Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Reduction Act of 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. PASCRELL. Mr. Chair, I rise today in support of H.R. 5046, the Comprehensive Opioid Abuse Reduction Act.

Addiction affects people from all walks of life. It is not confined to people of certain races, classes, and ages. Its broad reach is perhaps what makes it so terrifying.

Prescription drug abuse and alarming increases in heroin abuse have gripped our country and it is past time for it to grip the attention of the Congress.

I was proud to vote for many great bills this week to improve the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, particularly opioid abuse.

While all of these bills, including the one before us today, address many aspects of this complex issue, we need to be honest and admit that in order to truly address this problem, we have to invest funding in it.

There are already many programs in place that are successful in preventing and treating substance abuse, but they are underfunded. We need to change that.

As we embark on the Fiscal Year 2017 appropriations process, I urge my colleagues to keep this mind.

Substance abuse destroys families, friendships, our communities, and virtually everything else in its path. The time to act is now.

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