Combating the Heroin and Opioid Epidemic

Floor Speech

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Mr. KNIGHT. I want to thank Congresswoman Kuster and Congressman Guinta for taking a leadership role in this epidemic. This is something that has gone across the country. We have seen huge rises in the Northeast and across the Midwest, but this is something that is not immune from any one of our districts.

I, along with Representatives Esty and Costello, are sponsoring legislation to establish education programs for both consumer awareness and practitioner training to get at the root of most of these addictions.

As a police officer for 18 years with the LAPD, I have seen an awful lot of drug addiction and drug addiction problems in our streets. We saw rock hit our streets many, many years ago, and that is still infiltrating many of our urban areas in America. Then we moved on to other drugs like meth and heroin.

Heroin was always one of those kind of taboo drugs, but today it is not. We have seen a lot of the kids that get addicted because they got a sports injury or they got some other issue and have gotten a prescription drug, and they have moved on from the oxys when they have run out of these opioids and they have moved on to heroin.

So it has not become a taboo drug. It has actually been a new drug that they can continue on their addiction; and they don't understand what it is doing to their body, and they don't understand the addictions that are hurting them and, in some instances, killing them.

We have seen heroin and fentanyl taking over our streets and not just moving from California to Maine, but absolutely taking over America and hurting our kids and killing our kids in record numbers.

My wife is also an NICU nurse. She has been an NICU nurse for about 20 years, and she has seen the effects of little babies that have come in and are now addicted to these drugs, and they are addicted to heroin. Seeing what this does to a baby that is born premature and now addicted to this drug makes your heart go out, but you also understand the problems that these babies are going to have probably for a very long time in their young lives.

If we don't do something, this will continue to ravage our kids, and it will continue to kill our kids on our streets. If Congressman Guinta and Congresswoman Kuster had not brought this forward, then somebody would have had to. But who? So I say I thank you to them both for doing this. I know it ravages your State of New Hampshire, but it also affects our States and our cities across the country. Without leadership, this would have continued to go on.

These bills that we are voting on will do something. They will have an effect. The local administrations have to have an effect. Our counties and our States have to have an effect or this will continue on.

So I say I thank you to the gentlewoman and the gentleman, and I encourage everyone to vote on these.

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