Johnson releases report on opioid epidemic and the effects of non-secure borders

U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, released a report on Thursday detailing the senator’s work during the 114th Congress.

Included in the report were 18 hearings on America’s non-secure border and the public health epidemic surrounding drug addiction.

“The mission statement of my committee is to enhance the economic and national security of the United States,” Johnson said. “Over the course of my committee’s 18 hearings on border security, I have reached the inescapable conclusion that our borders remain unsecure and that a key driver of that insecurity is America’s insatiable demand for drugs. The ease with which a person can access opioids and other drugs has led to an alarming rise in overdoses across the country, and multiple witnesses have testified that heroin is increasingly potent and less expensive today than ever before.”

A total of 109 heroin-related deaths occurred in Milwaukee County in 2015, and the county had 20 overdose deaths over the course of two weeks in August. Johnson said that the unprecedented rise in opioid deaths coincides with Mexican cartels beginning to cut heroin with fentanyl, a synthetically-produced opioid that is significantly stronger than heroin.

“It is vital that America as a whole shares the sense of urgency to resolve this public health crisis that is taking the lives of countless Americans and threatening our national security,” Johnson said.