Cory Booker: “I rise today to speak about amendment No. 4083, submitted by a dear friend and respected colleague of mine from New…”

“I rise today to speak about amendment No. 4083, submitted by a dear friend and respected colleague of mine from New Hampshire whom I must in good faith disagree with. This amendment increases already existing mandatory minimum sentences on offenses related to fentanyl and would not make our communities safer. It would redirect funds away from the kinds of investments we need to truly end the opioid abuse and heroin use epidemic. Today we face a deadly reality, a community-shattering reality--an opioid epidemic in America. I know what this epidemic is doing to our communities. In my home State of New Jersey, the heroin death rate is more than three times the national average. The heroin overdose rate in New Jersey now eclipses that of homicides, suicides, car accidents, and AIDS as a leading cause of death. Over the past 10 years, we have lost over 1,500 people under the age of 30 to heroin overdoses in New Jersey alone. I know that nationally death rates from prescription opioid overdoses have tripled in the last 20 years. I know that the opioid epidemic knows no bounds. It crosses geographic lines, economic lines, and racial lines. This is an epidemic that is tearing apart families, individuals, and communities. This is an American epidemic, but this amendment is not part of the solution. First of all, mandatory minimums themselves have proven to be ineffective in making us a safer Nation and stopping the drug war.…”