Synthetic Drug Use
Floor Speech
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Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Mr. President, I come to the floor today to join my colleague, Senator Grassley of Iowa. I thank him for his remarks. I think you can tell this is a very important issue but also one that is bipartisan. As he pointed out with the vote on the House side, this was a bipartisan issue over there. It was bipartisan on the Judiciary Committee. We simply need to allow for a debate and a vote in a timely manner on these bills.
I also know Senator Chuck Schumer from New York will be joining us, another senior member of the committee. We are all three on the Judiciary Committee, with Senator Grassley being the ranking Republican on the committee. So we have much support for this bill.
Today I want to take a few minutes to add to the comments of Senator Grassley about the growing threat to people of all ages, but particularly to our young people, of the dangerous synthetic drugs that are becoming, sadly, more and more common in our communities.
There have been reports from States around the country of people acting violently while under the influence of these drugs, leading to deaths or injuries to themselves or to others. While taking these drugs, people can experience elevated heart rates and blood pressure, hallucinations,
seizures, and extreme agitation. They are very dangerous.
These synthetic drugs have exploded as an issue in recent years. Until 2006 I was the county attorney for Hennepin County, which is Minnesota's largest county. It actually is about a fourth of our State in terms of the population. During that time two words I never heard were ``synthetic drugs.'' We were focused on crack, we were focused on methamphetamine, we were focused on laws to contain that, but synthetic drugs were not something we talked about. It is an example of how quickly this drug has come on the scene. Poison control centers and emergency rooms from across the United States are reporting dramatic increases in the number of calls and visits relating to synthetic drugs. In 2011, poison control centers across America received more than 13,000 calls about synthetic drugs. Think about that. Do you know what the number was in 2010, a year before? It was 3,200; it was 3,200 in 2010, 13,000 in 2011. In Minnesota there was a total of 392 calls to poison control relating to synthetic drugs in 2011, compared to 111 in 2010, so you are seeing a four-times increase in our State and across the country in terms of the rise of this drug.
A recent report by the National Institutes of Health shows that one in nine high school seniors admitted to using synthetic marijuana during this past year, so it is clearly a rapidly growing problem.
This all hit home in my State with the tragic death of 19-year-old Trevor Robinson in Blaine, MN, who overdosed on a synthetic hallucinogen known as 2C-E. Last year another young man shot himself in our State under the influence of synthetic drugs. I can only imagine the pain and anguish their friends and families must feel. It is anguishing. This is a life-and-death issue. It is not something where we can put our head in the sand and pretend it is not happening. This is a new type of drug, it is a dangerous drug.
We have begun to take action. We have to take action on both the State and Federal level and we are making progress on a few fronts. I introduced a bill which would add 2C-E, the drug that killed the young man in my State, and similar drugs to a list of banned substances so they will be treated in the same manner as other banned drugs that they mimic, such as heroin.
I am also cosponsor of the bill Senator Grassley referenced and also Senator Schumer has another bill to ban other types of synthetic drugs. Basically one bans the bath salts, one is focused on synthetic marijuana, and my bill is on the synthetic hallucinogens. All three of these bills passed the Judiciary Committee in July and one has already passed the House with a very strong vote.
Unfortunately, as Senator Grassley also mentioned, a hold has been placed on all three of the Senate bills by one Senator. That is extremely unfortunate. These drugs can kill, and if we do not take action they are going to become more and more prevalent and put more and more people at risk. We cannot wait around and let these important bills languish in procedural gridlock, especially because of one Senator.
We are going to keep fighting here in the Senate until those laws get passed. We have seen in Minnesota, with the tragic story of Trevor Robinson, what these drugs can do and I for one do not want to see it happen again, not in my State, not anywhere in the country. I understand the Senator who is holding these bills has genuine and philosophical opposition and he deserves to be heard on his objections. My suggestion is that we come to an agreement so we can have a period of debate on these bills, a simple period of debate. This should not be a week-long debate. We can take the floor and speak to this issue and he can speak as long as he likes. We are not asking him to change his position. We want him to be heard but we simply want to have a period of debate and then a vote. That is what the Senate should be about.
Luckily, the Drug Enforcement Administration is taking its own action and has temporarily banned some synthetic drugs, but most of the substances in these bills have not been banned, including all of the substances in my bill. On the State level, roughly 40 States have banned some synthetic drugs, including Minnesota, where a major law regarding synthetic drugs took effect in July. But that means that some States have not banned any of these drugs yet and some have banned only certain types, so people can go to other States to buy them legally or buy them on the Internet. That is one of the reasons we need this Federal law.
Also, local law enforcement needs a strong ally in the Federal authorities as they try to turn the tide against synthetic drugs. Sadly, many of these instances I have seen in our State with synthetic drugs involve more rural communities--towns that may not have the ability to call in a bunch of lab technicians and experts to be able to testify about what type of synthetic drug it is. That is why, for the sake of that law community, it is important we get it on that Federal list and we also make it very clear it is banned.
Passing a Federal law will help create a partnership and will send a strong message that we need to eradicate these substances.
I do think we have made progress by raising awareness of this issue, which will lead to better education efforts, more vigilance by parents, and more attention by law enforcement. Now that the DEA has become more familiar with these substances, it will be better equipped to combat the problem. But the fact remains that the most important thing we can do on the Federal level is to pass these three bills that have already been approved unanimously by the Judiciary Committee. These bills won't solve the problem overnight, but they are the first step we need to take, and we need to do it now. Before we lose more kids, before these drugs spread any further, let's pass these bills. As I mentioned, it is estimated that one in nine high school seniors has tried synthetic marijuana. I don't want to wake up a year from now and read that it has increased to one in seven or one in five. Let's have a debate. Let's hear what the objections are, and then let's pass these bills. I really think we can save lives. While there is still time to catch up, we should be doing everything we can to address these problems.
I thank my colleagues, Senator Grassley, the ranking Republican Senator from Iowa on the Judiciary Committee, who has already spoken, and Senator Chuck Schumer from New York, who is a senior member of the Judiciary Committee. We are doing this as a team. We think it is very important that you, Mr. President, and the rest of the Senate have the opportunity to vote on these bills and have the opportunity to debate them. We hope we can achieve this goal procedurally so we can move forward in the way we are supposed to.
I yield the floor. I note the absence of a quorum.
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