Political Quotes

“the Presiding Officer and I are colleagues from the same State, so she knows as well as I know about the problems we have with opioid addiction, prescription drug abuse throughout our State and all over this country. We have come to a crisis point in this country. In 2014, 18,893 people died from a prescription opioid overdose. These are legal prescription drugs that are made by outstanding pharmaceutical manufacturers. They are approved by the Food and Drug Administration. They are prescribed to us by the most trusted person outside of our family--our doctor. It has created an epidemic of unbelievable proportions. Every day 51 people die from legal prescription drug abuse. Worse yet, the trend is going in the wrong way. It is not reducing; it is increasing. Sixteen percent more people died in 2014 than died in 2013. We have lost almost 200,000 since 1999. If we don't take action soon, this epidemic will become of mammoth proportion that we have done very little, if anything, to control. Unfortunately, a major barrier for those suffering opiate addiction is insufficient access to substance abuse treatment. I, like many people in public service 20 years to 30 years ago when this epidemic hit--we basically treated it as a crime. It is a crime if it is a violent crime that was committed because of drugs, or a sexual crime, but most likely that is not the case. It is mostly stealing.…”