Joe Donnelly: “I rise for all Hoosiers who have been touched by addiction or suffered the loss of a loved one as a result of opioid…”

“I rise for all Hoosiers who have been touched by addiction or suffered the loss of a loved one as a result of opioid abuse, heroin use or other drug epidemics. I am here for every Hoosier community that has been gripped by addiction. I am here from Austin, IN, a small town of 4,200, much like many small towns in the Presiding Officer's home State of North Carolina, where more than 185 people tested positive for HIV, largely caused by injection drug users who shared needles. I am here for Connersville, which was devastated by a heroin epidemic that saw 41 overdoses and 8 deaths in a 3-month span. I am here for my hometown of Granger, which was shaken last year when two teenage brothers, Nick and Jack Savage, died in just one night from a prescription drug-related overdose. I am here for Fort Wayne, Lafayette, and Terre Haute, and Indianapolis, and every community across our State. No part of Indiana or our country is immune from the pain of addiction and these drug epidemics. By now many of us have heard the staggering statistics. One person in America dies every 25 minutes from an opioid overdose, and overdose deaths in the United States now outnumber fatal auto accidents. Ultimately, this is about people. People like Mike Zoss of Tippecanoe County. Mike was the youngest of three boys. Mike was creative, enjoyed reading, and had a ton of friends. In high school he began experimenting with prescription drugs.…”