Prepared Statement of Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Ceremony Marking “Red Ribbon Week”
Joint Forces Headquarters, Iowa National Guard
Camp Dodge, Johnston, Iowa
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
Thank you for the opportunity to join you in commemorating Red Ribbon Week. This is the thirty-first year we in the anti-drug community will wear red ribbons to mark the tragic murder of Drug Enforcement Administration DEA Special Agent Enrique “Kiki” Camarena.
When he decided to join the DEA, Special Agent Camarena’s mother had tried to talk him out of it. “I'm only one person," he told her in response, "but I want to make a difference.”
During Red Ribbon Week, we all redouble our efforts to make a difference in the fight against illegal drugs.
We wear these ribbons not just to honor Agent Camarena’s memory, but also to show unity against the destruction and devastation illegal drugs have on children, families, and communities.
Throughout the next week, schools and organizations throughout Iowa and the Nation will host contests, workshops, and rallies to encourage young people to remain drug-free.
This anti-drug message is needed now, more than ever. More than 47,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2014, making that the leading cause of accidental death in the United States. Incredibly, that number breaks down to about 129 of our friends, family members, and co-workers dying every day.
Much of this recent increase in overdose deaths has been caused by the heroin and opioid epidemic that has gripped our country. Heroin overdose deaths, for example, have more than tripled in four years. But other drug trends are also concerning.
Synthetic drugs, created in laboratories to produce the same or greater effects as banned controlled substances, are increasingly available to our youth. Dealers give these substances exciting names, and sell them in legitimate convenience stores and gas stations. They do so to market them to young people as a “legal,” and therefore presumably safe, way to get a high. But of course, these substances are anything but safe.
In fact, the synthetic drug threat now includes synthetic opioids, in the form of fentanyl and its derivatives. These substances are 50-100 times more powerful than morphine, and can cause death simply through contact with skin.
Methamphetamine also continues to plague Iowa, although the nature of the meth problem has evolved in a disturbing direction.
We’ve seen the decline of the so-called “one-pot” labs to cook meth, and the rise of a more highly purified product that’s being transported across the border into our communities by Mexican drug trafficking organizations. Between 2009 and 2014, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported a 300% increase in meth seizures on the southwest border.
And we shouldn’t overlook the problem of marijuana use, which has increased in recent years. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, evidence from a growing number of studies indicates that exposing young people to marijuana can cause long-term or possibly permanent negative changes to the brain. In addition, according to the Centers for Disease Control, a person who is addicted to marijuana is three times more likely to be addicted to heroin.
So as we mark Red Ribbon Week, I’d like to update you about what Congress has done recently to help make a difference in combatting drug abuse and illegal drug trafficking.
We’ve had a very productive Congress, marked by substantial bipartisan achievement. I’m proud to have led these anti-drug efforts as Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Co-chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control.
I began a process to address the heroin and opioid epidemic last January, when I held a hearing in the Judiciary Committee. Afterward, I worked with a bipartisan group of senators on the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, or CARA, and led the bill through the Judiciary Committee in February and the full Senate in March.
I then led a Senate delegation that blended the Senate and House bills, resulting in legislation that passed Congress overwhelmingly and was signed by the President into law in July.
Recognizing that we can’t arrest our way out of the opioid crisis, CARA authorizes nearly $900 million over five years to enhance prevention, education, treatment, recovery and law enforcement efforts.
In particular, the law expands and creates programs to encourage the use of medication assisted treatment, provide community-based support for those in recovery, and help anti-drug coalitions with additional grants if their communities suffer from a drug abuse outbreak.
For law enforcement, it authorizes funds for heroin and opioid task forces as well as for increased access to naloxone, an anti-overdose drug that can save lives.
As funding for this crisis continues to rise, CARA will serve as the best-practices blueprint for how to attack the scourge of addiction.
More than 250 addiction, recovery and law enforcement organizations, including many in Iowa, called the bill “the critical response we need.” The Addiction Policy Forum hailed it a “monumental step forward.” The New York Times referred to it as “the most sweeping drug legislation in years.”
To me, it’s also proof that with hard work and good will, bipartisan achievements are still possible.
I wanted to make sure the bill also addressed the issue of meth, especially because of its impact in Iowa. So I made sure that the community-based coalition grants created by the bill would also be available for communities suffering from high rates of meth abuse, in addition to opioid abuse.
I’m also proud that CARA incorporated a separate bill I authored with Senator Amy Klobuchar, the Kingpin Designation Improvement Act. This measure boosts law enforcement’s ability to freeze the assets of international drug cartels that are often the source of heroin and meth in the United States.
Congress has enjoyed additional recent bipartisan anti-drug successes. In January 2015, Senator Feinstein and I introduced the Transnational Drug Trafficking Act, a bill that passed for the Senate for the third straight Congress. In May of this year, it finally passed the House and was signed into law by the President.
Our law will make it easier for the Department of Justice to prosecute high-ranking drug cartel members who use Mexican drug trafficking organizations as intermediaries to ship illegal narcotics into the United States. In particular, the law will help combat the international trafficking of meth and precursor chemicals used to make meth.
Finally, in June I convened a hearing on the problem of dangerous synthetic drugs. The Judiciary Committee heard the heartbreaking testimony of Mike Rozga of Indianola, whose son David killed himself shortly after ingesting K2, or synthetic marijuana.
Following that hearing, in July, I introduced legislation with Senator Chuck Schumer. The Dangerous Synthetic Drug Control Act of 2016 would strengthen our enforcement capabilities by classifying an additional 22 compounds as Schedule I under the Controlled Substances Act, including three derivatives of fentanyl, making these drugs more difficult to produce and sell.
I’m hopeful we can make more bipartisan progress on this issue soon, to help support law enforcement efforts on synthetics.
Thank you for all the things many of you are doing to make a difference this Red Ribbon Week, by honoring Agent Camarena, sending a strong anti-drug message to our youth, and working to make our communities safe and drug-free.
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