Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, in my home State of Massachusetts, and in many other States across the country, we are battling a crisis that is blind to income, race, gender, and politics. That crisis is opiate addiction. It is happening at a deadly rate across the country, increasing by nearly 60 percent over the last decade. Today, I want to focus on the youngest of those affected by this epidemic. Every hour, a baby is born in the United States addicted to opiates. In Massachusetts, the number of babies born with this condition has risen to five times the national rate. In Kentucky, the rate has increased thirtyfold; in Ohio, sixfold; and in Colorado, as many as 6 percent of the babies born will experience these addiction symptoms. Babies born with the condition known as Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, or NAS, are born into the pain of opiate withdrawal, which adults report as the worst pain they have experienced in their lives. These babies may suffer from seizures, breathing problems, fevers, tremors, or difficulty feeding. These symptoms can last for months and lead to weeks of hospitalization. One boy suffering from NAS in my district experienced such severe seizures that he suffered a detached retina. In an urgent response to the surge of NAS diagnoses, hospitals across the country have begun piecing together the best methods to diagnose and treat NAS.…”