posted March 02, 2023 02:37 PM            

He didn't laugh at the mother, or her two sons. You really are a piece of work.

posted March 02, 2023 03:01 PM            

The Democrats also introduced a bipartisan companion bill to Ayotte's. These bills went nowhere because the Senate was trying to pass a broad criminal justice reform bill that called for reducing mandatory sentences for drug offenses. Some members thought Ayotte's bill would undermine the effort and even threaten its passage so the bill never came up for a vote.

The bill was reintroduced in 2017 by House Republican Thomas J. Rooney, but also went nowhere.

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It took Congress until December 2017 to pass a bill specifically targeting fentanyl — nearly four years after legislators first received warnings about the dangers of the drug. In that time, more than 67,000 Americans had died from overdoses of fentanyl and other synthetic opioids. Fentanyl death rates are still rising.

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quote:

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The pharmaceutical lobby, a massive political donor, fought bills that would have criminalized the illicit manufacturing and distribution of fentanyl and its many chemical cousins. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a trade group, said in a statement to The Post that such legislation could hamper research. Legal fentanyl often is used for pain management in hospitals.

The industry successfully lobbied Congress to pass a bill limiting the Drug Enforcement Administration’s powers to disrupt the drug companies’ distribution of opioids. President Barack Obama signed it into law in 2016.

“The work by Congress has been absolutely dismal, disappointing and ineffective,” said Rep. David Trone (D-Md.), whose 24-year-old nephew died of a fentanyl overdose in 2016 while alone in a hotel room. “I really think they need to talk fentanyl, fentanyl, fentanyl. That word should come off everybody’s lips.”

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/investigations/fentanyl-epidemic-congress/