Political Quotes

“this Saturday, April 30, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Drug Enforcement Administration, DEA, is coordinating the latest National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. Take back days are nationwide efforts to remove old or unused prescription drugs from medicine cabinets so they don't fall into the wrong hands and lead to substance abuse and addiction. I am proud to have helped encourage take back days a few years ago by working with Senators Klobuchar, Cornyn, and Brown to pass the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, health care providers wrote almost a quarter of a billion opioid prescriptions in 2013, enough for every American adult to have his or her own bottle of pills. The accumulation of these medicines in our homes creates a public health risk, since they can be accidentally ingested, abused, stolen, and passed on to others. According to the 2014 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 6.5 million Americans abused controlled prescription drugs that year. According to that same study, a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet. Obviously, the consequences of this prescription drug abuse can be dangerous and even deadly. Prescription drug abuse may lead to abuse of other drugs like heroin, which is cheaper and more readily available.…”