Political Quotes

“I rise today because of the crisis we have with the country's opiate addictions--prescription drugs--in the Presiding Officer's wonderful State of Alaska, the State of West Virginia, and every other State in the Union. West Virginia has the highest drug overdose death rate in the Nation due to prescription drug abuse. Just in 2016, West Virginia reported 818 overdose deaths, which is 4 times the number that occurred in 2001 and is a nearly 13-percent increase just from 2015, when it was about 607. More than 700 West Virginians died from an opioid overdose last year, and 42,000 people in West Virginia, including 4,000 youth, sought treatment for illegal drug use, but they failed to receive it. There is no place for them to go. The Presiding Officer and I have spoken about this, and I appreciate his willingness and openness to look at how we cure that. I have a bill called the LifeBOAT Act, which the Presiding Officer has been so graciously looking at. It is something that I believe would give us the funding mechanism, and it won't be a hardship. It also gives exemptions for people who have chronic pain from cancer and all the chronic illnesses that are out there. Basically, the opiate drugs that are sold on a day-to-day basis by the millions and millions--it is a one-penny revenue source, one penny per milligram. That would give us the funding mechanism we need in order to continue to have expanded services for addiction.…”