[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 154 (Wednesday, October 21, 2015)]
[House]
[Page H7031]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              DRUG CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from West 
Virginia (Mr. Mooney) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia. Mr. Speaker, my State of West Virginia 
is experiencing a crisis. West Virginia is leading the country in a 
rather grim category: drug overdoses. This issue goes beyond party 
lines, and it is ripping our State apart.
  President Obama is bringing national attention to our drug crisis by 
coming to my district this afternoon to discuss the prescription drug 
and heroin epidemic.
  The statistics are disturbing. Overdoses in West Virginia increased 
by 134 percent between 2012 and 2013, which accounts for about 34 drug 
overdose deaths per 100,000 West Virginia residents. This overdose rate 
is more than double the national average.
  There is no magical solution to this epidemic. We need local, State, 
and Federal officials to work together to effectively fight back. One 
of the ways that we can do this is to have the Federal Government 
support the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program, also known 
as HIDTA. The HIDTA program provides needed funds to law enforcement to 
combat drug trafficking while also helping local treatment and 
prevention efforts.
  I have been hosting roundtable discussions across my district to hear 
directly from communities that are affected by the drug epidemic. I 
recently held one of these discussions in the town of Romney, West 
Virginia, in September, to talk about the ongoing issues they face in 
that community.
  Officials at the meeting agreed that we need to utilize all resources 
available at the local, State, and Federal levels, and we agreed that 
HIDTA was a key tool in fighting back. It was also pointed out that 
foster parents are needed to help care for children whose parents are 
struggling with drug addiction issues.
  So you can help, too.
  But addressing drug trafficking is not the only thing that needs to 
be done to help fight the epidemic. We need to help the youngest 
victims of our shared battle with this crisis: infants who are born 
addicted.
  That is why I cosponsored and voted for H.R. 1462, the Protecting Our 
Infants Act of 2015, which passed the House unanimously and is awaiting 
action in the U.S. Senate. This bill addresses a condition called 
neonatal abstinence syndrome by helping to find the best way to 
diagnose, evaluate, and coordinate Federal efforts to help research and 
respond to this debilitating condition. Infants who suffer from 
neonatal abstinence syndrome can experience seizures, respiratory 
impairments, tremors, fever, and difficulty feeding.
  Research published by the Journal of Perinatology found that the 
number of infants suffering from withdrawal grew nearly fivefold from 
2000 to 2012. Evidence also shows that an infant is born with drug 
withdrawal every 25 minutes in the United States.
  In West Virginia, it is estimated that, in 1 out of every 13 births, 
a baby is addicted to drugs. This is a problem that needs serious 
attention immediately, but this is just one crucial step.
  To help fight addiction, one of the latest tools available to the 
public in West Virginia is a new 24-hour call line that has been 
launched to help people battling substance and mental health issues in 
West Virginia.
  The call line is 1-844-HELP4WV. The line is open 24 hours a day, 7 
days a week, with the promise of never being put on hold. We must 
continue to work together to fight this epidemic.

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