Political Quotes

“we have come to a crisis point in our country. In 2014, 18,893 people died due to a prescription opioid overdose. On average, 51 people die every day. What we are talking about is legal prescription drugs that are basically produced by pharmaceuticals, which are great companies. They are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, which is supposed to look out for the well-being and welfare of all the citizens of this great country. They are prescribed to us by our doctors, the most trusted persons outside of our family. Now it has become an epidemic. It is doing more harm to people than anything I know of right now. When I talk about an epidemic, we have lost over 200,000 people since 1999, and not to raise this to the level that we should so we can fix this is ridiculous, and the trend is still going in the wrong direction. Some 16 percent more people died in 2014 than died in 2013. We have lost almost 200,000 Americans to prescription opioid abuse since 1999, as I said, and we must take action to stop the epidemic. Unfortunately, a major barrier that those who are suffering from opioid addiction face is inefficient access to substance abuse treatment. There is not one of us in the Senate or in our States, who doesn't have somebody in their immediate or extended family or a close friend that has not been affected either by legal drug abuse or illicit drugs. If you talk to those without any means, you know they have nothing. They have nowhere to go.…”