Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman from New Jersey for yielding to me. Madam Chair, I will follow up with the last two colleagues of mine, the gentlewoman from California and the previous speaker. We cannot have what happened in the 1980s and 1990s of the scapegoating of communities with the heinous drug epidemic. It is interesting that now that fentanyl is impacting certain communities, it is now a health issue. In the 1980s and 1990s when there was a crack epidemic in urban communities, Nancy Reagan told us: ``Just say no.'' But here we are now, in this day and age, and now it is a major issue. Why? Because it is impacting other communities that people tend to care more about--their communities. What we are seeing now in minority communities was going on 20 years ago and we were screaming: Please, help. Please, let's stop this scourge. What we did was say: No, those people that are abusing those drugs are criminals. Let's lock them up--mass incarceration. Now, in this day and age with fentanyl, it is a health issue when the same thing was happening then is happening now. I don't know how one is a criminal act and now we need to have compassion. We do because this country is suffering. Our young people are dying. It is just unreal the scourge that this drug is. We have to remember that fentanyl is such a powerful opioid. It is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine. Two milligrams, or the size of five grains of salt, can cause a possible overdose.…”