[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14017-14020]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 PRESCRIPTION DRUG AND HEROIN EPIDEMIC

  Mr. PORTMAN. Madam President, I am on the floor to talk about an 
epidemic that has gripped my State of Ohio and affected every single 
State in this body in every community we represent; that is, the issue 
of prescription drug, heroin, and now fentanyl and other synthetic 
heroin addiction.
  This epidemic is affecting our communities in fundamental ways. It is 
breaking families apart. It is causing crime. In fact, in my home State 
of Ohio, as I talk to law enforcement officials in every county, they 
tell me it is the top reason for crime and the growth of crime.
  It is affecting our first responders. When I go to a firehouse now 
and talk to firefighters about what they do with most of their time, 
they tell me they do a lot more heroin runs than fire runs, and thank 
God because they are out there saving lives every single day. They now 
carry Narcan with them, which is a form of naloxone, which is a miracle 
drug that reduces the dangers because it reverses the effects of an 
overdose. They have provided Narcan 19,000 times in the last year in 
Ohio. This is something that is out there in all of our communities.
  Sometimes there is a huge spike in these overdoses. Sadly, we had 
that this week in Columbus, OH, when in the space of 24 hours we had 27 
overdoses. I have been working with the county coroner's office and 
with the health department in the city of Columbus to try to help them 
determine what the cause of this spike in overdoses was. It appears to 
be another case where there is a particularly dangerous batch of 
heroin, and it probably has something to do with these synthetic 
heroins that are coming into the States and our country--fentanyl, 
carfentanil, or U-4. A few flakes of carfentanil ingested can kill you. 
This is very dangerous stuff. I wish I could say it is getting better, 
but I fear it is only getting worse.
  I have been on this floor talking about this issue every single week 
since February. During that time period, we passed, by a vote of 92 to 
2, legislation to help address this issue. A vote of 92 to 2 is a rare 
vote in this place. Because Republicans and Democrats came together on 
this issue, we were able to pass something that will help. We spent 
3\1/2\ years working on it--my colleague Senator Whitehouse and I and 
others were very involved--to help ensure that we can get better 
prevention and education efforts out there; do more in terms of 
treatment for people who are addicted and need to get help; provide 
longer term recovery, which we believe is essential to successful 
treatment because all the facts indicate that unless you have the 
longer term recovery, the relapse rate is very high.
  We also help our police officers, our firefighters, and other first 
responders by saying: Let's get them the Narcan they need and the 
training they need to be able to save those lives.

[[Page 14018]]

  Very specifically, it also helps our veterans and pregnant women who 
are addicted and these babies born with dependency. Some very specific 
programs are going to help to turn the tide.
  Overall, I would say the legislation is important because for the 
first time ever not only is Congress supporting recovery, as we talked 
about, but we are also finally addressing this issue as it needs to be 
addressed, as a public health issue, saying that this is not a question 
of someone making a bad moral choice as much as it is a disease. It 
needs to be treated like a disease. Until addiction is treated as a 
disease, I think it is going to be very difficult for us to turn this 
tide and begin to save these lives.
  In my home State, it has been the top cause of accidental death, 
surpassing car accidents, probably since 2007. Sadly, that is now the 
case in many States around the country. Nationally, we believe it is 
the No. 1 cause of accidental death. Think about that.
  It is a situation that affects every State and our entire country, so 
in the legislation that was passed yesterday, called the continuing 
resolution, which is basically just a bill to continue the funding of 
government through December--it is a short-term spending bill--we were 
able to include $37 million to help implement this legislation, the 
Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act. I am very proud of that. I am 
very pleased that this Senate and the House were willing to go along 
with that.
  I know it is unusual because typically in a continuing resolution, 
you simply fund the previous year's funding and there are no new 
programs, no new starts. Frankly, the administration did not recommend 
a new start in this instance, although they did recommend an anomaly or 
an addition to the CR in 27 other areas. We had to rely on Members in 
the House and the Senate to do the right thing, to make an exception, 
and to include this funding. I thank my colleagues for doing that.
  I think it is critical that we begin to fully fund this Comprehensive 
Addiction and Recovery Act--otherwise known as CARA--and do it now and 
not wait until the regular appropriations process in December.
  That $37 million will help us stand up some programs. In particular, 
there are four I want to mention this morning. One is the community-
based coalition prevention grants, the second is the grants for access 
to overdose treatment, the third is the recovery grants, and the fourth 
is the State incentive grants for a comprehensive response to this 
opioid issue. In other words, we are dealing with prevention, 
education, treatment, and recovery, helping the States be more engaged 
and involved in this issue so the Federal Government can be a better 
partner.
  On the prevention side, what it does is start to tell people what is 
going on. We are doing that here today on the floor but specifically to 
let people know what this connection is between prescription drugs, 
prescription drug overprescribing and abuse, and heroin and fentanyl. 
The reason I think this is very important is that probably four out of 
five heroin addicts in Ohio started with prescription drugs. Many 
people don't know that. When they are prescribed a prescription drug 
for pain relief, sometimes they don't realize the potential for 
addiction.
  To the young people who are listening today, you need to know this. 
You need to understand this. Everybody does. Again, if we are going to 
turn the tide, we have to change the way we deal with it to ensure that 
people are getting the education they need to avoid getting into the 
funnel of addiction in the first place.
  This program called CARA also increases the availability naloxone, or 
Narcan, which is very important. It has long-term recovery grants, 
including grants for recovery colleges, recovery universities. In other 
words, there are programs within colleges and universities to help on 
recovery because unfortunately we are finding that many of our students 
need these recovery programs as they are trying to work through their 
addiction. It also supports recovery high schools and increases 
eligibility for alternatives to incarceration--drug courts and veterans 
courts. So instead of putting people in jail for using these drugs, we 
say: Let's do a diversion. If you stay sober and clean, you will stay 
out of jail and we will get you into treatment. As I have seen around 
our State, these programs can help people get back on their feet.
  These are critical changes. The experts who helped us write this 
legislation over the last 3\1/2\ years, who came here to Washington, 
where we held four different conferences on this issue and brought in 
the best minds, the best practices, tell us they believe this 
legislation will make a difference in our communities day to day.
  Of course, it is up to the administration to actually implement this 
aggressively. Congress has done its work to pass these new programs, to 
pass this legislation. Now it shifts over to the executive branch to 
administer it. There is no excuse that the funding is not there because 
we were able to provide this funding. It is an exception to a normal 
CR, but we got the $37 million of funding in to begin to get these 
programs up and running so we can begin to turn the tide on this 
addiction epidemic.
  There are some aspects of the legislation that are already working 
that don't require a new program or setting up a new program. For 
instance, nurse practitioners and physician's assistants are now 
permitted to be involved in administering Suboxone at treatment clinics 
around the country. We should get that up and going now. That shouldn't 
require a lot of time, effort, and new programs.
  Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to visit a fire station in 
Norwood, OH. This is a community of about 19,000 people that has had 56 
overdoses since June 1. That is one small town in Ohio with 56 
overdoses just since this summer. I met with law enforcement, I met 
with firefighters, and I met with other first responders. I met with a 
treatment specialist they brought in to help and work with them. They 
are doing some very interesting intervention work with families. They 
showed me a video of a young man who was overdosing. They showed me a 
video of police officers and then firefighters administering Narcan--
not once, not twice, but three times. They showed how he was brought 
back to life. It was tough to watch, but firefighters and other first 
responders, police officers, see that every single day.
  Every 3 hours someone dies of an overdose in Ohio, but every 3 hours 
many more are saved by the administering of naloxone and Narcan to 
bring them back to life. As they are doing in Norwood, OH, the key is 
to intervene with that person, their family, and their friends and get 
that person into treatment so first responders are not administering 
Narcan again the next week or sometimes even the next day.
  Over the last 4 years, the number of heroin overdoses has tripled. 
Let me repeat that. Over the last 4 years, the number of heroin 
overdoses has tripled. Sadly, there is reason to believe this trend is 
continuing.
  Even though our first responders save the vast majority of those who 
overdose in Ohio, in Ohio we are losing more lives every day. We have 
already had more drug overdoses and more drug overdose deaths this 
year, at the end of September, than we had all of last year.
  Of course, the numbers don't really tell the story. This story is 
about people. It is about dreams that have been shattered. It is about 
lives that have been cut short, often lives that are promising and 
young. It is about people like the 25-year-old student who was found 
dead of a heroin overdose in a bathroom stall at Columbus State 
University last week--25 years old, with his whole life ahead of him. 
It is about people like the Hess family of Crestline, OH. Their son 
Jason was a college student, a talented musician, a gifted athlete. One 
of his classmates got him to try heroin, to just try it. Almost 
immediately the drugs became everything in Jason's life. Jason's dad 
said: ``He liked his dealer more than he liked me.''
  I have met with several hundred addicts or recovering addicts in Ohio 
over

[[Page 14019]]

the last few years. Many of them tell me the same thing, which is that 
the drugs do become everything, so they become everything ahead of 
friends and family and work.
  Jason struggled with his addiction for 15 years. He was in and out of 
jail a lot and in and out of hospitals. In the past 2 months, his dad 
saved his life twice with naloxone because as family members they are 
now permitted to get Narcan over the counter.
  A few weeks ago, Jason died of an overdose. He was 35 years old. When 
his mother heard the death notice a few hours later--she was informed 
about it--she went to a cemetery with a bottle of Valium and committed 
suicide. It was her 60th birthday. In a note she left behind, she said: 
``Thanks, heroin. Another victim.'' That was the note she left for all 
of us.
  With this crisis getting worse and taking such a toll in Ohio, we 
have to get this legislation implemented as soon as possible and we 
have to continue to fight, not just for more funding but for better 
ideas and ways to address this problem at every level and in a 
comprehensive way.
  We need support for safe disposal sites for prescription drugs. That 
is part of the legislation. When you are at the drugstore or at the 
pharmacy getting your medication, you will also have an opportunity 
right there to dispose of some of the medication you may not have used. 
I have been to these dropoff sites. I was at one recently at Walgreens 
in Toledo, where they are implementing a program to provide these sites 
and to provide safe disposal of these drugs so they don't get in the 
wrong hands.
  The experts tell us that in most families in America, there are drugs 
available that can be dangerous. Many times, they are painkiller 
prescription drugs that are very addictive. Recently in Marion, OH, an 
18-month-old girl was able to get into her parents' Percocet, and she 
overdosed. We need these disposal sites to help protect kids like her.
  We need CARA's prevention efforts, such as its national awareness 
campaign that is making this link I talked about between prescription 
drugs and heroin. People need to understand this.
  Kelly Clixby of Marion, OH, needed that information. I met her 
earlier this year when I visited the Crawford-Marion Board of Alcohol, 
Drug Addiction, and Mental Health Services, where they are working hard 
every day to fight back against this epidemic.
  When I visited, the director, Jody Demo-Hodgins, told me that they 
are so overwhelmed with patients that ``most of the time, I feel like 
I'm drowning.'' They are overwhelmed, but they are doing a great job, 
and Kelly is an example.
  Kelly was prescribed painkillers. She became addicted to those 
painkillers, and, as is the case with many people, when those pills 
became too addictive and too expensive, when she couldn't afford them, 
she turned to heroin. Heroin is less expensive and more available, 
actually, in many cases. Within a year, she had lost her job, her 
house, her car, and custody of her five kids. Over the next decade, she 
and her husband Randy got a divorce. She was arrested four different 
times for shoplifting. She went to jail 19 times. She overdosed. 
Paramedics saved her life with naloxone, the Narcan we talked about. 
When Kelly was in the grip of this addiction, she didn't even want to 
get out of bed in the morning. She felt like she couldn't even get 
started on her day. She felt a constant sense of despair.
  Kelly's life turned around when her best friend Chrystina died of a 
heroin overdose. At that point, she realized she needed to get 
treatment. Nine months to the day after paramedics saved her life, 
Kelly got clean. With the help of medication--in her case, Vivitrol, 
which is medication that actually blocks the craving for the opioid, 
and it has worked very well in many cases in Ohio, including in our 
drug courts--with the help of Vivitrol and with the compassion of 
people at the Marion Area Counseling Center, Kerry has now been sober 
for a year and a half. She is back with her husband Randy. She is back 
with her kids and her family. She is now a grandmother. She is leading 
a 12-step program to help others. She is beating this because she got 
treatment.
  The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act will help get more 
people into treatment so we can have more success stories like Kelly's. 
As I said, we need to raise awareness about how easy it is to become 
addicted to these opioids.
  I believe that will also help us to be able to push aside the stigma 
that is so often associated with addiction. That is one reason people 
don't come forward and get treatment. Kelly said the stigma of 
addiction kept her from getting help when she needed it. She said:

       You feel horrible for stealing because you need to get 
     high. Then you get high and you feel horrible for getting 
     high. And then you have to steal again. I feel guilty because 
     I use, and I use because I feel guilty.

  And the stigma kept her from coming forward.
  Think about Tera Guest. Tera Guest is from Lorain, OH. She was a 
nurse's aide in a nursing home. She had been a good student and a 
talented artist. One day she was on her way to work and was hurrying 
down some stairs in her apartment building. She slipped, fell, and 
broke her ankle. When she went to her doctor, her doctor prescribed her 
Percocet and then OxyContin. She became addicted. When the 
prescriptions expired, like so many, she turned to heroin.
  Her mom Lori--who is a strong advocate on this issue and heads up the 
Lorain Community Task Force--found out about Tera's addiction when Tera 
was evicted from her apartment and started living out of her car.
  Lori felt what so many moms and dads have experienced in Ohio and 
across the country. She said that when her kids were young, ``We never 
discussed heroin. I never thought it would be part of our lives. You 
don't think that it's going to be your child; you don't think that it's 
going to be in your family. And when it is, the stigma makes you so 
ashamed'' and you don't want to talk about it.
  Her daughter Tera fought this addiction for 2 years. At just 24 years 
old, she died of an overdose of heroin laced with fentanyl. Fentanyl is 
this synthetic heroin that is creeping into our communities, this 
poison that is coming into our country from other countries, 
particularly China and India. It is coming here by the mail system.
  For Tera, it started with a broken ankle. It could happen to anybody. 
That is why we need this prevention effort--to warn people about the 
dangers and to help end the stigma to keep people from hiding it and to 
get them to come forward. For all these reasons--the prevention, the 
treatment, the recovery, and ending the stigma--the people we represent 
need this legislation to be enacted but also to be implemented as soon 
as possible.
  In order to help as many people as we can, we have to get the funding 
in the CR working and we have to continue to fight for funding.
  Madam President, we have talked about a lot of tough stories today. 
Unfortunately, the grip of this addiction is so great that there are a 
lot of heartbreaking stories, and it is getting worse, not better. But 
there is also hope. There is hope I see every week when I am back home 
in Ohio.
  I recently met Sheila Humphrey, whose child succumbed to a heroin 
addiction and an overdose and death. She started her own organization 
with other moms and family members, and they are having great success 
in intervening with these families and explaining the reason to get 
treatment and get into recovery. She gave me this bracelet. It talks 
about the Rally for Recovery in 2016. We had one in Ohio last weekend 
that I was able to attend.
  At that rally, with the Ohio Citizen Advocates for Addiction 
Recovery, I got to meet so many people who are in recovery. They came 
forward to talk to me about their stories and to talk about what they 
are doing to help others. They talked to me about the need for us to 
have more treatments and recovery programs. I met someone who has not 
only beaten the addiction but is a counselor in Dayton, OH, named Gary. 
Gary Gonnella is helping others to get their lives back on track. He is

[[Page 14020]]

incredibly persuasive because he has a story to tell.
  Gary told me: Senator, there is hope. Don't give up.
  He is telling me don't give up. I am telling my colleagues: People 
expect us not to give up. They are not giving up. This guy, Gary, is a 
recovering addict. He is not giving up, and he is asking us to ensure 
we do everything we can to help--to be a better partner with State and 
local governments and with the nonprofits out there in the trenches 
every day that are doing this work with folks like Gary who are looking 
for our help. CARA will give more people more hope.
  So on behalf of all of those whom I talked about today, those whose 
lives were cut short, and their family members, and on behalf of our 
communities, let's continue this fight. Let's ensure we do, in fact, 
get CARA implemented quickly. Let's ensure we do continue to push not 
just to provide funding but new ideas and better ideas.
  There is new legislation we just introduced in the last couple of 
weeks called the STOP Act that stops the synthetic heroin, the 
fentanyl, the carfentanil, and U-4 from coming into our country from 
other countries by requiring packages include information about where 
the package is from, what is in it, and where it is going. That is not 
required now by the post office, but it is required by private 
carriers. So these traffickers are using the postal system, including 
the U.S. postal system, to move these deadly chemicals into our 
communities. We need to stop that.
  So there is more we can and should do. It is our responsibility to do 
that. As we break for these elections and as the lameduck period in 
December comes upon us after that, let's continue to work to ensure we 
are able to turn this tide and bring back more hope.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Pennsylvania.

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