On Thursday (Jan. 11), Jelly Roll testified in front of the US Senate's Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee in Washington, DC.
He was supporting the Fentanyl Eradication and Narcotics Deterrence (FEND) Off Fentanyl Act, which was introduced by Ohio Democrat Sherrod Brown and South Carolina Republican Tim Scott.
Per the Senate's website, the act will ""enhance current law so US government agencies can more effectively disrupt illicit opioid supply chains and penalize those facilitating the trafficking of fentanyl."
Pharmaceutical fentanyl is a pain medicine, often taken after surgery or by patients with advance-stage cancer. Even a small amount of illegally-made fentanyl can be deadly, and in recent years, cocaine and other illegal substances have been laced with the drug, causing an opioid epidemic.
According to the CDC, "most recent cases of fentanyl-related overdose are linked to illegally made fentanyl, which is distributed through illegal drug markets for its heroin-like effect. It is often added to other drugs because of its extreme potency, which makes drugs cheaper, more powerful, more addictive, and more dangerous."
Jelly Roll knows all too well about the deadly effects of fentanyl.
"I've attended more funerals than I care to share with y'all," he said. "I could sit here and cry for days about the caskets I've carried, of people I love dearly, deeply, in my soul. Good people. Not just drug addicts. Uncles, friends, cousins, normal people."
The singer owned his past role in the spread of illegal narcotics.
"I was a part of the problem. I am here now standing as a man that wants to be a part of the solution," he explained. "I was the uneducated man in the kitchen playing chemist with drugs I knew absolutely nothing about, 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.
"I believed, when I sold drugs, genuinely, that selling drugs was a victimless crime," he continued. "I truly believed that, y'all."
Jelly Roll clarified that he'd "never paid attention to a political race in my life" because as a convicted felon, he doesn't have the right to vote. However, he feels the need to speak on this issue for deeply personal reasons.
"Now I have a 15-year-old daughter whose mother is a drug addict. Every day I get to look in the eyes of a victim in my household," he said. "And every single day I have to wonder, me and my wife, if today will be the day I have to tell my daughter that her mother became a part of the national statistic."
Jelly Roll closed with a plea for not just his family but his entire audience and community.
"These people crave reassurance that their elected officials actually care more about human life than they do about ideology and partisanship," he said. "I stand here as a regular member of society. I am a stupid songwriter, y'all. But I have first-hand witnessed this in a way most people have not. I encourage you to not only pass this bill but I encourage you to bring it up where it matters: At the kitchen table."
