Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act of 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, addiction to prescription opioid pain relievers and heroin is a growing public health epidemic that is taking a heartbreaking toll on families and communities in every State of this country. In 2014, more than 47,000 Americans died because of prescription opioid and heroin overdoses.

This crisis is very real in my home State of New Mexico. For years, without adequate treatment resources, communities in my State have suffered through some of the highest rates of heroin and opioid addiction in the country. Far too many New Mexico families have lost loved ones, and many more are struggling to find treatment and recovery resources for a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, or for themselves.

Two weeks ago, I visited Espanola Valley in Rio Arriba County. Rio Arriba, which is largely rural and has predominantly Hispanic and tribal communities, is filled with beautiful mountain and desert landscapes, the kinds of places that attract artisan visitors from around the world. Families from Rio Arriba can trace their lineage to Spanish settlers who came to New Mexico in the 1600s and to Indian Pueblos and tribes who have lived in this region for millennia. Tragically, Rio Arriba County has also long been home to the highest rates of heroin addiction and overdose deaths in the Nation. In fact, between 2010 and 2014, the county's overdose death rate was more than five times the national average. This is not only tragic, it is simply unacceptable.

Last month, I convened a roundtable discussion in the area with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Region 6 Director Marjorie Petty and a number of local stakeholders, including the Rio Arriba Community Health Council. We gathered at the Delancey Street Foundation in Ohkay Owingeh to discuss ongoing efforts and ways to better address the heroin and prescription drug crisis in my State. What I heard loud and clear from public health officials, from law enforcement and first responders, and, probably most importantly, from people who have coped directly with addiction, is that this crisis is hitting entire communities and hitting them hard. Everyone knows a family who has a child suffering through addiction or in recovery, and many have literally lost loved ones to drug-related deaths.

For decades, drug addiction and substance abuse have been passed down generation to generation in too many families in Rio Arriba and in communities across New Mexico. The introduction of prescription opioid pain medications such as oxycodone and hydrocodone into the market over the last two decades has poured fuel on this fire, creating even more cases of opioid abuse and heroin addiction. These prescription opioid pain medications, which are so chemically similar to heroin, have produced whole new onramps onto the highway of addiction. In many instances, by the time someone has finished their first prescription drug treatment, they are literally already hooked, so they turn to purchase new pills, legally or illegally, either through a new prescription or through other means. When they can't afford the pills anymore, all too often they turn to heroin.

Overprescription of opioid drugs and the widespread trafficking of lethal black tar heroin have both contributed enormously to the ongoing public health crisis in New Mexico and now across our Nation. The statistics alone should get our attention. From 2002 to 2013, opioid- related deaths quadrupled nationally. Drug overdoses were the leading cause of injury death in 2013. Among Americans ages 25 to 64 years old, drug overdoses caused more deaths than motor vehicle crashes. Think about that.

Over this same period, New Mexico families and communities have borne the brunt of this epidemic. Between 2011 and 2013, New Mexico ranked second nationally for drug overdose deaths, and it is getting worse by the year. More New Mexicans died of drug overdoses in 2014 than in any other year on record. Some 547 people died in New Mexico due to drug poisoning, including deaths from prescription opioids and heroin overuse.

Rather than focus solely on these statistics, I want to talk a little bit about some of the people I met in my visit to Rio Arriba County because I think it puts a much more human and real face on the very nature of this problem.

Jesus toured me around Delancey Street.

The Delancey Street Foundation is a national residential self-help rehab organization that helps former substance abusers, ex-convicts, and others who have literally hit rock bottom turn their lives around, get clean, and learn academic and vocational and life skills. Residents have to commit to a minimum stay of at least 2 years. During that period, a comprehensive treatment program often produces dramatic results.

Delancey Street's facility in New Mexico is located on a 17-acre ranch in Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo. Residents there learn vocational skills to get jobs in livestock management, culinary arts, retail sales, construction, wastewater management, and landscaping.

Jesus came to Delancey Street after getting caught up using and selling pills and heroin in the Espanola Valley. He had two DUIs and suffered through alcoholism and substance abuse. In 2011, when a judge gave him the option of going to Delancey Street instead of serving a 9- year prison sentence, he took the chance. Through a long process, he received treatment and learned how to cope with his addiction. Jesus has stayed at Delancey Street well past his 2-year commitment and has taken on new responsibilities. He now serves as a mentor and a role model to new residents who are trying to overcome their addictions.

I met another man named Josh. He is a peer-to-peer support worker at Inside Out Recovery Center in Espanola. Josh was born and raised in Espanola, where he saw drug and alcohol use as the way of life in his community. When he was 14 years old, a high school friend with a prescription for hydrocodone offered him some pills. Josh quickly became addicted. Over time, his opioid addiction led him to the point where he was shooting 7 grams of heroin every day, stealing from family and friends to pay for that addiction, and going in and out of the prison system at the same time. At one point, while going through withdrawal in a jail cell, Josh was unable to eat for weeks. He literally lost over a third of his body weight. He remembers later attempting suicide in an act of desperation to end his addiction and failing when his gun didn't go off.

In his late twenties, after going through these intense struggles, Josh was introduced to the Inside Out Recovery Center. He met a peer- to-peer support worker named Alex, who had done the same drugs and been through the same struggles. Josh realized there was a way to stop using, and he turned his life around. He got clean.

When a judge sentenced Josh to probation instead of prison for an offense, he was released from jail and went straight to Inside Out and committed to treatment. He said it was the first time he had been released and hadn't immediately returned to drug and alcohol abuse. At Inside Out, Josh received peer support and learned conflict resolution and coping skills. He credits the program with actually saving his life. Now that Josh has his life back, he is working to help others in his community to get their lives back from addiction.

Finally, I want to tell you about Rufus. Rufus is a 22-year-old Navajo Hopi man who lives in Pojoaque. When I met Rufus during my visit, he was getting ready to graduate from his treatment at New Moon Lodge treatment facility in Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo.

New Moon Lodge is a residential addiction treatment center that serves clients from New Mexico's American Indian communities. Although the center treats different types of addiction and substance abuse, including alcoholism, recently they have seen many more cases of opioid and heroin addiction.

Rufus's addiction to opioids began when he was prescribed hydrocodone to help with a hand injury he received when he was 16. He became addicted. Once his prescription ran out, he turned to buying pills illegally, moved up to higher dosages, and eventually moved on to heroin. He got expelled from high school his senior year and fell even deeper into this addiction.

After years of use and going in and out of jail for various offenses, Rufus came before the Pojoaque Tribal Court last year and was given the option to go to New Moon for treatment. New Moon helped him see the person he could be without the drugs. Rufus just graduated from his treatment at New Moon last week. Now he is looking forward to building a stable home life for his girlfriend and his baby by going back to school to get his GED and working toward being a mechanic or an artist.

I tell these stories to demonstrate that when we provide an opportunity to receive comprehensive treatment and receive rehabilitation, people who have suffered through the trials of opioid addiction can turn their lives around and help their communities heal in the process.

Sadly, in addition to hearing these success stories, I have heard far too often that people who are looking to get help have absolutely nowhere to go. Particularly in New Mexico's rural, tribal, and impoverished communities, there is a severe lack of access to proven treatment and rehabilitation resources. We desperately need more detoxification centers, more transitional housing facilities, more outpatient services, and more behavioral health facilities.

We as a nation are not doing even close to enough to provide adequate treatment facilities and resources to communities like those in the Espanola Valley that are struggling to meet the challenges of the growing heroin and opioid addiction crisis. That is why I am a cosponsor of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, championed by our colleagues Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Rob Portman of Ohio.

This legislation provides a series of incentives and resources designed to encourage States and local communities to pursue a full array of proven strategies that combat addiction. To ensure that this effort meets the needs of rural and tribal communities such as those in New Mexico, I submitted a bipartisan amendment with my friend, the senior Senator from Wyoming, Mr. Mike Enzi, to require that rural health professionals are included in the Pain Management Best Practices Interagency Task Force that is created by this legislation.

But, frankly, in order to truly provide local communities the tools they need to tackle this crisis head-on, we need funding, which is why I am also cosponsoring emergency funding legislation, championed by my colleague Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, to provide supplemental appropriations of $600 million for drug prevention and treatment programs. I understand that Senator Shaheen's efforts to include her funding legislation as an amendment failed to get enough votes this week, which frankly I find deeply disappointing, but I think the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act is still a good first step toward addressing this epidemic. You can be sure I will continue to fight to address it in the Senate and back in New Mexico.

Addiction is a disease that can happen to anyone. It transcends region, race, gender, and socioeconomic status. It is a vicious cycle we have seen all too frequently in New Mexico. By taking a comprehensive approach to combat this epidemic, we can ensure that people have the opportunity to get back on the road to recovery.

amendment no. 3345
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