Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 5762, the Joint Task Force to Combat Opioid Trafficking Act of 2018. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I thank my colleague, the gentleman from New York, Chairman Donovan, for his kind and strong words of support for this bill. This has been a truly bipartisan effort on the committee, and I thank the gentleman for his work on this and for his support. Again, Mr. Speaker, we are in the midst of a public health emergency that is devastating communities across the country, including my home State of Rhode Island. No matter your race, gender, age, religion, or socioeconomic status, Americans are suffering from the opioid overdose epidemic. We know that approximately 42,000 fatalities were attributed to opioids in 2016, and we know that fentanyl is exacerbating the problem. This powerful synthetic opioid, which is 25 to 50 times stronger than heroin and 50 to 100 times more powerful than morphine, has caused 15 times more deaths in Rhode Island during 2016 than in 2009. In its purest form as a powder, or as grains similar to the size of salt, fentanyl's lethal potency often harms people when unknowingly mixed with other illicit drugs, like heroin, or marketed on the street as a different substance entirely.…”