[Congressional Record Volume 162, Number 165 (Thursday, November 17, 2016)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6495-S6496]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 HEROIN AND PRESCRIPTION DRUG EPIDEMIC

  Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I thank the majority leader for allowing 
me to speak briefly. I rise to talk about an issue that is affecting 
every State represented in this body; that is, this heroin and 
prescription drug epidemic.
  Unfortunately, opioids is an issue that is very much present in my 
home State of Ohio right now. We have seen over the last 48 hours, 10 
overdoses in one rural county in North Central Ohio, Seneca County. We 
are told that already in Lucas County in the Toledo area there have 
been 150 overdoses in the last few weeks of this month, heading toward, 
unfortunately, what will be a record.
  This issue is affecting families, it is tearing apart families, it is 
affecting communities, it is causing crime. Pretty much every county in 
Ohio tells me that the No. 1 cause of crime now is the heroin, 
prescription drug, opioid issue. A lot of thefts are being reported 
because of it but also other crimes which result from people being torn 
apart from their families, from their community, from their jobs based 
on this addiction.
  I come to the floor to talk about a report that was issued today by 
the U.S. Surgeon General. This report is about addiction in America. I 
applaud the Surgeon General for putting it out there. It is an 11-page 
report. If you

[[Page S6496]]

haven't had a chance to look at it yet, I hope you will. I hope it will 
raise awareness around our country of this issue.
  It talks about something incredibly important as to how we approach 
it, which is that addiction is a disease and should be treated as such. 
As the Surgeon General says, this is not a moral failing but rather it 
is like other diseases--something that actually changes your brain and 
creates a problem that must be dealt with through treatment and longer 
term recovery just as would be the case of other diseases. I think that 
alone is a significant finding by the Surgeon General, to help us come 
up with the right policies to address it but also raise awareness in 
communities around the country.
  The first chapter of this report talks about something this Chamber 
has spent a lot of time on, which is the importance of prevention and 
education. It talks about the need to look at this from a science 
perspective. It talks about the need to look at it in terms of longer 
term recovery. That summary in the first chapter is again something I 
would commend everybody to read just to sort of bring you up to speed, 
if you haven't been, on the importance of this issue and importance of 
addressing it.
  The next chapter focuses on the science behind addiction. This is 
consistent with a conference we had in Washington, DC, almost a year 
ago now--Senator Whitehouse and myself--in anticipation of proposing 
legislation in this area. We brought in experts from all over the 
country to talk about the science behind addiction, why it happens, how 
it happens. As was indicated earlier, that was something that led us to 
focus on the fact that addiction is a disease. It is something that 
impacts the brain. The brain responds to chemical substances in certain 
ways for certain people, and that addiction is something that has to be 
addressed through, again, treatment and longer term recovery.
  The legislation we came up with after this, by the way, is called the 
Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act. That legislation was passed 
late in the summer. It is now in the process of being implemented by 
the administration. I encourage the Surgeon General, with his great 11-
page report, to also focus on implementing this legislation as soon as 
possible, including in this area of treating it as a disease.
  The next chapter talks about a key component, which is prevention and 
education. It talks about the need for us to use evidence-based 
techniques around the country. Again, this legislation--the 
Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, also known as CARA--focuses 
on this and starts a national awareness campaign to make this link 
between prescription drugs and heroin. Sadly, many people who are on 
heroin--probably four out of five people who are addicted to heroin--
started with prescription drugs. Sometimes it was because of an 
accident or an injury where someone was prescribed a painkiller that 
was addictive that then led to the addiction and then led to the use of 
heroin as a less-expensive and sometimes more accessible alternative to 
it.
  I think that issue of prevention and education is incredibly 
important. The take-back programs on pharmaceuticals is also important. 
The anti-drug coalitions supported in our legislation are also 
important. This is all part of how to get people from falling into this 
funnel of addiction, which is to do a much better job of explaining the 
problem and understanding the link particularly between prescription 
drugs and these other opioids.
  The next chapter talks about how we treat addiction. This talks about 
the need for us to get people out of the criminal justice system and 
into treatment. Our legislation helps in that as well by providing 
funds for diversion programs to ensure that people who are addicted are 
not simply locked up but are also given the opportunity to be able to 
get into a treatment program and into a longer term recovery program.
  The next chapter of this report also talks about recovery. CARA is 
the first legislation to actually fund recovery. I think we need to do 
even more in this area, but we certainly learned again from conferences 
in Washington, DC, over the last few years, that the success rate is 
increased dramatically where you have not just a short-term treatment 
program but a longer term program of recovery, where people are 
surrounded by those who support them, and specifically sober housing 
arrangements and other ways to support people with a supportive 
environment rather than going back to the old gang or the old family or 
the old environment. Again, the report today does a good job of talking 
about that and the importance of it.
  The Surgeon General has a fashion for this, a commitment to it, and I 
applaud him for that. I do hope again that he focuses on this 
legislation. We have now passed it with the support of the 
administration. The President has signed it. The report does not 
mention the legislation, but it is consistent with every aspect of this 
report today.
  This report, I hope, will raise awareness nationally, as I said, but 
I hope it also raises awareness of the need to move very quickly to put 
in place the grant programs that need to be there to help on 
prevention, education, treatment, and recovery, help our law 
enforcement community and other first responders to be able to get 
access to Narcan--this miracle drug that reverses the effects of an 
overdose--help to provide the training, help to ensure we do have more 
drug take-back programs around the country. These Federal programs need 
to be put in place right away to allow the Federal Government to be a 
better partner with State and local government and with our communities 
and with our families to be able to reverse the tide on this issue that 
has, unfortunately, gripped my State and so many other States around 
the country.
  I look forward to continuing to work with the Surgeon General on this 
issue. Again, I commend this report today to your attention. I hope we 
will be able as a Congress to continue to provide the funding, as we 
have in the short-term spending that is in effect right now. We 
provided funding to ensure this legislation can be set up so we can 
stand up these programs and get this started. We need to continue that 
effort and, I think, redouble our efforts, including passing additional 
legislation as it becomes apparent it is needed.
  One piece of legislation I hope we move on, in addition to the 
Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, is legislation to try to stop 
some of these synthetic drugs from coming into our 
communities. Carfentanil, fentanyl, and U-4 and other synthetic heroins 
are coming in increasingly from overseas--China, India, and other 
places. They come by mail. There is a way for us to be able to reduce 
that simply by requiring that those who send products by mail have the 
same requirements you would have if you were FedEx or UPS or a private 
carrier--to know where it is coming from and what is in it and where it 
is going and have that information being provided in advance 
electronically. Based on law enforcement officials, that will help us 
to be able to stem the tide of these poisons coming into our 
communities and infecting our families, our children.

  These are all issues this Congress has taken up over the last 6 
months with legislation, with specific programs, and I hope we can 
continue to fund that now, to get the administration to set up these 
programs, and to ensure that we are in a position to respond as new 
dangers arise, as we have seen with synthetic heroin coming from 
overseas.
  I thank the Presiding Officer for giving me time today to talk about 
this. Again, I commend this report today by the Surgeon General to be 
able to increase awareness and to ensure that every community in 
America is armed with the facts and the information to be able to push 
back and to help save lives and restore lives of those addicted.

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