On the recordJune 2, 2015
I thank my good friend for yielding. Madam Chairman, years ago, one of the positions I served was as a director for drug addiction and alcoholism, and one of my duties was as a methadone doctor. This drug is really a new form of methadone. It can be applied and can be employed in the treatment of heroin addiction. But at the end of the day, it too is highly addictive. It is a scheduled drug, and it is abused. So it deserves the same kind of safeguards and protections and oversight as any other addictive drug. And so if my friends really want to see this used as an effective tool and not itself become a dangerous drug out on the open market being diverted and perhaps even sold on the black market, I suggest that we oppose this amendment and let's continue the good, strong oversight that we have under the CSA.
