Ed Markey: “I want to follow on with the discussion that Senator Ayotte from New Hampshire was bringing to the Senate floor. What…”

“I want to follow on with the discussion that Senator Ayotte from New Hampshire was bringing to the Senate floor. What she is saying is just so accurate in terms of the pervasive nature of this opioid-driven epidemic--pandemic--in the United States of America. It is time for us to come together in a bipartisan fashion to deal with what is now the great medical storm sweeping across this country. There has been a quadrupling of opioid-related deaths in just the last 14 years in our country. This is something that has to be understood. I heard Senator Ayotte mention it, but we can't say it enough: 80 percent of all people in the United States who die from heroin overdoses begin with prescription painkillers--opioids--that have been given to them by physicians. Let me say that again. Eighty percent of the people who die from heroin overdoses started on prescription pills. They got addicted to the prescription painkiller. It deals with the same receptors in the brain. It creates the same kind of need in the brain, and when people get addicted to prescription pain medicine, it is ultimately a very short to a product which is much less expensive--heroin--on the streets of the United States. This epidemic has to be dealt with and it has to be dealt with where it starts and it starts at the FDA. It starts at the Food and Drug Administration. It starts with the agency that approves these drugs for sale in the United States of America.…”