Conway on fentanyl: ‘Eat the ice cream, have the french fry, don’t buy the street drug’

Counsel to the President Kellyanne Conway advised a group of college students on Thursday to indulge in junk food in place of buying fentanyl-laced narcotics.

“On our college campuses, your folks are reading the labels, they won’t put any sugar in their body, they don’t eat carbs anymore, and they’re very, very fastidious about what goes into their body,” Conway said at a youth forum hosted by the White House.

“And then you buy a street drug for $5 or $10, it’s laced with fentanyl, and that’s it,” she continued.

{mosads}

“So I guess my short advice is, as somebody double your age: eat the ice cream, have the french fry, don’t buy the street drug. Believe me, it all works out,” Conway added, eliciting laughs from the audience.

Conway, a former Republican pollster, was charged last year with overseeing the White House’s efforts to combat the opioid epidemic, which has become a key priority of the Trump administration. 

Her comments came days after President Trump laid out a three-pronged approach to the opioid epidemic that included reducing the demand for and overprescription of opioids, cutting off the supply of illegal drugs and boosting access to treatment.

That plan also included a mandate to the Justice Department to pursue the death penalty for certain drug dealers when appropriate under current law.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memo on Wednesday directing federal prosecutors to pursue the death penalty against some drug traffickers.