Political Quotes

“Madam President, we are entering graduation season; 17- and 18-year-olds should be attending their senior prom, preparing to finish high school, and looking forward to their futures, as my oldest daughter is right now. They should not be in the obituaries of our local newspaper. Their high school lockers should not be makeshift memorials covered in flowers. And yet all over America, they are. Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans aged 18 to 45-- the leading cause of death. A rapidly increasing number of the dead are teenagers. And the rate of teen overdoses since the pandemic have more than doubled compared to the decade before. Between 2019 and 2021, the number of deaths caused by fentanyl among 10- to 19-year-olds increased by 182 percent. And this is due almost entirely to the fentanyl found in counterfeit pills, many of which are sold via social media--platforms like TikTok and Snapchat. The drug is incredibly lethal. Two milligrams, the equivalent of 10 grains of salt, can kill. It is inexpensive to produce and exponentially more dangerous than heroin or morphine. Even the overdose rate of children 5 and under is growing. Hundreds of thousands of Americans are dying, so many of our kids among them. How can we be so powerless to prevent this? To all the families who have lost loved ones to fentanyl, we grieve with you. We share your anger, and we vow--we vow--not to let your loved one's death be in vain.…”