Date: 2016-05-12
Speaker: JACKSON LEE (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. I thank Congresswoman BONNIE WATSON COLEMAN for leading this Special Order and for bringing us together around two very important issues. not only this question of opioids. but. as well. the question of the rights of women. Let me say that this has been a week for news. news coming from the most powerful lawmaking body in the Nation. As I heard a Member say in the course of the debate on the list of opioids legislation. it is not that we needed it. for the record is established but that we would want to have those areas that are usually filled with media really take hold of what is being done on the floor of the United States House of Representatives and. of course. the complementary legislation of the other body. Over the past 2 days. we passed legislation dealing with pregnant women. we passed legislation dealing with teenagers who lost their lives because of overdose of prescription drugs. and we passed legislation that gave a whole litany under the Judiciary Committee not of mandatory minimums and mass incarceration. but how do we bring law enforcement and substance abuse counselors together? How do we provide training for police officers to use naloxone? How do we ensure that there is training or resources for those who are addicted? How do we get parental training as it relates to individuals who are addicted and their children are addicted? How do we monitor the issuance of prescription drugs with the respect for the medical profession that we all have in doing their job? Because we do realize that this prescription journey started with the new approach to pain management that had been studied on an evidencebased basis that you would heal better if you could allow the pain not to be so devastating. then. of course. what happens are many things: the amount of prescription is more than you would need. or your children get ahold of it. or other peoples children. or there is no place to dispose of it. In this discussion of opioids. I want it to be reflected that the Congress came together as Republicans and Democrats focusing on how we should address this as a sickness and an addiction and not as incarceration and punitive sentencing. We followed the beginning. in 2009. where we removed some of the disparities between crack cocaine and didnt have it in this large. unfair basis where. if you had a little bit of crack you were in prison for 400 years. if you had cocaine. you might skip by. We made that step. But now it is 2016. and we made a metamorphic change because we moved from the idea of mass incarceration to the idea of treatment. When I finished the debate on the floor on the most recent Judiciary Committee bill authored by Mr. SENSENBRENNER working with Mr. GOODLATTE. Mr. CONYERS. many Members. and me. I indicated that we missed a period of history of the crack cocaine users. Many of them are languishing in prisons. So I am hopeful about this bipartisan spirit. as we look to sentencing reduction through H.R. 3713. for something miraculous. because it includes retroactivity. Many of those crack cocaine users are nonviolent. We will have the ability as this legislation works its way through Congress to include them in the scheme of treatment and the restoration part of what we are trying to do in the lives of people who are sick and addicted. I had someone come to me who said: Dont forget the meth users. We know that meth was an epidemicand still isand how destructive it is to ones physical look and body. So I am delighted to join my colleagues here to say that we did have a newsworthy great week and that we were taking a look at opioids in a different manner. that we are taking a look and working with physicians and the medical profession to be able to ensure that they do their work and that we find a way to provide a monitoring situation so that we can stem the tide of this horrific. horrible. and destructive drug addiction that destroys the lives of so many young people. I close by saying that some years ago. my late mother was in the hospital. We know how we treat our parentsbut our mothers. I was flying back and forth from this House checking and determining what her condition was. She had so many moments where she was on the brink but she came on back. One of the moments that I came to the hospital. there was erratic behavior. It wasnt my mother. That is the issue that we want. We want people to be explained to as to what is going on. It was a treatment that was dealing with trying to ease her pain. I had to ask them: What is she using? Percocet. The first time that I heard that word was 6 years agoor even later. beyond 6 years. That was 2010. so it was even earlier than that. I didnt know the ramifications of Percocet. I am a lawyer and not a doctor. But I realize that whatever it was. the cure was worse than the disease. and I asked them to take my mother off the Percocet and for me never to see that again. Now. how many families do that? She did get off of it. Thank God. she healed and walked out of that hospital. That wasnt the time that she passed. She lived for another day. But we need. in this opioid discussion. as we are moving against mass incarceration. to explain to families and physicians to talk about what these painkillers can do. Because. in essence. they are sometimes so toxic that they. in many instances. easily cause addiction. as I have heard many parents say about their youngsters who had athletic injuries. So I thank the Congresswoman for yielding to me because I think this week has been a magnificent week when we have opened the door and kicked the can not down the road. but we have kicked it to open the door to say to all of us in America that it is okay. Addiction can be cured. But we are going to work alongside of you so that you can openly seek that cure to relieve yourself of addiction. and we are not going to direct you down the path of incarceration and mandatory minimums. I want that for those who are languishing and who have been sentenced on crack cocaine. and I am looking forward to working so that legislation covers that aspect of those who are still incarcerated. With that. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding to me. and I thank the gentlewoman for her leadership.