearly the RNC is trying to shrink the list of candidates very quickly and artificially, both the media and the RNLC want to reduce the number of candidates,” Hutchinson said.
“It’s the expectation the voters are going to make the decision; let’s not shortchange the voters of New Hampshire to make the decision.”
For the first debate, candidates needed to achieve only 1% national poll support; the benchmark was raised to 3% in two polls for this one which Hutchinson and North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum have yet to achieve.
As one of the most vocal critics of former President Donald Trump, Hutchinson said he’s offering a unique perspective in this race.
“Right now, my message makes a difference; I am talking about issues other candidates aren’t talking about,” Hutchinson added.
“I am raising issues about the direction of the party; I am fighting for the soul of the party… We don’t need to go down the path of Donald Trump for the next four years; it will destroy the party.”
