Donald Trump Shares Plan to Fix New Hampshire's Heroin Problem During Campaign Rally

Donald Trump doesn’t seem to know how addiction works, at least not according to a speech he gave at his campaign’s New Hampshire rally on Thursday.

“You know what really amazed me when I came here?” Donald Trump asked as he began his portion of the rally. “[T]hey said the biggest single problem they have up here is heroin. And I said ‘how does heroin work with these beautiful lakes, and trees and all of the beautiful…?’ It doesn’t.”

Unfortunately for Trump, living somewhere as idyllic as New Hampshire’s countryside doesn’t lower your chances of being exposed to or becoming addicted to heroin. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 23 percent of Americans who try heroin become addicted. They become addicted not because they live in places less scenic than New Hampshire, but because heroin is an opioid that affects their brain chemistry, and some people are genetically more likely to become addicted than others.

Similar to the platform he built his campaign on, Trump has a plan to stop the rising rates of heroin use and addiction. “I win, I get the nomination and I win, we’re gonna build that wall and we’re gonna stop that heroin from pouring in and we’re going to stop the poison of the youth,” he said. “We’re going to build the wall, believe me. We are going to build the wall, but we’re going to stop the poison from pouring in and destroying our youth and plenty of other people and we’re gonna work on those people that got addicted and are addicted and I’ll tell you what, we’re gonna do a real job for the state of New Hampshire.”

Neither Trump nor his campaign provided any additional details during the rally as to what that “real job” entails or how Trump plans to help those already addicted to heroin. The campaign’s website does not mention addiction services or rehabilitation as part of their health care reform either.