Sept. 21st, 2018
"to elevate the condition of men--to lift artificial weights from all shoulders, to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all, to afford all an unfettered start and a fair chance, in the race of life." --Abraham Lincoln
Chairman's Note: A Community Based Response to the Opioid Crisis
No state has been spared from the scourge of the opioid epidemic. In 2016 alone, 42,000 Americans died due to opioid-related overdoses– or about 115 Americans per day.
Our state of Utah has also been badly hit: nearly 6 Utahns die per week from opioid-related overdoses and three rural Utah counties were identified recently by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as being among the most vulnerable nationwide.
We cannot let this tragic epidemic continue without a fight. And thankfully, Utahns have already been stepping up to the plate.
For years, groups like the Utah Coalition for Opioid Overdose Prevention and the Utah Department of Health have worked diligently to combat this crisis. And since last year, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes and DEA District Agent Brian Besser have complemented their efforts by forming the Utah Opioid Task Force, which I have been honored to serve on as Co-Chair.
Task Force Members have traveled across the state educating citizens on the perils of opioid dependency and the importance of treating addiction as a disease. They have promoted Naloxone use by first responders, a powerful medication that can often reverse an opioid overdose. They have backed successful DEA and attorney general prosecutions of drug cartel players, and supported various treatment and recovery services.
Furthermore, the Task Force also has worked with physicians to change prescribing practices. As a result, opioid prescriptions have been on the decline.
These initiatives have yielded real results around our state. Similar efforts can work in every state in the union, if given time and space to tailor themselves to specific local needs. But just as we know the opioids crisis has many sources, we know it’s going to have at least as many solutions.
And we also know – from common sense and hard experience – that unaccountable federal grant programs aren’t going to help. Unfortunately, the opioid legislation recently passed in Washington features just that: dozens of grant programs with little accountability for how these dollars will be spent and minimal measurement of their effectiveness.
To be sure, I am not opposed to the entirety of the bill. There are some good measures that could produce real results. For example:
The bill strengthens the Customs and Border Protection’s authority to discover and destroy packages containing illegal controlled substances;
It establishes a system to identify and stop suspicious orders of opioids from drug manufacturers and distributors;
And it requires the FDA to review challenges and barriers of developing non-addictive pain medications, and to update its processes to ensure it is capable of assessing the safety and effectiveness of novel drugs before approving them.
Unfortunately, these measures did not come to the Senate floor for us to consider individually. Instead, they were lumped together with dozens of other bills in this 350-page package. And each Senator was forced to either support or oppose the entire package.
It is crucial to recognize that there is no single opioids crisis. There are dozens. There is a rural crisis, and an urban one that is different. There is a crisis hitting poorly educated Americans and one hitting the highly educated. There’s one that’s hitting adults, and another that’s hitting kids.
And all of these vary by region. In some states overdoses are caused more by prescription drugs, while in others they are caused more from illicit drugs like fentanyl. In some cases, deaths are caused primarily from a combination of drugs.
As findings from the Social Capital Project at the Joint Economic Committee show, there is also a strong social component to this crisis. Individuals who either never married or are divorced—and especially those with only a high school education—represent a higher share of those who have died from opioid-related causes.
These factors cannot be ignored. We must find ways to reach these individuals and reintegrate them into our communities.
Utah’s efforts and results are reason to hope. Our state was one of just 14 where opioid deaths actually fell last year.
Issue in Focus: Make Trade with Britain Great Again
It is undeniable that the United States and the United Kingdom have a “special relationship.” Throughout periods of global change, and in times of tumult and war, the Anglo-American relationship has been constant. We have stood beside each other through two world wars, the Cold War, and now in our confrontation with global terrorism in a shared pursuit of freedom, peace, and prosperity.
And our trading partnership has been a major element of that relationship. Now, with the scheduled departure of Britain from the European Union, there is the possibility of a free trade agreement between the U.S. and the U.K., an opportunity that would immensely benefit our two nations.
Prior to this, we were not able to have true free trade with Britain precisely because it was a member of the EU. But after March 2019, when Britain is scheduled to make its departure, it will regain its freedom to make its own trade agreements.
Our trading relationship has already been mutually beneficial up to this point. After the EU, the United States is the United Kingdom’s largest trading partner; and the United Kingdom is the 7th largest trading partner of the United States. In 2015 alone, the U.S. exported more than $56 billion worth of goods and services to the U.K. – a sum that was almost identical to the value of U.K. exports to American exports.
On top of this, the U.S. economy is the largest in the world, while the U.K.’s is fifth largest. The size of our economies, combined with our significant trading relationship, would mean that a free trade agreement would significantly advance prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic. Competition would increase, and consumers would have more choices and lower prices. It would be a force generator for economic liberty through genuine bilateral free trade, based upon the principles of sovereignty and economic freedom.
Fortunately, several think tanks and scholars across the U.S. and the U.K. have collaborated to put together an free trade agreement. They have drafted a full, complete text for an agreement that makes significant progress towards the end of trade liberalization between our countries. And these scholars have proven that a full free trade agreement can be done.
And this is exactly what we should be working towards as Britain moves to exit the EU. We ought to be supporting the decision of the British people, and taking steps to ensure that a post-Brexit UK – and the world – can realize the economic and strategic possibilities that full British sovereignty presents.
That is why I also worked with Senator Cotton to introduce the United Kingdom Trade Continuity Act with Senator Cotton last Congress. Our bill would promote economic stability and growth as the U.K. transitions out of the EU by obligating the U.S. to continue and honor all existing commercial agreements with the U.K., and by calling on the President to initiate negotiations for new bilateral agreements with the U.K. 30 days after the bill is enacted.
