Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I thank Congresswoman Kuster for her leadership in bringing us together this evening. Congressman Guinta has really done the Nation a huge service. I rise tonight to speak for the mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, children and friends who have buried a loved one because of heroin. Nationwide, there has been a fourfold increase in death from opiates over the last decade, and every year nearly 17,000 people die from prescription opiate overdoses. Over 8,000 die from heroin overdoses, and more than 400,000 seek treatment in emergency rooms. In Ohio alone, heroin kills an average of 23 people every week, more than 1,100 persons per year. Heroin and opiate abuse is not a criminal justice issue alone. This Nation must recognize this addiction as the overwhelming, powerful, chemical dependance condition it is. Concurrently, too, it is often a mental health and medical crisis as well. They tell us the annual financial cost for our society now is over $33 billion a year, and that is based on 1996 figures. The gravest cost is in lives lost and grief felt by those loved ones whom the overdose victims leave behind. I think of the family of my own district staffer, Theresa Morris, who lost her beloved cousin, Angelique ``Angel'' Kidd, this past July to heroin. Angel grew up in a working class family, got married young, had two children, and went to work in food service.…”