From Congressman Andy Harris:
WASHINGTON, DC: On June 22, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 6, the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act. This package of bipartisan bills includes Medicaid, Medicare, and public health reforms to combat the opioid crisis. Congressman Andy Harris, M.D. (MD-01) released the following statement in support of the bill’s passage:
“Today, the House of Representatives passed a package of bipartisan bills to advance substance abuse prevention, treatment, and recovery initiatives, and to protect our communities from prescription opioids, heroin, and illicit synthetic drugs like fentanyl. The SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act expands access to substance abuse care, and improves oversight of opioid prescriptions and substance abuse treatment. This legislation also directs the Food and Drug Administration to smooth out the testing and approval processes for non-addictive treatments for pain and addiction, thus expanding patients’ options for treatment. As a physician, I understand that substance abuse – particularly opioid abuse and misuse – is a dangerous disease, but relief is possible if we all join hands and work together on this important issue.”
The full text of the SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act can be found here.
Please check out Jesse Colvin’s website and then please consider voting for him and the change the first congressional district needs. thank you.
Rep Harris,
Yes for treatment, Yes for education, but NO for your opioid witch hunt. You are trying to throw the baby out with the bath water.
Be careful what you do or you may cause another prohibition-type opportunity for the criminal element. You can’t let opioid “die on the vine” due to “other” treatments. Often, due to drug interactions there are no other treatments.
Drugs don’t need to be outlawed. People who don’t know squat about you but try to tell you what’s good for you need to be outlawed
We hear a lot about the dangers of opioids and the “crisis” of deaths and addiction related to opioids (why are they called “opioids” anyway? Whatever happened to “opiates”?). However, there’s something very strange that I’ve noticed through all of this hyped news hysteria. A lack of talk about alcohol. According to one web site I visited, there are 88,000 deaths annually from alcohol (overdose, drunk driving accidents, people killed by reckless and violent behavior from people intoxicated on alcohol). If that’s true, then even the most alarming reported death rates from opioids (around 40k) is still only half the alcohol death rate. Why isn’t *that* an “epidemic”? I’m not suggesting a return to 1920-style alcohol prohibition, but merely trying to put everything in perspective. I don’t think a Gustapo-style crackdown on pain medicine is the answer, and I certainly don’t think putting people in prison for “putting something in their mouth” will solve anything. Like the prior poster said, what’s needed is treatment and education, not more “war-on-drugs” prohibition.
It’s a Republican thing. They have to be at war with something. If they can’t have a war on foreign soil then they will make war on American soil, but they must be at war with something. They are not happy unless there is war. I would like to take this time to remind everyone that the war on drugs is actually a war against WE THE PEOPLE who use drugs and those whom wage war against WE THE PEOPLE are actually waging war against the United States. This is treason as defined in Article 3 Section 3 of the US Constitution and those that claim otherwise are lying to themselves.
Didnt Clinton declare the war on drugs? Wasn’t he a Democrat?
Actually, Richard Nixon was the first President to actually publicly declare war against drugs, which is really a war against WE THE PEOPLE whom use drugs. It was expanded and rigorously funded by Ronald Reagan and the first George Bush. Yes, Bill Clinton did nothing to end the war on drugs and actually increased the penalties against drug users during his treasonous administration as well. The fact is, Republican or Democrat, every President since FDR has committed treason in one way or another and the government they have instilled during their tenures was equally as treasonous. We now have a Fascist government that is totally contrary to the Constitutional government that is supposed to rule. THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA is a treasonous government that has laid down a fascist State across our lands all in the name of a corporate government. It truly makes me sick to see what our wonderful country has become at the hands of the R’s and D’s.