WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressman Earl L. “Buddy” Carter (GA-01), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, led a hearing yesterday titled Combatting Existing and Emerging Illicit Drug Threats . “One death due to illicit drugs is too many, and this hearing gave members the chance to hear from patient advocates and experts, including law enforcement and medical professionals. Solving the drug crisis will include everything from empowering law enforcement to crack down on drug traffickers to providing support to those struggling with substance use disorder,” said Chairman Carter. “This Subcommittee has led on proposing solutions to these problems in the last Congress, and this hearing shows signs that we will continue to do so moving forward.” Watch the full hearing here . Below are key excerpts from today’s hearing: Rep. John Joyce (PA-13), Vice Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce: “Since the inauguration of President Trump, we have seen President Trump take immediate action to combat the growing threat of illicit fentanyl flowing through our borders. He designated the cartels in Mexico as a foreign terrorist organization and reached an agreement with the Mexican president to deploy her country's National Guard to help stop the transport of this deadly drug into our country. Unfortunately, these positive steps come only a few years after the inaction of the Biden Administration. And because of that delay, fentanyl poisoning has risen dramatically with seven out of 10 illicit fentanyl pills tested by the DEA in 2023 containing a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl. That's seven out of 10, and go back just two years before that, it was only four out of 10. Why would I say only four out of 10 deadly pills? Ray Cullen, thank you for being here. Thank you for sharing the story of your son, Zach. Can you talk about how fentanyl poisoning is distinct from an accidental overdose?” Ray Cullen: “Thank you for the question. So, in my opinion, an accidental overdose is when someone takes something—whether prescribed or not—that’s more of what they were supposed to then the body could handle. Poisoning to me means that someone took something that had something in it. that they were not expecting. So, in our case Zach purchased cocaine—bad decision—but the coroner told me that there was more fentanyl and cocaine in his system. He did not die because he took too much cocaine.” Rep. Neal Dunn (FL-02), Vice Chairman of the Subcommittee on Health: “Doctor Westlake, as a medical doctor, I'm interested to hear from you about how this issue presents in the emergency room. Can you speak from your own experience—how the presentations of drug overdoses have evolved over the last few years?” Dr. Westlake: “I think when, when we kind of saw the starting, it was with prescription opioid epidemic, and there were overdoses on prescription pills because of the overprescribing issue. That has pretty, pretty much, you know, at least in Wisconsin, and my understanding across the country is pretty much stopped. And now it's moved on to the illicit substances. And then once they became the counterfeit, counterfeit substances, initially it was people that knew they were using and were taking risks, and now moved into people that don't even know that they're that they're using. The majority of overdoses that I see are people that are not aware that they're taking fentanyl. The last 10 overdoses that I've seen in the last couple of months, all thought they were taking heroin, and when we tested it, there was no opioid, it was all pure fentanyl that was they were overdosing from.” ###