Political Quotes

“I rise, as I have for the past few weeks, to bring stories of the opiate crisis that we have throughout my State, the Presiding Officer's State of North Carolina, and all over this country. This epidemic is something we have to face because it affects every person in America right now. There is not a person I know of and not anyone, I believe, in America who doesn't know somebody in their immediate family, extended family, or close friend who hasn't been affected by prescription drug abuse or illicit drug abuse. I have been dealing with this since my days as Governor of the great State of West Virginia. As the Presiding Officer knows, it has ravaged my State. We have been hit harder than any other State in the country. Drug overdoses have soared by over 700 percent since 1999. Just last year alone, we lost over 600 West Virginians to opioids. These are legal prescription drugs that are made legally in the country by a legal manufacturer of pharmaceuticals. They are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, a Federal agency that is supposed to look out for our well-being. They are being prescribed by the most trusted person next to our family members, our doctors, and they are killing us. Our State is not unique in that it has hit everybody. Fifty-one Americans are dying every day--every day. We have lost over 200,000 Americans. Two hundred thousand Americans have died since 1999. If we think about that in epidemic proportions--we are talking about Zika.…”