Amy Klobuchar: “I join my colleagues in speaking about the opioid crisis that has devastated families in States across the country. I…”

“I join my colleagues in speaking about the opioid crisis that has devastated families in States across the country. I thank my colleague, Senator Manchin, for organizing the speeches today. In my State, deaths from prescription drug abuse have now claimed the lives of more Minnesotans than have homicides or car crashes. We lost our beloved Prince because of an opioid overdose, which is still being investigated. Just as importantly, we lost a student in Duluth and a mom in Rochester, MN--over 400 people in just the last year. We continue to see dangerous synthetic opioids shipped across our borders in increasing amounts--a trend that the U.S. Customs and Border Protection expects to continue, as we heard in a Judiciary Committee hearing last week. Today, I joined Senator Portman in his subcommittee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, and we talked about what is going on from that perspective as well. While there is more work to do to combat this epidemic, first, I recognize that we have made some meaningful progress on a bipartisan basis. We passed the CARA Act, which is something that was led by Senators Portman, Whitehouse, Ayotte, and me. We set a framework up for the Nation, and I look at it in three ways. The first way is that we have to do everything we can to prevent addiction. That means changing some of our prescription practices across the country. Do you really need 30 pills when you get your wisdom teeth out?…”