Ed Markey: “I wish to open my remarks with a congratulations to the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative based in…”

“I wish to open my remarks with a congratulations to the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery Initiative based in Gloucester, MA. Since it began less than 11 months ago, this program is now partnering with more than 100 police departments in 24 States around the country to help people with opioid addiction to get the treatment they need. The program's approach is simple, but it is also revolutionary: having law enforcement work with those suffering from the disease of addiction by removing the stigma surrounding it and placing them into treatment instead of behind bars. I thank the founders of this program--Gloucester police chief Leonard Campanello and John Rosenthal--for their leadership and compassion, and I urge everyone to learn more about this national model for combating the opioid crisis. It is that crisis that I am here to talk about this afternoon. Today, I wish to call attention to a serious issue facing Massachusetts and soon to face every single community in the United States of America. Illicit fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times stronger than heroin. Let me say that again. Fentanyl is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times more powerful than morphine. It is responsible for the largest increase in drug overdose deaths in recent years. More than 700 deaths in the United States were attributable to fentanyl and its components between 2013 and 2014.…”