Political Quotes

“I rise to introduce a resolution designating October 2011 as National Medicine Abuse Awareness Month with my colleagues and friends, Senators Charles Grassley, Richard Blumenthal, Sheldon Whitehouse, Dick Durbin, Jay Rockefeller, Joe Manchin and Rob Portman. According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, prescription drug abuse is our Nation's fastest-growing drug problem. The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health found that the non-medical use of prescription drugs rose from 2.5 percent of the population in 2008 to 2.8 percent in 2009. The 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health illustrates that the abuse of prescription medications such as pain relievers, tranquilizers, stimulants, and sedatives is second only to marijuana, the number one illegal drug of abuse in the United States. Sadly the number of people who have unintentionally overdosed on prescription drugs is rising rapidly. The misconception that taking prescription drugs, even if not prescribed by a doctor is safer than using street drugs is becoming more and more widespread, as seen in the number of visits by individuals to hospital emergency rooms involving the misuse or abuse of pharmaceutical drugs which has doubled over the past five years.…”