Amy Klobuchar: “I come to the floor today to speak about a major problem across my State--the Presiding Officer has seen it in Iowa--and…”

“I come to the floor today to speak about a major problem across my State--the Presiding Officer has seen it in Iowa--and across the country, and that is the scourge of synthetic drugs. We have all seen reports of people who have hurt themselves or others or who have died under the influence of dangerous drugs. This issue hit home in my State after Trevor Robinson, a 19-year-old from Blaine, MN, died after overdosing on a drug called 2C-E in 2010. I introduced a bill to outlaw 2C-E and other similar substances, and with the help of Senator Grassley, as well as Senator Schumer, we were able to get that bill signed into law. But there is so much more that needs to be done, as we have learned since we passed that bill. Here is one recent example. Law enforcement officials in Florida and throughout the country are dealing with a synthetic drug called Flakka. This extremely dangerous drug has been linked to hallucinations and other bizarre behavior. We are always trying to stay one step ahead of these new and dangerous compounds because the way the law works now, we have to keep adding new compounds. So what happens is that the crooks who are manufacturing these drugs--the drug leaders, the people who are running these drug rings--are actually just changing the compounds up so they are different, and they are staying one step ahead of the law in that way. Before I was elected to the Senate, I spent 8 years serving as chief prosecutor in Minnesota's largest county.…”