[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 5805-5806]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                             OPIOID CRISIS

  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. President, I wish to open my remarks with a 
congratulations to the Police Assisted Addiction and Recovery 
Initiative based in Gloucester, MA.
  Since it began less than 11 months ago, this program is now 
partnering with more than 100 police departments in 24 States around 
the country to help people with opioid addiction to get the treatment 
they need. The program's approach is simple, but it is also 
revolutionary: having law enforcement work with those suffering from 
the disease of addiction by removing the stigma surrounding it and 
placing them into treatment instead of behind bars.
  I thank the founders of this program--Gloucester police chief Leonard 
Campanello and John Rosenthal--for their leadership and compassion, and 
I urge everyone to learn more about this national model for combating 
the opioid crisis.
  It is that crisis that I am here to talk about this afternoon. Today, 
I wish to call attention to a serious issue facing Massachusetts and 
soon to face every single community in the United States of America. 
Illicit fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times stronger than 
heroin. Let me say that again. Fentanyl is 50 times stronger than 
heroin and 100 times more powerful than morphine. It is responsible for 
the largest increase in drug overdose deaths in recent years.
  More than 700 deaths in the United States were attributable to 
fentanyl and its components between 2013 and 2014. In Massachusetts 
alone, 336 people died from fentanyl-related overdoses between 2014 and 
2015. More recently, among the 1,319 opioid-related deaths in the 
Commonwealth of Massachusetts in 2015 for which a blood test was 
available, more than half--754--tested positive for fentanyl. That is 
an astounding number for one State. That is an astounding increase in 
the impact that fentanyl is having in deaths in the State of 
Massachusetts.
  But it is not just isolated to Massachusetts, because fentanyl is the 
Godzilla of opioids, and it will overrun communities and lay them to 
waste unless we take action now to stop it.
  For those who may not know about this new scourge, Mexico and China 
are the primary foreign sources for illicit fentanyl, for the chemicals 
and building blocks from which it is made, and for other illicit 
substances very similar to fentanyl--called fentanyl analogs--and which 
are trafficked into the United States from outside of our borders. 
Fentanyl powder is often mixed with other illicit drugs like heroin or 
is disguised in pill form to resemble an opioid painkiller like 
OxyContin.
  Many drug users overdose on fentanyl because they have no idea that 
it is mixed into whatever substance they are injecting or whatever 
pills they are swallowing, and they do not realize just how deadly it 
is until it is too late.
  But capturing a total and accurate number of drug overdoses caused by 
fentanyl has been very challenging. Coroners and medical examiners do 
not usually test for the drug unless they are asked to, and they are 
often unaware that an overdose has a fentanyl link when an individual 
tests positive for a different substance such as heroin.
  Even more troubling, the men and the women who first respond to the 
scene of an overdose may not know how to identify fentanyl or how to 
handle the drug. This makes local and State first responders very 
vulnerable to the drug's harmful effects, because if the fentanyl 
powder is absorbed into the skin or accidentally inhaled, it can be 
deadly. In fact, a dose of just three salt-sized grains of fentanyl can 
be lethal.
  So think about that. You are a first responder. You are going into a 
home or a business thinking that you are responding to an opioid 
overdose situation when, in fact, you might be exposing yourself to the 
fentanyl in the air or to something which gets on your skin. That is 
how deadly this new substance is that is creating this epidemic across 
our country.
  Recently, DEA agents in Seattle raided a suspected fentanyl lab 
wearing HAZMAT suits and protective gear to make sure they did not 
inadvertently breathe in or touch the fentanyl. The DEA has told me 
that they sometimes cannot use dogs to sniff packages coming in from 
overseas suspected of containing fentanyl because these drug-detection 
dogs may die if they even inhale it.
  The Drug Enforcement Administration is so concerned about this 
synthetic opioid that in March of 2015 it issued a nationwide alert 
highlighting fentanyl as a threat to health and public safety.
  Fentanyl is a very real problem in my home State of Massachusetts. 
Lawrence, MA, which is about half an hour north of Boston, is a hotspot 
for fentanyl trafficking. From Lawrence, the drug ends up being 
processed and sold all over New England.
  There are efforts already in place to address the spread of fentanyl. 
Mexico and China are its primary foreign sources and have been the 
focus of diplomatic efforts to curb fentanyl trafficking. We need to 
make sure that those countries are living up to their promises to 
combat the flow of this deadly drug and other synthetic opioids into 
the United States.
  We know naloxone, sometimes called Narcan, is an effective antidote 
against

[[Page 5806]]

an opioid overdose. But a single dose of naloxone is typically not 
enough to combat an overdose that includes fentanyl.
  That is why earlier today I called on the Department of Health and 
Human Services and the Department of State to outline our domestic and 
international strategy against the trafficking of illicit fentanyl into 
America. As we await their responses, I know there are several critical 
steps that we must take in order to save lives.
  We must educate the public about the existence of illicit fentanyl 
and the harm it can do.
  We must educate first responders--our firefighters, our EMTs, our 
sheriffs, our health care workers--so that they can protect against 
injury to themselves as they are trying to identify a fentanyl overdose 
and so that they can protect themselves from the harmful effects of 
that drug.
  Identifying a fentanyl overdose could mean the difference between 
administering multiple lifesaving doses of naloxone or death.
  We should invest in programs that ensure that naloxone--Narcan--is 
readily available and accessible to those most likely to witness an 
overdose. We need to make sure that there are no shortages or 
unnecessary price increases for this lifesaving treatment.
  We should issue guidance to States regarding the protocol for 
fentanyl testing in order to obtain a more accurate picture of 
fentanyl's deadly impact.
  Illicit fentanyl is different from other opioids. It is difficult to 
detect and has deadly consequences for those who unknowingly come 
within its path. We cannot let another day pass without taking the 
necessary steps to educate our communities about fentanyl, to develop a 
national strategy, and to collaborate with our international partners--
the Mexicans and the Chinese, especially--so that we can keep this 
illicit drug out of the cities and towns all over our country.
  American lives depend on a solution to the latest opioid crisis. It 
is going to be something that people look back at and say: How can 
something have been worse than the heroin epidemic? How can something 
have caused more deaths than the heroin epidemic? That is where 
fentanyl is already in the State of Massachusetts. It is something that 
is going to come to each and every State in our country.
  We have to take action now. We have to ensure that we protect our 
borders from it entering, but then we have to make sure that we give 
the proper training and protections and put them in place for every 
State and every city and town to be able to protect against this 
infecting our communities.
  So I thank the Chair for giving me the opportunity to address the 
Chamber today.
  I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Cassidy). The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SASSE. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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