Political Quotes

“I rise to discuss a bill I am introducing called the Co-prescribing Saves Lives Act. All across the Nation, and certainly all across my Commonwealth, we are seeing the scourge of prescription drug abuse and a heroin epidemic. These opioids are having major impact in communities everywhere in Virginia, from the coal mines of Appalachia to rural communities in the Shenandoah Valley, to right here in suburban Fairfax County. I have heard, as have my colleagues, stories from parents who have buried children, from companies that can't find employees who can pass drug tests, and certainly from law enforcement officials, including judges, prosecutors, police officials, and sheriffs, who talk about the dramatic expansion of opioid addiction in this country. The numbers are kind of shocking. When I came to the Senate and started doing tours around the State in the spring of 2013, I really wasn't schooled about this, and I started to hear stories. Heroin and opioids now account for 25,000 American deaths a year. In Virginia, and in much of the United States, the deaths from opioid overdoses are now exceeding deaths from motor vehicle accidents. According to the Centers for Disease Control, in the United States fatal opioid-related drug overdose rates have quadrupled since 1990 and have never been higher than they are right now. The question is, How do we address this crisis? Obviously, the answer is there is no single answer.…”