Synthetic Drug Use
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, today I rise to join my colleagues, Senator Klobuchar and Senator Grassley, to discuss an epidemic overtaking our country: synthetic drugs. I wish to compliment both of my colleagues. Each of us has been working on this issue in different ways, and we combined our three approaches into one piece of legislation that will go a long way toward helping to keep our kids away from drugs they should not have.
Synthetic drugs are an epidemic overtaking our country. They are also known as bath salts or, in the case of manmade marijuana, spice or incense. They are given innocent names, but they are deadly. Synthetic drugs are not sold on street corners by slingers who keep stashes hidden in alleys. Instead, these drugs can be found in local corner stores across the country. They are as easy to buy as a lollipop or a carton of milk, but they are much more dangerous.
No wonder emergency rooms and poison control centers have seen an enormous rise in patients who have taken these drugs and must seek help. The numbers are nothing short of eye-popping. Poison control centers reported 13 calls concerning these products in 2009, over 1,000 calls in 2010, and over 6,500 in 2011--from 13 calls to over 6,500 calls in 2 years. For every call they get, there are many people taking these drugs with no call at all. One survey, in fact, indicates that one in nine high school seniors used synthetic drugs in the past year. That is a frightening, astounding, and devastating number.
The Senate has before it a rare opportunity to do something simple and right that will actually go a very long way to fixing this crisis. We have three bills--Senator Klobuchar's, my colleague from Minnesota, Senator Grassley's, my colleague from Iowa, and mine--that would place the chemical components that make up these substances directly on schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act without waiting for the DEA to go through its yearlong listing process. Our communities desperately need us to make these drug compounds illegal once and for all. The DEA wants us to go ahead and make them illegal, and so does the FDA. There is no legitimate or commercial use for these compounds.
Our bills passed out of the Judiciary Committee unanimously and with no opposition. The House passed its version of our bills with little opposition. All we have to do now is put them on the floor and have a vote or simply pass them unanimously. But one of my colleagues has put a hold on these bills--just one. That is fine. I am in favor of protecting my colleague's rights, as they are my rights and Senator Klobuchar's and Senator Grassley's rights. But one Senator should not be able to prevent a vote on something that 99 percent of Americans want that directly affects their health and safety and the health and safety of their children. So I have a suggestion. Why can't we at least put these bills on the floor, and our colleague can air his opposition and see if he can win people over to his point of view? This really should not take more than an hour or two of our business.
Law enforcement and health professionals are begging for this bill. I know for a fact that parents and families in my State are begging for this to become law. A lot of us have worked hard on this issue because it is of critical importance to our communities and States.
Before I go any further, I again want to compliment and commend my colleagues, Senators Klobuchar and Grassley, as well as Senator Feinstein, who is not here with us this afternoon, for their excellent leadership on banning these so-called designer drugs.
On Monday I was in Rochester, NY, to discuss Senator Grassley's synthetic marijuana bill with local law enforcement and emergency room doctors. I heard horrific stories of patients who smoked synthetic marijuana and ended up crazed in the emergency room. Everyone I met with urged me to help ban these substances as soon as possible.
My own bill, the Combating Dangerous Synthetic Stimulants Act, bans two more of these drugs, mephedrone and methylenedioxypyrovalerone--fortunately, it is regularly known as MDPV--and they are commonly sold as bath salts. By calling them bath salts, manufacturers are trying to deliberately mislead people into thinking they are an everyday product. It is despicable when young kids--14, 15, 16 years old--try bath salts and they think it is harmless. These dangerous drugs are sold in convenience stores and smoke shops for as little as $14 to $40. And what are their names? Tranquility, Zoom, White Lightning, and Hurricane Charlie. These so-called bath salts or plant foods are nothing more than deadly narcotics, and they are being sold cheaply to all comers with no questions asked at store counters around the country.
How is it possible that such deadly drugs are legal? Because by marketing them as bath salts, which aren't for human consumption, they aren't regulated. These bath salts have much the same effects, according to users, as cocaine or ecstasy, but they are preferred because they are cheaper and more readily accessible. In fact, according to court papers obtained by the Staten Island Advance, one of our fine local papers in New York, a seller in Brooklyn boasted to a Federal agent that the bath salts would deliver a better high than cocaine.
This ease of access does not, however, translate into their safe use. A recent New York Times article reported that an individual high on bath salts had climbed a roadside flagpole and jumped into traffic, broken into a monastery and stabbed a priest, and scratched herself to pieces because something was under her skin.
One of these drugs, Cloud 9, is so easily accessible it is sold on amazon.com. A person can go on amazon.com and buy this horrible stuff. How much? Sixteen dollars, plus shipping. It is accessible to anybody. Can my colleagues guess what item most customers buy with this specific bath salt? Is it relaxing candles or lotion? Is it soap? No. The item customers most buy with this bath salt is Click N Smoke all In One Vaporizer With Wind Proof Torch Lighter. That is the name of the product. One does not need much of an imagination to believe that the purchasers of Cloud 9 are smoking these drugs and not adding them to a relaxing bath.
These drugs are the worst kind. Not only do they cause people to perform horrible actions, but they also give the impression that they are legal, that they are innocuous. Make no mistake that these drugs can and will cause harm to their users. At least 30 States, including my home State of New York, have recognized these drugs as harmful. They have banned bath salts at the State level. But only the DEA--the Drug Enforcement Agency--and the resources that are behind it can keep these drugs from coming into our country, from crossing State lines, and from morphing time and again to evade State bans. That is why we need these bills.
The DEA temporarily banned two of these substances in November. However, the clock is now ticking until this temporary ban ends. FDA and HHS must complete a complicated checklist in the remaining 7 months to prevent these drugs from returning to the corner store.
We must provide the DEA with a permanent ban before the time runs out. This will provide them with the necessary tools to address these legal drugs on a national stage. The DEA has the ability to spearhead multi-State and international investigations to prevent the manufacture and sale of bath salts.
These drugs are deadly and dangerous. Yet they are easier to buy than cigarettes in many States. Parents should not worry that each time their child goes into a convenience store or gas station, he or she can buy a deadly drug.
This bill has broad bipartisan support. We cannot wait for another parent to lose a child because of the inaction of the Senate. I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass the legislation. Once again, I implore my colleague--the single Senator who is holding up this bill--I hope he will not agree to set aside his differences, which come from a deep Libertarian ideological perspective that is different than most Americans have, but agree not to block them but to debate them and let them come up for a vote.
I thank the Chair.
I yield the floor and note the absence of a quorum.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source