Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 449, the Synthetic Drug Awareness Act of 2017, which requires the Surgeon General to report to Congress on the public health effects of the in reased use since January 2010 by individuals who are 12 to 18 years old of drugs developed and manufactured to avoid control under the Controlled Substances Act. The term ``synthetic drug'' means a drug which is developed and manufactured to avoid control under the Controlled Substances Act. There are more than 200 identified synthetic drug compounds and more than 90 different synthetic drug marijuana compounds. Many of these synthetic drugs are made in foreign countries and then smuggled into the United States. These clandestinely-made drugs have no manufacturing safety standards that are normally required by the Food and Drug Administration. Synthetic opioids have surpassed prescription opioids as the most common drug class involved in overdose deaths in the United States. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, fentanyl-related deaths nationwide are up from previous years by 73 percent. Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid created using man-made chemical components rather than naturally occurring ingredients, is 50-100 times more potent than morphine. Overall, drug overdose deaths involving fentanyl-type drugs in th United States rose from about 3,000 in 2010 to more than 19,400 in 2016.…”