Hal Rogers: “I want to begin by thanking my colleague and friend from across the Big Sandy that divides Kentucky and West Virginia…”

“I want to begin by thanking my colleague and friend from across the Big Sandy that divides Kentucky and West Virginia and my good friend across the aisle, Nick Rahall, for organizing these Special Orders by the Congressional Caucus on Prescription Drug Abuse. Congress, the DEA, the medical community, State partners, and particularly the Federal Drug Administration must do more to fight the medicine cabinet epidemic. The Office of National Drug Control Policy in the White House has identified prescription drugs as our Nation's fastest growing drug problem, easily eclipsing cocaine and heroin abuse. As has been said, the national Centers for Disease Control has said that prescription drug abuse is now a national epidemic. In 2010, 254 million prescriptions for opioids were filled in this country. That's enough painkillers to medicate every American adult around the clock for a month. Our military soldiers are coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan hooked on these pain pills. In the last 2 years, over 150 of our soldiers have died from overdoses. In my home State, Kentucky's losing roughly 82 people a month to prescription drug deaths, more than car crashes. Our medicine cabinets are more dangerous than our cars. But these statistics, of course, are just numbers. So many Americans, including members of our caucus who've taken to the House floor today, have been touched by this tragedy in some personal way.…”