Kelly Ayotte: “I come to the floor today to express my serious concerns with the FDA's actions on opioid pain relievers and my concern…”

“I come to the floor today to express my serious concerns with the FDA's actions on opioid pain relievers and my concern that they have not sufficiently addressed what we are seeing as an epidemic in my home State of New Hampshire. The implications of prescribing opioids and ensuring that we take a very strong public health approach toward these pain relievers is important. I know my that my colleagues--Senators Markey, Manchin, and Blumenthal--have been on the floor previously to discuss the concerns they share about the FDA as well. I thank them for their leadership on this important issue. I think what is important to understand here is what we are facing when it comes to heroin, the drug deaths that are occurring in my home State of New Hampshire, the connection between people who are misusing prescription opioids and then becoming addicted to heroin, and the deadly use of a drug called fentanyl, which is 50 times more powerful than heroin. When we bring this all together, we have a situation with opioid abuse which includes painkiller abuse, heroin use, fentanyl abuse, and it is killing people in New Hampshire and across this country. Across this country, approximately 30,000 people died of heroin or prescription opioid overdoses in 2014.…”