Political Quotes

“I now turn to the issue of opiate addiction. I thank my colleagues again on the Judiciary Committee for reporting on legislation today, on a bipartisan basis--in fact, there wasn't a single ``no'' vote. It was reported out on a voice vote. Everybody in committee agreed to it. That doesn't happen very often. The reason it happened this way is that the legislation before the committee called CARA--the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act--is legislation that has been thoughtfully crafted, with Republicans and Democrats alike, really for the past 3 years. We have had five conferences in Washington, DC, to put together the experts from all over the country. Sheldon Whitehouse and I have lead this effort but also with Senator Ayotte, Senator Klobuchar, and others. What we have said is that we want to come up with legislation that will make a difference in our States and around the country to deal with what is sadly a growing crisis of people who are abusing prescription drugs, heroin, and this addiction problem is leading to not just a lot more people becoming addicted but people actually overdosing and dying. In Ohio we lost over 2,400 fellow Ohioans last year to overdose deaths. It is now the No. 1 cause of death in America, accidental deaths in America. Now more people are dying from overdoses than they are from car accidents. So this is an issue that affects every single one of us. It has no ZIP Code.…”