[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5913]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         SOLVING OPIOID CRISIS

  (Mr. FITZPATRICK asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. FITZPATRICK. Mr. Speaker, as communities across my district and 
across the Nation continue to deal with the crisis of opioid abuse and 
addiction, it is hard to imagine that a synthetic drug exists that is 
50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine.
  Fentanyl is a manufactured opioid, which, especially in its illicit 
versions, has contributed to tens of thousands of deaths. Especially 
concerning is the fact that this synthetic poison can be ordered online 
and delivered via medical or express consignment couriers from places 
like China, and because of its high potency in small amounts, Fentanyl 
is extremely difficult for law enforcement officials and authorities to 
detect.
  That is why I have joined Congresswoman Niki Tsongas in introducing 
the INTERDICT Act which will provide U.S. Customs and Border Protection 
agents access to the latest chemical screening devices and scientific 
support to both detect and intercept synthetic opioids before they can 
cause our communities more harm and more devastation.
  So I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan legislation. As 
both parties, we must come together, and this is one piece of a larger 
response to the opioid epidemic. Both parties can and must come 
together to solve this crisis to take on this challenge head on.

                          ____________________