[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 25 (Tuesday, February 8, 2022)]
[House]
[Page H1061]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 FENTANYL OVERDOSES SKYROCKETED IN 2021

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, in 2021, U.S. drug overdoses due to 
fentanyl skyrocketed, and it is now reported to be the leading cause of 
death for Americans aged 18 to 45. The leading cause of death for 
Americans between 18 and 45 is imported fentanyl, mostly coming across 
our open southern border.
  Instead of combating this epidemic by prosecuting drug traffickers or 
banning molecularly altered fentanyl substances, the Biden 
administration is making America's drug problem worse by actually 
putting crack pipes into the hands of users--crack pipes distributed by 
the U.S. Government into the hands of drug users. Yes.
  This has been already modeled in San Francisco, so I guess we want to 
do the Californication of the rest of the country with these crazy 
ideas coming from the Biden administration. Boy, we have gone from just 
don't do it to, hey, just hand it all out.
  It is unbelievable that this is a policy at a time of drug problems 
in this country skyrocketing, harm coming to people, and the Biden 
administration wants to hand out free crack pipes in the name, I guess, 
of racial equity. Unbelievable.

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