GRAMMY-nominated singer Jason 'Jelly Roll' DeFord, testifying before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on Thursday (1/11), took his time to impassionately plea for the swift passing of anti-fentanyl legislation.
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Given time to speak amid discussions surrounding the proposed Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act, Jelly Roll began, "During the time that I've been given to share my testimony here, I think it's important to note before I start that in these five minutes I'll be speaking, that somebody in the United States will die of a drug overdose and it is almost a 72% chance that during those five minutes it will be fentanyl-related."
Offering his own struggles with substance abuse to further the cause, he added, "I was a part of the problem. I am here now, standing as a man that wants to be a part of the solution."
"I brought my community down. I hurt people. I was the uneducated man in the kitchen playing chemist with drugs I knew absolutely nothing about," he admitted of his past, "just like these drug dealers are doing right now when they're mixing every drug on the market with fentanyl and they're killing the people we love."
Jelly Roll, continued, "I've attended more funerals than I care to share with y'all, this committee. I could sit here and cry for days about the caskets I've carried of people I love dearly, deeply, in my soul," urging the Senate to pass the FEND Off Fentanyl Act, a "sanctions and anti-money laundering bill to help combat the country's fentanyl crisis by targeting opioid traffickers devastating America's communities," according to the bill's description.
"It is time for us to be proactive and not reactive," Jelly Roll said. "I truly believe in my heart that this bill... can help stop the supply of fentanyl."
