Sheila Jackson Lee: “I think it is important to emphasize that, really, treatment works, and this is an example. ``Thomas Gooch has spent…”

“I think it is important to emphasize that, really, treatment works, and this is an example. ``Thomas Gooch has spent more than 30 years struggling with illegal drugs. The 52- year-old Nashville, Tennessee, native grew up in extreme poverty. He was first incarcerated in 1988 and spent the next 15 years in and out of jail for using and selling narcotics. `Until 2003,' Gooch says. `That was the first time I went to treatment and the last time I used.''' This has to also be a component, which is the treatment of individuals whose conditions put them in this way. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record ``The Opioid Epidemic Is Surging Among Black People Because of Unequal Access to Treatment.'' [From Scientific American, Dec. 1, 2022] The Opioid Epidemic Is Surging Among Black People Because of Unequal Access to Treatment (By Melba Newsome and Gioncarlo Valentine) In one way or another, Thomas Gooch has spent more than 30 years struggling with illegal drugs. The 52-year-old Nashville, Tenn., native grew up in extreme poverty. He was first incarcerated in 1988 and spent the next 15 years in and out of jail for using and selling narcotics. ``Until 2003,'' Gooch says. ``That was the first time I went to treatment and the last time I used.'' Since then, for most of 19 years, Gooch has been trying to get others into recovery or just keep them alive.…”