Xavier Becerra: “I did a little bit of research. And it is my own research, so I took a look at a couple of very popular drugs: Clarinex…”

“I did a little bit of research. And it is my own research, so I took a look at a couple of very popular drugs: Clarinex, which is for allergies; Lipitor, which is for cholesterol. I figured out the average prices out there at any pharmacy for those drugs per gram, and that turns out to be about $733 per gram for Clarinex and about $279 per gram for Lipitor. And I said, wait a minute. These are good deals. Right? So let's find out what an illicit drug on the street costs today. And, again, this is all my research. I couldn't tell you that I know for a fact what cocaine costs on the street or heroin, but I did some research. The U.N. Report of 2006 on Drugs and Crime says that cocaine has a street value of about $112 per gram, heroin about $95 per gram. So if you take a look at what is going on today, it is a great price that you pay four or five times more for a drug to help save a senior's life than you have to pay for a drug that you abuse on the streets today in America. Our drug prices are not okay. The system is broken. We do need to change it. And all we are saying is let's try to reduce the price. It doesn't hurt to try.”