Political Quotes

“Madam President, there has been a lot of conversation from so many of our fellow Senators about the opioid crisis that has been devastating individuals and families across the country. We heard this particularly in New Hampshire as it was a topic of discussion last fall during the election. It was an opportunity to bring to the Nation's attention--because of the eyes being focused first on the New Hampshire primary--of a real opioid crisis. What we also then discussed was that it was not just affecting a few States, it was affecting most of the States. That is the case with my State of Florida. Addiction to opioids has reached staggering levels, and the situation is only getting worse. In 2015, more than 33,000 Americans died from prescription opioid overdoses. That is 15 percent more people than had died just the previous year. I don't have the figures for last year, 2016. So Florida is right there in that national trend. What Florida saw between 2014 and 2015 was a 22.7-percent increase. It is staggering because in that year, Florida suffered over 2,000 deaths from opioid overdoses. Earlier this month, our office interviewed a woman from Florida for yesterday's Committee on Aging's hearing. She is caring for her 7-year-old grandson because his mother lost custody, was later incarcerated due to her drug addiction. Sadly, this story is all too familiar.…”