Political Quotes

“I have come to the floor of the Senate today to talk about the opioid crisis, to talk about what is happening out there in our communities and how some of our Federal legislation is working, and to talk about some good news, which is that there is some improvement in terms of the overdose deaths we have seen in this country, but also a warning that although we are finally making progress on the opioid crisis, we are also seeing other drugs, such as pure crystal meth, coming from Mexico and other drugs beginning to take hold in our communities. So let me start, if I could, by talking a little about what the opioid crisis has been and what we are doing to address it. You recall that the last data we had, which is for 2017--over 70,000 Americans lost their lives to overdoses. The No. 1 drug, the No. 1 killer, has been fentanyl, which is a synthetic opioid that, about 4 or 5 years ago, hit our communities hard. Year after year, for 7 or 8 years now, we have seen increases every single year in the number of people who die from overdoses, which is one way to measure it. Another way to measure it is just the number of people addicted. That is a harder figure to find, but that has also increased year to year. It is devastating communities. The No. 1 cause of death in my home State of Ohio is opioid overdoses. Among Americans under 50, it is now the No. 1 cause of death in America. It also has had many impacts on our health system and on our criminal justice system.…”