[House Hearing, 106 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
METHAMPHETAMINE AND DATE RAPE DRUGS: A NEW GENERATION OF KILLERS
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON CRIMINAL JUSTICE,
DRUG POLICY, AND HUMAN RESOURCES
of the
COMMITTEE ON
GOVERNMENT REFORM
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
SEPTEMBER 18, 2000
__________
Serial No. 106-264
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Government Reform
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpo.gov/congress/house
http://www.house.gov/reform
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
74-706 WASHINGTON : 2001
_______________________________________________________________________
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing
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Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402-0001
COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM
DAN BURTON, Indiana, Chairman
BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York HENRY A. WAXMAN, California
CONSTANCE A. MORELLA, Maryland TOM LANTOS, California
CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut ROBERT E. WISE, Jr., West Virginia
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida MAJOR R. OWENS, New York
JOHN M. McHUGH, New York EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York
STEPHEN HORN, California PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania
JOHN L. MICA, Florida PATSY T. MINK, Hawaii
THOMAS M. DAVIS, Virginia CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York
DAVID M. McINTOSH, Indiana ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, Washington,
MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana DC
JOE SCARBOROUGH, Florida CHAKA FATTAH, Pennsylvania
STEVEN C. LaTOURETTE, Ohio ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland
MARSHALL ``MARK'' SANFORD, South DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio
Carolina ROD R. BLAGOJEVICH, Illinois
BOB BARR, Georgia DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois
DAN MILLER, Florida JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts
ASA HUTCHINSON, Arkansas JIM TURNER, Texas
LEE TERRY, Nebraska THOMAS H. ALLEN, Maine
JUDY BIGGERT, Illinois HAROLD E. FORD, Jr., Tennessee
GREG WALDEN, Oregon JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois
DOUG OSE, California ------
PAUL RYAN, Wisconsin BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont
HELEN CHENOWETH-HAGE, Idaho (Independent)
DAVID VITTER, Louisiana
Kevin Binger, Staff Director
Daniel R. Moll, Deputy Staff Director
James C. Wilson, Chief Counsel
Robert A. Briggs, Clerk
Phil Schiliro, Minority Staff Director
------
Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources
JOHN L. MICA, Florida, Chairman
BOB BARR, Georgia PATSY T. MINK, Hawaii
BENJAMIN A. GILMAN, New York EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York
CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio
MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana ROD R. BLAGOJEVICH, Illinois
STEVEN C. LaTOURETTE, Ohio JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts
ASA HUTCHINSON, Arkansas JIM TURNER, Texas
DOUG OSE, California JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois
DAVID VITTER, Louisiana
Ex Officio
DAN BURTON, Indiana HENRY A. WAXMAN, California
Sharon Pinkerton, Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Ryan McKee, Clerk
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on September 18, 2000............................... 1
Statement of:
Massell, Sam, president, Buckhead Coalition, Atlanta, GA; Liz
Flowers, Southern Regional Sexual Assault Coalition; and
Ned Harman, Family Victim.................................. 10
Saliba, Jason, Assistant District Attorney, Cobb County, GA;
Paul Howard, District Attorney, Fulton County, GA; John
Andrejko, Special Agent in Charge, Drug Enforcement
Administration; and Robert Gattison, Special Agent in
Charge, Atlanta, U.S. Customs Service...................... 42
Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by:
Andrejko, John, Special Agent in Charge, Drug Enforcement
Administration, prepared statement of...................... 63
Flowers, Liz, Southern Regional Sexual Assault Coalition,
prepared statement of...................................... 17
Gattison, Robert, Special Agent in Charge, Atlanta, U.S.
Customs Service, prepared statement of..................... 79
Harman, Ned, Family Victim, prepared statement of............ 26
Howard, Paul, District Attorney, Fulton County, GA, prepared
statement of............................................... 57
Massell, Sam, president, Buckhead Coalition, Atlanta, GA,
prepared statement of...................................... 12
Mica, Hon. John L., a Representative in Congress from the
State of Florida, prepared statement of.................... 5
Saliba, Jason, Assistant District Attorney, Cobb County, GA,
prepared statement of...................................... 44
METHAMPHETAMINE AND DATE RAPE DRUGS: A NEW GENERATION OF KILLERS
----------
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2000
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and
Human Resources,
Committee on Government Reform,
Atlanta, GA.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9 a.m., in the
Atlanta International School, Atlanta, GA, Hon. John L. Mica
(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Mica and Barr.
Staff present: Sharon Pinkerton, staff director and chief
counsel; and Ryan McKee, clerk.
Mr. Mica. I would like to call the House Subcommittee on
Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources to order.
This morning, we are conducting a field hearing in Atlanta, Ga.
The order of business will be as follows: I will start the
proceedings today with an opening statement, yield to other
Members for opening statements.
We have two panels today and they will be recognized
accordingly. The title of today's hearing is ``Methamphetamine
and Date Rape Drugs, A New Generation of Killers.'' And this
hearing is a part of a series of national field hearings that
our subcommittee has conducted throughout the United States in
an effort to get a handle on what is happening with illegal
narcotics and drug abuse and narcotics trafficking in the
United States.
It is my pleasure to be here in the State of Georgia, which
is the closest neighbor to my home State and my district, which
is neighboring on the south. I did not bring--well, I guess I
did bring a little of this weather in the plane last night, but
it is on its way away, fortunately. But it is good to be here.
And also be here to discuss one of the most pressing and
serious issues that faces our Nation and that is the problem of
serious drug threats that we have, not only in Atlanta, but
from one end of the country to the other.
As chairman of the House Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and
Human Resources Subcommittee, I have traveled across the
country to examine the epidemic that we now face in so many of
our communities. I am pleased to be here this morning at the
request of Congressman Bob Barr. Mr. Barr has served as vice
chairman of the panel, he has had this responsibility for about
18 months in tackling, again, a most difficult problem facing
our Nation and communities. And I appreciate his leadership.
I want to apologize, we have done a series of hearings and
since he is vice chairman and part of the leadership of the
subcommittee, his community unfortunately is the last to have
this hearing, so I appreciate both his patience and
understanding. And also his commitment to working to find
viable solutions to the problem we face. We would not be here,
again, without his leadership or where we are in the progress
that we have made in Washington.
At today's hearing, we will take a close look at the
continuing drug crisis, and its impact both in Georgia and
Atlanta and this region. Has the explosion of so-called club
drugs hit Atlanta, impacted Atlanta and its neighbors, or is it
sneaking into your community unnoticed and, as they say, under
the radar? Either way, I urge everyone in this community to
identify and prevent this scourge.
As we will hear today, dangers to the communities and our
loved ones are very real. Club drugs, which also go by the
names, the common names we have heard of, such as Ecstasy,
Special-K, Meth, GHB and roofies increasingly are the illegal
drugs of choice for our young people, particularly at all-night
dance parties which are referred to as raves. Club drugs
include a wide variety of illegal narcotics, sometimes coupled
with abuse of prescribed drugs. Some are stimulants, some are
depressants and some are hallucinogenic. They all are dangerous
and can be serious and have immediate and permanent health
consequences. And as we have noted, unfortunately many times,
result even in death.
In many respects, club drugs can be just as bad or worse
than crack cocaine, even though many youth seem to think or are
convinced otherwise. The drugs are cheap, readily available,
and often considered by users to be recreational and non-
dangerous. And that is probably most dangerous.
Some users are able to continue to function in their work
and social activities, at least for a while. Because of this
perceived low risk and delays that may occur before
experiencing noticeable harms, club drugs have become a
representation of really an insidious national threat.
According to Dr. Alan Leshner, who has appeared before our
subcommittee on several occasions--he is also the Director of
the National Institute of Drug Abuse, also referred to as NIDA.
Dr. Leshner is quoted as follows: ``Young adults believe club
drugs can harmlessly enhance their experience at dance parties
and raves, but there is no safe way to use any of these drugs.
There is no such thing as harmless club drugs, and no such
thing as recreational drug use.'' He is one of our foremost
experts, and that is his opinion.
This concern is receiving increased Federal attention. NIDA
has increased funding for club drug research by 40 percent to
$54 million. NIDA also created a Web site, www.clubdrugs.org,
to educate the public. Still more efforts are needed at all
levels, local, State and Federal.
One club drug that deserves close attention, and our
subcommittee has been reviewing the incredibly growing problem,
that is Ecstasy. Ecstasy is also known as MDMA or the hug drug.
It is very popular with some teenagers. Some take Ecstasy for
its quick high, enticing the user to dance or engage in
activities all night. It speeds up a person's heart rate and
body temperature. These characteristics, along with impaired
judgment, make for a very dangerous situation at these all-
night dance clubs.
According to NIDA, Ecstasy poses long-term, adverse
physical risk. Brain imaging studies at Johns Hopkins
University show that Ecstasy can damage the brain cells that
produce body chemical serotonin. Serotonin is responsible for
memory and thought process. We do not know, in fact, that these
brain cells regenerate. In fact, some of the information that
we have received show that there is, in fact, permanent damage.
Consequently, Ecstasy may be causing long-term memory loss in
thousands of American young people, without these young people
having any idea of the damage that is being done to them.
A survey of high school students indicates that Ecstasy use
has increased 55 percent just from 1998 to 1999. It is
estimated that 8 percent of high school seniors have used
Ecstasy at least once, a figure that is up 2 percent from 1
year ago. GHB, or G, or Rohypnol or roofies are illegal drugs
notorious for their use in date rapes and other crimes. These
drugs are odorless, colorless and tasteless. They can be
slipped unnoticed into a drink. These dangerous drugs sedate
users, rendering them defenseless. They vary in purity and
potency. Overdoses are actually very common today. Dozens of
deaths have been reported.
Methamphetamine, also known as meth, speed, crystal, ice or
crank, is a very highly addictive stimulant. Meth, we are also
experiencing incredible national explosion with, and meth can
cause anxiety, paranoia and cardiovascular problems.
Unfortunately, it can be mixed at home, the recipe can be found
on the Internet, and unfortunately the ingredients are highly
volatile, as we have seen. There have been numerous reports of
lab explosions in home basements and garage production
facilities.
For many users, club drugs are considered cheap. For
example, an Ecstasy pill can cost about $20. Some pushers
simply give them away to lure their victims into drug abuse and
addiction. Young users often mix club drugs with other drugs
like LSD, PCP or heroin. This can lead to incredibly tragic
results. Most young users do not realize how harmful club drugs
or mixtures can be.
Research findings indicate that misperceptions of risk by
young people are strong predictors of drug abuse. We need to
make the message very clear in all of our communities, club
drugs are deadly, and our young people should be warned, and
others, adults, to stay away from them.
The amount of Ecstasy entering the United States is
increasing at a phenomenal rate. In fiscal year 1998, the U.S.
Customs Service seized an estimated 750,000 doses. Last year
that quadrupled to 3 million doses. In the first 5 months of
the year 2000, the U.S. Customs Service seized over 4 million
doses.
Club drugs continue to be available from multiple sources,
not just local dance clubs. Teenagers can now order them
online. In just a few minutes, we will hear testimony, and we
will also see how teenagers can order these drugs online and
how they have ready access to these drugs throughout our
communities.
In just a few minutes, a teenager can locate a Web site
that will ship club drugs directly to his or her house or post
office box. The subcommittee has also conducted hearings in
Washington on the problem we have of distribution of these
narcotics, through legal, even U.S. Postal packaging service.
Our subcommittee also has conducted dozens of hearings on
topics of drug control and illegal drug use. Many of them are
field hearings like this one. We are continuing to examine drug
policies and programs at the Federal level, the State level and
the local level. Drug abuse has now taken a toll of more than
16,000 American lives in 1 year, and the cost to society is
more than $110 billion annually. In fact, our subcommittee
reviewed the most recent statistics on drug-related deaths,
which revealed a horrifying fact, and we are going to announce
some of these figures tomorrow in Washington.
In 1998, related deaths to drug abuse, drug overdose
deaths, were 16,925. The first time in the history of our
Nation, they exceeded homicides which, for the same year, were
16,914. This unfortunately is an ongoing and growing tragedy in
America which must be stopped.
I know that our vice chairman and my colleague, Mr. Barr,
and I share a strong commitment to doing everything we can to
assist our local communities, State, our enforcement,
prevention, education efforts. We want to listen today about
the local problems, the local successes, and find out what
works best, and what we can do in a cooperative effort with
these officials to find answers to serious problems that we are
facing. And I always say that all the answers are not found in
Washington, they are found through individuals throughout
America who have good ideas, good approaches and
recommendations that we can incorporate into our Federal
agenda.
I want to thank all of our witnesses today for their
participation, for their willingness to share their ideas and
their experience. And again, I am most grateful to our vice
chairman of our subcommittee for his leadership on this issue,
and invitation to be in Atlanta today.
And with those opening comments, I am pleased to yield to
the gentleman from Georgia, Mr. Barr.
[The prepared statement of Hon. John L. Mica follows:]
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T4706.001
[GRAPHIC] [TIFF OMITTED] T4706.002
Mr. Barr. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and welcome back to
Georgia. This is the second visit by Chairman Mica and this
subcommittee to the Atlanta area during this 106th Congress,
but it is by far not the second trip that the chairman has made
on behalf of the subcommittee. I do not know what the
percentage is, Mr. Chairman, but I know it is a very
substantial percentage of the hearings that Mr. Mica has held
on matters that are within the jurisdiction of this
subcommittee outside of Washington.
While that may not be unique, other subcommittees and
committees hold field hearings in other parts of the country, I
think the frequency with which Mr. Mica conducts these hearings
outside of the Washington, DC, area is unique. And it is a
tribute to his understanding of the problems that are faced by
this subcommittee and by Washington, and also reflects his
understanding that, in order to develop solutions to these
problems, you need to do more than sit inside the beltway and
discuss theories and policies. You need to be out in the
community listening to the men and women who deal with these
problems day in and day out, who are affected most deeply by
them. They cannot always come waltzing up to Washington and
testify up there before the bright lights and the beautiful
committee rooms. They are working men and women, they have
families, they cannot just pick up and leave. And Mr. Mica has
recognized that, and that is why we hold many hearings all
across the country.
About a little over a year ago, Mr. Mica joined us in
Smyrna for a hearing looking at another aspect of the work of
this subcommittee, and it had to do with immigration policies
and illegal immigrants in our communities. Today we are here in
this beautiful facility, the Atlanta International School, and
I would like, certainly on behalf of the chairman and the rest
of the subcommittee, extend our thanks to the staff of the
school here for making this beautiful facility available for
this hearing today.
Another hallmark of the Mica subcommittee that brings us
this hearing today is the fact that his panels are consistently
very broad, very objective and very deep in terms of the depth
of experience and the type of experience that the witnesses
bring to bear to the subcommittee. He does not always go back
to the same well and bring the same people, the same type
people in over and over and over again. He recognizes that the
problems that this subcommittee faces manifest themselves in
many different ways and change constantly over time. And the
chairman reacts to that by bringing in different witnesses from
different backgrounds reflecting the many-headed nature of the
drug problem in particular today.
And the two panels that the chairman and the outstanding
staff, with our counsel, Sharon Pinkerton and Mr. Gil Macklin
who is here, down here accompanying the chairman as well,
attest to their understanding of the issue. We have two very
distinguished panels, and Mr. Chairman, I know you are going to
introduce them but let me just say that it is an honor to be
with them. We appreciate--I appreciate, and I know you do as
well, the sacrifices they make day in and day out addressing
this problem in so many different ways. And we certainly
appreciate their taking some time from those very, very
important activities to be here with us today to share their
perspective on the problem that we face with regard to these
types of drugs in particular, and to help us develop better
solutions to address them.
The problem of so-called club drugs is apparent in the very
name that is given to them. They are disguised by very benign
sounding words such as club drugs, designer drugs. That was a
term that was coming into vogue when I served as U.S. attorney
here in Atlanta back in the late 1980's. And the names that are
given to these killer substances belie their effects. And the
way they are packaged belies their effects.
The drug Ecstasy, for example, the chemical name is so long
and so convoluted, I cannot even pronounce it. The chemical
name for Ecstasy, just as one of these drugs, is 3,4-M-e-f-y-l-
e-n-e-d-i-o-x-y-m-e-t-h-a-m-p-h-e-t-a-m-i-n-e. It is very
difficult to say. So those that traffic in these drugs, those
that deal them to our kids, those that cause the death of our
kids package them in very different ways. They come up with
pills in bright colors with benign symbols on them, symbols
that are recognizable to kids that have nothing to do with
drugs. Commercial symbols that they steal.
I know that, in particular, Ecstasy sometimes, they will
get these bright-colored pills with commercial logos on them,
such as the Mitsubishi symbol, the Rolex watch symbol, cartoon
characters such as the Pink Panther and all sorts of other
things designed very clearly not to convey to the young person,
or whoever it is that is taking it that this is death. It does
not have a picture of the Grim Reaper on it, but it might as
well.
But of course, those who deal in these substances know
that, if the truth were known, that they would be out of
business, so they disguise the truth. They package these drugs
in very benign format and do not tell the kids the lasting
damage or the immediate threat that they face by taking these
drugs.
Yet they are used with increasing frequency. In this very
area, we have--one of the guests that we have, one of the
witnesses we have today is former mayor of Atlanta, Sam
Massell, who has been very active for many years in this very
community, in the community of Buckhead, and he is very well
versed in the particular problems involving these type of drugs
and other drugs that are used with frequency in the so-called
night club scene and youth dance halls and so forth. And he
knows, as all of our panelists do today, as well as you, Mr.
Chairman, that club drugs are not club drugs, they are death.
Designer drugs are not designer drugs, they are death.
And the men and women that are here today, unlike many in
Washington, understand that these are a threat and that we need
to take action. And that we need to be out there aggressively
fighting this scourge. And they are doing so. The men and women
that you have brought here today, Mr. Chairman, the parents,
the community leaders, those involved in rehabilitation
efforts, the law enforcement and prosecution folks from the
Federal and our local government levels illustrate also very
aptly the nature of addressing this threat. It has to be a team
effort. It does not affect us just at one level of government,
it does not affect just one household or one community. It
affects all of us. And bringing to bear the combined wisdom of
these and so many other folks whose time did not permit them to
be here today, I think, Mr. Chairman, will help us much more
than some study inside the beltway up in Washington talking
about great theories of drugs.
So I appreciate very much your work in bringing us here
today, your continued commitment to addressing in a very real
sense these problems such as methamphetamine and other drugs. I
appreciate very much the work of the subcommittee staff in
pulling together these very distinguished panels, and the
facilities that enable us to be here today. It is an honor to
be here and to welcome you once again to the Atlanta area, Mr.
Chairman, for a very worthy cause. And again, I appreciate very
much the witnesses that we will be hearing from today. And I
would ask unanimous consent to include a more complete
statement in the record.
Mr. Mica. Without objection, the additional complete
statement will be added to the record. Mr. Barr also moves that
the record be open for a period of 2 weeks for additional
statements from Members and we also invite the public or other
interested parties to submit through the Chair or Mr. Barr
additional comments or statements to be included in the record.
Without objection, it is so ordered.
It is good to be back, Mr. Barr. I do not know if I told
you that, maybe the first time I came to Atlanta--I was
thinking about it last night when I flew in to the airport
here--it was with my father. It was about 41 years ago. I think
it was about 1959. I participated in a debate tournament at
Emory University. When we arrived at the airport, it was a
small sort of a shed-type airport with wood benches. I remember
very distinctly. We were one of the few people in the terminal.
And as I drove through Atlanta last night, I thought, who
would have ever thought that it would be one of the most
phenomenal cities, not only in the country, but in the world,
and through some of your leadership and community leadership we
see represented here, it truly is. And it now faces, like many
other great communities, a serious challenge, and that is
illegal narcotics which is tearing up families and communities
and causing destruction and death. So I am pleased to be here
and join you again in this community to address some of these
problems.
With those comments, I also want to state that we are a
subcommittee of the House Committee on Government Reform. We
are an investigations and oversight subcommittee of the U.S.
House of Representatives. In that regard, we do swear in our
members. You will be under oath. I do not think it will be
necessary to run the clock on these three witnesses in this
first panel. But we will try to put lengthy statements or
documentation in the record at request through the Chair, if
you would, please.
With those comments, let me welcome our first panel. Our
first panel consists of Sam Massell, president of the Buckhead
Coalition; Liz Flowers who is with the Southern Regional Sexual
Assault Coalition, and Ned Harman, who will talk about a
personal perspective of the question before the subcommittee
today, and his unfortunate experience as a family victim.
With those comments, let me welcome our three panelists of
witnesses. If you would please stand at this time to be sworn.
Raise your right hands.
[Witnesses sworn.]
Mr. Mica. The witnesses answered in the affirmative. Let
the record reflect that.
Again, welcome on behalf of our subcommittee. I would like
to recognize first for a statement Mr. Sam Massell, president
of the Buckhead Coalition. Welcome, sir, and you are
recognized. Now we may have to pull those mics up as close as
we can.
Mr. Massell. This mic?
Mr. Mica. I think this is the one you are on.
STATEMENTS OF SAM MASSELL, PRESIDENT, BUCKHEAD COALITION,
ATLANTA, GA; LIZ FLOWERS, SOUTHERN REGIONAL SEXUAL ASSAULT
COALITION; AND NED HARMAN, FAMILY VICTIM
Mr. Massell. All right. Well, I will talk loud, if that
works.
Mr. Mica. I think it picks you up.
Mr. Massell. Thank you. I am Sam Massell, Mr. Chairman and
Congressman Barr and staff. I appreciate the opportunity of
being with you. As mentioned, I am the president of the
Buckhead Coalition and former mayor of the city of Atlanta.
I would like to introduce you to the coalition, which is a
high-profile, non-profit civic organization made up of 80 chief
executive officers, or equivalent, of major firms in this north
Atlanta community. Buckhead is all within the corporate limits
of the city of Atlanta, but is fast becoming the skyline of the
metropolitan area. It now has a population of 66,000 residents,
houses, diversified businesses and 16 million square feet of
offices, offers 5,000 hotel rooms, has 1,400 retail stores and
over 16,500 multi-family units.
It can also brag of having the largest Presbyterian church
in the entire country, the largest Episcopal congregation in
American, the third largest Conservative Jewish synagogue in
the United States, 2 of the largest Southern Baptist churches
and 22 other proud houses of worship.
We are known for our beautiful homes, extensive shopping
options and excellent dining establishments. We are also known
as the night-life district of north Georgia. And this is what
prompts me to participate in your hearing today, as night life
and drugs are almost synonymous in the eyes of some.
The complexity and magnitude of the subject warrants
congressional consideration, so we thank you for initiating
this hearing and inviting us to testify. Our leadership
welcomes an opportunity to get ahead of the curve, and we think
only a public-private partnership can solve the situation.
Our night-life area, known as the Village, is the location
of over 100 establishments that have alcoholic beverage
licenses within a 10-block section of Buckhead. Some are
restaurants, but many are bars offering little more than a
place to congregate with an atmosphere of revelry. City
ordinances generally allow them to serve alcohol until 4 a.m.
On weekend nights, cruising automobiles gridlock famous
Peachtree Road, our major north-south artery, a distance of
approximately 1\1/2\ miles. The related noise, trash and
misbehavior dramatically damages quality of life for the
numerous and nearby residents.
Many thousands of young people congregate in the area
searching for a ``high.'' In the last couple of years, a half
dozen party-goers have been killed here by hit-and-run, gun or
knife. Our State law requires that a person be 21 years of age
to buy alcohol. However, on otherwise slow days, some of the
clubs advertise 18 year-old or college nights, where ostensibly
their profit is from entrance fees.
Business leaders, neighborhood activists, the ministry,
civic groups and some elected officials have campaigned for
years to tame this phenomenon. The trend, however, has been an
acceleration of the excesses. Although local police have
recently been more aggressive reducing the crowd size, there is
a serious possibility that the resulting reduction in alcohol
sales may be replaced with alternative business practices.
Sadly, it should be noted that local government has even
less power to control hours, age and other restrictions on
establishments that do not sell alcohol; thus, the conversion
of so-called juice bars--establishments with entrance fees that
admit all ages and operate through the night into the next
morning, selling $4 bottled water and providing the environment
for drug consumption, which will put lives at an even greater
risk. This popular fad is occurring at South Beach in Miami,
and it can be anticipated in other entertainment venues, like
Georgetown in D.C., the French Quarter in New Orleans, and the
Village in Buckhead.
It is certainly unfair to the unsuspecting, and unsafe for
the unconcerned. Although our night club patrons come from all
over the State and include national and international tourists,
large numbers attracted here are believed to be college
students, particularly from Georgia State and the Atlanta
University Center. In our discussions with academic leadership,
we have become keenly aware of physical and mental harm
resulting from ``binge'' drinking and ``rave'' dancing and
related drug consumption. We are convinced that if left
unchecked, the cowardly date rape drug and other illegal
substances will embarrass and greatly sadden the elders of this
generation.
The ``club drug'' craze has not yet reached epidemic
proportions here, but conditions are ripe for this to occur.
And such exposure as this hearing can alert the powers to be on
the need for action. We thus welcome help from all quarters to
derail this train before it runs through our community.
Again, I thank you very much for the opportunity of
appearing before you.
Mr. Mica. Thank you for your testimony, Mr. Massell. And I
will turn to our next witness, who is Liz Flowers, and she is
with the Southern Regional Sexual Assault Coalition. Welcome,
and you are recognized.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Massell follows:]
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Ms. Flowers. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you
Congressman Barr for the opportunity to be before you today. I
am Liz Flowers. I currently work as a consultant to several
women's organizations, and the southern region director of
Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. I am responsible for
the startup of the Georgia Network to End Sexual Assault, a
statewide coalition of rape crisis centers, and until April of
this year served as its first executive director. I have 15
years of experience in the field of women's health and safety.
Somewhere in America, a woman is sexually assaulted every 2
minutes, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. In 1996,
307,000 women were victims of rape, attempted rape or sexual
assault. And between 1995 and 1996, more than 670,000 women
were the victims of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault.
During that same time period, Georgia's rape crisis centers
treated 3,593 sexual assault survivors. The Unified Crime
Reporting Program [UCR], cites the highest female rape is in
southern States with a rate of 88 victims per 100,000. Rape is
a violent sexual act against a person's will. It is a felony.
All evidence indicates that rape is a brutal act of violence
and display of power rather than an act of passion or sexual
gratification. Nearly 90 percent of all rapes involve threats
of physical harm or the actual use of physical force. However,
weapons are used in less than half of the reported rapes. Drugs
are often used as a means for incapacitating the victim.
One of the most startling aspects of sex crimes is how many
go unreported. The most common reasons given by women for not
reporting these crimes are the belief that it is a private or
personal matter, or they fear reprisal from the assailant. In
1996, only 31 percent of rapes and sexual assaults were
reported to law enforcement officials, less than one in every
three. Approximately 68,000 of rape victims knew their
assailant, and approximately 28 percent of victims were raped
by husbands, 35 percent by acquaintances, and 5 percent by
other relatives.
Further, one of every four rapes takes place in a public
area or in a parking garage; 68 percent of rapes occur between
the hours of 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. In 47 percent of rapes, the
victims sustained injuries other than the rape injuries, and 75
percent of female rape victims require medical care after the
attack. At least 45 percent of rapists were under the influence
of alcohol or drugs. About 81 percent of rape victims are
White, 18 percent are Black, 1 percent are other races. While 9
out of 10 rape victims are women, men and boys are also
victimized by this crime. In 1995, 32,130 males, age 12 and
older, were victims of rape or attempted rape.
Teens 16 to 19 were three and one half times more likely
than the general population to be victims of rape, attempted
rape or sexual assault. For nearly 30 years, the anti-rape
movement has worked to overcome misconceptions about the origin
and nature of sexual assault, prejudice toward victims and
stereotypes about perpetrators. We have insisted that victims
do not ask for it through provocative dress or behavior. We
have maintained that an adult woman raped by a husband or
someone she knows deserves the exact same justice and support
as the child raped by a stranger. And we have been loud and
clear about the fact that rarely does a victim falsely report.
Despite the horrendous realities of rape, prevailing
misconceptions work against successful prosecution of rapes. In
fact, only 3 percent of rapists are ever convicted of their
crime. The standard defense of a rapist puts the victim on
trial, and the facts are often lost in the questioning of the
survivor's character as the contributor to the crime.
For decades, perpetrators have misused sedatives in order
to incapacitate individuals during a sexual assault. Alcohol
has been used by perpetrators for years, but more recently,
reports have identified several other substances used in drug-
facilitated rapes, including Gamma HydroxyButyrate [GHB]--I am
going to mess that one up, I am just going to call it Rohypnol,
scopolamine, burundanga and ketamine. These drugs come in
varied forms such as powder, pill, tablet or liquid. Depending
on the drug and its form, sedating substances may or may not
have a noticeable color or odor.
Individuals may react differently to sedating substances,
depending on the dosage, their metabolism and sensitivity to
the substance, and the presence of alcohol and/or other drugs.
There are several tell-tale signs that an individual may be
under the influence of a sedating substance. Impaired judgment,
lowered inhibition, dizziness, confusion, drowsiness, impaired
motor coordination, impaired memory, unconsciousness. If an
individual appears extremely intoxicated after consuming a non-
alcoholic beverage or only a small amount of alcohol, they may
have unknowingly ingested one of a number of substances.
Gamma Hydroxybutyrate [GHB], with street names of Liquid X,
Georgia Home Boy, Goop, Gamma-O and Grievous Bodily Harm is a
central nervous system depressant, abused for its ability to
produce euphoric and hallucinatory states, and its alleged
ability to release a growth hormone and stimulate muscle
growth.
Although GHB was originally considered a safe and natural
food supplement and was sold in health food stores, the medical
community soon became aware that it caused overdoses and other
health problems. GHB can produce drowsiness, dizziness, nausea,
unconsciousness, seizures, severe respiratory depression and
coma. GHB can be found in liquid form or as a white powdered
material. It is taken orally and is frequently combined with
alcohol. Abusers include high school and college students and
rave party attendees who use GHB for its intoxicating effects.
Many young women reportedly prefer GHB to alcohol because it is
non-caloric.
Some body builders abuse GHB for its alleged anabolic
effects. Several cases have documented the use of GHB to
incapacitate women for the commission of sexual assault. In
1990, the Food and Drug Administration issued an advisory
declaring GHB unsafe and illicit, except under FDA-approved,
physician-supervised protocols. In March 2000, GHB was placed
in Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act. However, the
ingredients to make GHB are still available and reports
continue that abusers make and manufacture the substance in
home tubs for recreational purposes. Many of these products are
available over the Internet.
Flunitrazepam, which is marketed under the brand name
Rohypnol and is commonly known as roofies, belongs to the
benzodiazepine class of drugs and has never been approved for
medical use in the United States, but is legally prescribed in
50 other countries, including Mexico and Colombia. It is very
much like Valium, Librium and Xanax. Rohypnol's effects include
sedation and muscle relaxation, however the sedative effects of
Rohypnol are 7 to 10 times more potent than valium. The effects
of Rohypnol appear 15 to 20 minutes after administration and
last for approximately 4 to 6 hours. Some residual effects can
be found 12 or more hours after administration.
It is difficult to estimate just how many Rohypnol-
facilitated rapes have occurred in the United States. Very
often biological samples are taken from the victim at a time
when the effects of the drug have already past and only
residual amounts remain in the body fluids. These residual
amounts are difficult, if not impossible, to detect using
standard screenings available in the United States. If Rohypnol
exposure is to be detected at all, urine samples need to be
collected within 72 hours and subjected to sensitive analytical
tests.
This problem is compounded by the onset of amnesia after
ingestion of the drug, which causes the victim to be uncertain
about the facts surrounding the rape. This uncertainty may lead
to critical delays or even reluctance to report the rape and to
provide appropriate biological samples for toxology testing.
Also compounding the reporting and screening process is the
victim's fear of willingly consuming a drug. While many date-
rape drugs are consumed without the victim's knowledge, clearly
there are instances in which an individual has willingly
consumed an illicit substance, but not with the intention of
being raped or sexually assaulted. Rape with intentional drug
use is under-reported. We may never know the true extent to
drug-facilitated rapes.
Even when reports are made and screenings completed, many
State crime labs are so backlogged, they are unable to process
the rape kit in a timely manner. According to testimony, rape
kits can languish as long as 2 years. I do need to pause there
and say, however, in Georgia, our crime lab is not backlogged
at this time.
Much of the information available about drug-facilitated
rape is anecdotal, very little statistical information is
available. Frankly, there are more questions than answers. Are
DEA busts relevant? Did 1 million doses make it to the street;
20 million? Does rape result in 20 percent of the cases in
which GHB is used? Do the drugs lead to 10 cases a year or
10,000? And in how many of these cases did the women
voluntarily take the drug? Was alcohol involved? When there is
alcohol, how much is consumed? How often do guys use alcohol
and drugs as a, ``weapon,'' and how are they going about it?
It is irresponsible for us to perpetually hype something
like drugs that scare people, yet ignore much bigger problems.
That is why research is so key to solving this. We have made
people aware of the problem, and now we ought to figure out if
there is one and what it looks like.
In cases where the woman is drinking or using drugs of her
own volition, are we talking about girls binging to the point
of passing out and then being attacked, or are we talking about
two beers which leads to some flirting, which leads to his
room, which leads to rape?
The blame for the crime is the same in both these
scenarios, but the messaging and the solutions are a lot
different. There is a big difference in perceptions of
voluntary consumption and a drink that is secretly spiked.
However, rape can occur in both of these situations. Drugs and
alcohol, in and of themselves, do not cause rape. Let us take
the time to find out what does and how we can stop the only
crime in this country that continues to increase.
Thank you.
Mr. Mica. Thank you for your testimony. We will now
recognize Ned Harman, who is going to relate to the
subcommittee some of his personal experiences. Mr. Harman, you
are recognized and welcome.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Flowers follows:]
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Mr. Harman. Good morning, Congressmen, ladies and
gentlemen. Thank you for inviting me to participate in this
hearing this morning. I would especially like to thank
Congressman Barr for his fine representation of us in our
district. I appreciate this opportunity to share my experience
with GHB. This issue is one that affects every citizen in the
United States, either directly or indirectly.
My name is Ned Harman. I live on a farm about 50 miles west
of here, close to Carrollton, GA. My youngest daughter, Holly,
was a freshman at West Georgia College in 1996 when this
incident happened that I am going to tell you about in a
minute. I would like to show you a picture of her. When I speak
to groups, I usually like to put a face on Holly. This was
Holly's, I believe, high school graduation picture, I believe.
Holly's nightmare, and ultimately ours, began October 18,
1996. I was awakened by a phone call around 1 a.m. from the
emergency room at Tanner Hospital, our local hospital there in
Carrollton, GA. There was a lady that was a nurse there that
attends our church. She recognized Holly when they brought her
in and called me. We probably would not have known about it for
a while later if she had not have been there that night.
Anyhow, she said Holly had been brought in not breathing and
with no heart beat. You cannot imagine my feelings at that
moment. I felt as if I was dying, and at the end part of me did
die. I probably drove 100 miles per hour getting to the
hospital that night. I do not really remember much about
getting there. When I got there, they had revived Holly, and
she was on a ventilator but in a coma.
Holly stayed at Tanner until about 5 p.m. that Saturday,
the next morning Saturday. During that time at Tanner, Holly
started having grand mal seizures every 5 to 10 minutes. And we
were familiar with the seizures because our oldest son, Luke,
had hydrocephalus and he had died when he was 16. And he had
had seizures, maybe three, four or five during his lifetime.
But we were not familiar with anything like what Holly was
having, though. Like I say, every 5 or 10 minutes, she would
have one and she would nearly jump off the bed. It is tough to
watch somebody that you really love laying there, moving like
she was moving and just being helpless to do anything.
We found out later that Holly and one of her girlfriends
had been in a local restaurant there in Carrollton. Holly was
on a kick of drinking water like this, Evian water, and she had
been doing it probably for a year or two, I guess. She had it,
you know, in her hand a lot of time when she was around, she
was just usually drinking water. Anyhow, she went to a party
after the restaurant with her girlfriend, and one of the guys
at the party put pretty close to--we do not know if it was pure
GHB or whatever, but GHB in her bottle of water that she drank.
Holly then went into convulsions and passed out. The boys
would not let Holly's friend call 9-1-1, and they would not
help her get her in the car. And she finally got somebody to
take her across town to get a friend in an apartment, one of
her roommates, to come back across town and help get her in the
car to take her to the hospital. And during that time, there
was probably 40 to 60 critical minutes that had gone by during
this time.
Getting back to the seizures, Tanner Hospital gave Holly
phenobarbital and Dilanta to stop the seizures but nothing
helped. Holly was next carried to Emory Hospital in Atlanta
around 5 p.m. on that Saturday in 1996. Emory finally got the
seizures stopped during the night. Holly was in the neurology
intensive care at Emory.
In the next room there, there was a lady that had a brain
aneurism, and her daughter and I got to know each other waiting
through those long hours in the waiting room there, and she was
in the Secret Service out of the Miami field office, and she
got them to fax something up on GHB. At that time I never had
heard of GHB, I did not know what it was or nothing about it at
all. And she faxed the information up, so we got familiar with
GHB pretty quickly with the information they sent up.
We found out it is more dangerous when it is mixed with
alcohol, as some of the people have already said. Earlier
during the night, Holly, at the restaurant, had had a couple of
drinks, so those couple of drinks with the GHB also made it
that much more deadly. The doctors told us that she would not
live through the night, that Saturday night, but during the
night she got a little better and squeezed her older sister's
hand, and we were so happy for that hand squeeze that night.
But Holly stayed at Emory from October 19th until December 23,
1996, intensive care the whole time. I stayed with her there
day and night. One Sunday morning, I guess it was, I guess
maybe a week or two after we had been there, her heart beat
went up to 170 to 185 beats per minute, and stayed that way
until Thursday night. Every hour or two, they would give her a
shot to bring the heart beat down and it would come down to 140
or 150. I never thought I would be proud of 140-150 heartbeat,
but we were glad to see it down that much.
The doctors told us there that Holly never would come off
the ventilator, but on December 23rd, like I say, we left Emory
and went to Shepard's Spinal Hospital. Within a few days at
Shepard's, we had her off the ventilator and she was bringing
on her own.
After being at Shepard's for approximately 2 weeks or so,
Holly opened her eyes, and we thought she was coming out of the
coma, because I had never been around anybody in a coma,
either, but it was real strange she was still in the coma.
About half the time she would have her eyes open, half the time
they would be closed, approximately like that. And she would
look straight at you, you would think she could understand what
you were saying. But it was just sort of a blank stare in way,
though, but she was still in a coma.
The nurses and us, her family, for nearly 3\1/2\ years,
turned Holly every 2 or 3 hours to keep her from having bed
sores. Even after the ventilator was taken off, Holly had to
have a catheter and G-tube the rest of her life.
While at Shepard's on two separate occasions, her
temperature went up to 107. They put Holly on a special
mattress, filled with cold water, they can increase the
temperature and get it real cold. It was just about freezing,
the water, when you got to 107. They poured ice water down her
G-tube, and rubbed her in alcohol, packed her in ice, all these
kind of things to get the temperature down. The doctor told me
that he had never seen one get to 107 without going into
seizures, but Holly did not go into seizures, though.
Holly left Shepard's May 1, 1997, we brought her back to
Carrollton, GA, and put her in a nursing home, there at Pine
Knoll Nursing Home in Carrollton. During Holly's stay at Pine
Knoll, she was taken to Tanner Hospital, back where we had gone
to originally that night, several times for pneumonia. In
October 1998, Holly was taken to intensive care at Tanner
there. She had a massive blood clot on her lungs. They told us
she would not make it through the night that time, too, but she
made it through the night.
In January 1999, her heartbeat went down to about 25 beats
per minute, and they told us, well, her heart's just finally
wearing out. You know, she will not live through the night
again. But on the next morning, her heart had started beating
back normal again.
On Wednesday morning, January 19, 2000, this year, at 7:30
a.m., Holly made her final stop. This time it was to Heaven. I
do not know why this happened to Holly, how she survived 185
heartbeats, 107 temperatures, massive blood clots on the lung,
numerous bouts with pneumonia, heart beats of 25. But Holly was
a strong girl and a fighter.
If anyone could have come out of a coma, Holly would have
been the one that could come out. But God had other plans for
Holly, and I believe God used Holly those nearly 3\1/2\ years
to show other young people around in the community, the State
and the country what the dangers of drugs are. Whether they are
slipped to you without your knowledge or taken as a
recreational drug.
Holly had many, many friends. Hundreds of people came to
visit Holly, a lot that did not even know her. Holly touched a
lot of lives. Holly was a beautiful student with a bright and
promising future. Like most young people, Holly thought she was
invincible. These things only happen in New York, L.A., Miami,
Chicago, Atlanta. Not around here, not in the country. But I am
here to tell you, first hand, two young girls in our rural
county have died from GHB from the same boys.
Holly dreamed of becoming a physical therapist, getting
married someday and having children. I dreamed of being at
Holly's graduation from college, walking her down the aisles in
marriage. I also had dreams of all the wonderful things you do
with your grandchildren, like babysitting, playing ball,
reading to them, take them to the park, riding bicycles,
horses. None of these things will ever happen now.
I miss Holly, her smile, her voice, her kind heart. You
know that these tragedies not only affect the victim, the one
that pays the ultimate price with their lives, but it touches
so many other people. With Holly, it touched her mother, her
father, her brothers, her sisters, grandparents, uncles, aunts,
cousins, her boyfriend and countless numbers of friends. Our
lives will never be the same.
Our faith in God carried us through these long days and
nights, weeks and months and years. But we have the comfort of
knowing that Holly is in Jesus' arms now. Do not let Holly's
and all the other deaths be completely meaningless. Fight the
senseless death that claimed Holly and vindicate her by
preventing others from suffering the same painful fate. I urge
Congress to enact laws and strengthen existing laws that would
be as tough as possible on dealers and users of these drugs. We
must stop this epidemic in our country.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Harman follows:]
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Mr. Mica. Thank you, Mr. Harman, for some very compelling
testimony. Relating to the subcommittee your tragic personal
experience and trying to make something positive from I know
what has been a horrible personal tragedy. We appreciate your
coming forward.
Unfortunately, the last 18 months, I have heard countless
stories from parents, not only before our subcommittee, but
across the country, the same type of thing that is happening.
And as you have heard from the statistics that we are going to
release tomorrow for the first time in the Nation's history,
deaths by drug overdose exceed homicides across the land. So
this is repeated over and over and over again, not just in
Atlanta and not just with your family, but with countless
American mothers and fathers who have been subjected to this
horror.
Let me start, if I may, with this panel, back to Sam
Massell. We have attempted in Congress to try to deal with this
problem by addressing, of course, the supply side and
restarting some of the efforts in keeping the illegal narcotics
or the ingredients for narcotics from coming in to our borders,
which is a Federal responsibility and Federal enforcement.
But we have also tried to address the demand side. And we
instituted several years ago a $1 billion, in hard taxpayer
dollars, national media campaign. It is combined with a
requirement for contributions, so it is a several billion
dollar campaign that is unprecedented in its financial
commitment and scope. We are in the process of evaluating the
first year of performance, the first full year, of that
campaign. Are you aware of that national anti-drug media
campaign? Do you think it is effective? And maybe you could
also comment on what you believe the Federal responsibility is
in this total effort.
Mr. Massell. I am aware of the media campaign, and I
certainly think an educational effort is very important and
meaningful. I feel our greatest need is one of enforcement, and
that is what I meant by public-private partnership, whereas the
civic leadership can call attention to the problems and the
needs it takes government to actually curtail the criminal
activities. And that is mostly what we need. And some of that,
of course, can be performed through Federal bureaus that
control drugs and other illegal substances, but much of it is
at the local level of policing.
Mr. Mica. One of the dilemmas that we face in Congress is
Federal domination of that activity versus the State and local.
I think you have alluded to a need for a partnership in trying
to deal with this, as far as enforcement is concerned.
Are there any specifics that you could cite, or any
successful programs at the local level that you have seen, that
are not necessarily here or something we should be mirroring,
or some effort that we should support? You know, we have
grants, we have other assistance to local enforcement agencies.
Is there anything you would target with Federal dollars or
resources in the enforcement area?
Mr. Massell. I feel that when situations get to crisis
stage, you need crisis controls. And I would refer to zero
tolerance enforcement, as has been performed in New York very
successfully. And I think that the local situation in our
community, having been accused of a shortage of law enforcement
people, could be aided by our Federal law enforcement people.
If we have this shortage, which is not denied, as far as the
numbers that were budgeted of some 400 law enforcement
officers, and if you know, the government says they cannot or
will not, or for whatever reason are not filling these slots,
then they could be supplemented by law enforcement at the
Federal level.
Mr. Mica. We heard Mr. Harman talk about the need to go
after the drug dealers, the people that deal in death and
destruction. Do you feel we should increase our penalties,
Federal penalties, for people who are dealing in large
quantities of these obviously harmful narcotics?
Mr. Massell. I am not knowledgeable enough on the present
programs of punishment, but I do know that it needs cooperation
from the court system as well as law enforcement. And just
making the arrests, if the courts are not supportive, is not
very meaningful. And in some instances, there has been
suggestion that the courts were not as supportive as could be.
Mr. Mica. Well, one of the problems we have had with this
administration is we have tried to get them to prosecute drug
cases at the Federal level, and they were declining through, I
think, 1997, 1998, the numbers of drug cases that the feds were
going after. After hammering away, we are now beginning to see
an increase in some drug prosecutions at the Federal level,
however a new phenomena we have found is the sentencing is
going down, down, down. So rather than a severe and intensive
prosecution, which we have now got swinging back and
encouraging them to go after them, now the sentencing is going
down, so that those who are committing these offenses are
getting less severe sentences. And there is also this
philosophy or prevailing theory that this is not a criminal
problem, this is a health problem. What is your view?
Mr. Massell. It has been my experience that if sentencing
or the punishment for any criminal activity is what the public
considers to be excessive, then you do not get as many
convictions. So I am not an expert in this field, but I have
seen this occur in some areas. And I think there needs to be
balance. You have to start at the first effort, which is that
of arrest. And that is the enforcement part, with which I am
very concerned, and feel I need help, this community does. Not
just in the drug area, but in some others as well, related to
our night life.
And we are not at the epidemic stage yet, but I can see
this happening, and I would like to get ahead of the curve. So
if we can get greater enforcement with local, with Federal,
with State in between, and anybody else who will help. And we
have had help, for instance, from the county with a Sheriff's
reserve. They have come in and been very effective. But we need
enforcement, we need accelerated, aggressive enforcement.
Mr. Mica. Thank you.
Ms. Flowers, you talked about the problem of the sexual
assaults and how these crimes are on the increase. From a
Federal legislative standpoint, do you feel that the laws that
we have in place are sufficient, penalties sufficient, either
dealing with narcotics which sometimes, as your testimony
indicated, can lead to the being part of, I guess, the act that
is committed? Do you feel that we have adequate Federal
enforcement legislation? And then the other part of my question
would deal with adequate Federal resources to deal with the
enforcement?
Ms. Flowers. I think I would be remiss at this particular
point, in the 106th Congress, not to mention VAWA, or the
Violence Against Women Act, which is, I think, about to come
before the House within the next week, or never, apparently.
The reauthorization of 1994 Violence Against Women is a huge
and wide-sweeping piece of legislation which includes not only
funding for nearly every battered women shelter and rape crisis
center in the country, but also contains law enforcement and
prosecution components, and this year includes a judicial
component to deal specifically with how advocates and law
enforcement and communities work together to reduce all of
this. There is also a research component with it through CDC,
and I think that piece is in Mr. Goodling's committee right
now, and certainly that would be something for you all to look
at.
All of that is in some part contained within VAWA, which is
something that we need at the community level, or even what we
have right now goes away. In fact, if VAWA is not reauthorized,
in Georgia, you will effectively shut down every battered
women's shelter and rape crisis center, including the State
coalition.
One of the things that the State coalition does, in fact,
with this Federal money is work with the program called SART,
or Sexual Assault Response Team. It is a combination of the
training program for law enforcement, it is not a warm, fuzzy,
you know, hand-holding, this is what you do when a woman comes
in and says she is raped, but a team of psychologists and
criminologists and others who go in and work specifically with
our law enforcement around the State of Georgia to identify
specifically what a victim might look like when she has been
drugged and has been sexually assaulted.
Particularly with what we are talking about here, this is a
really difficult piece for law enforcement. And then of course,
the followup for prosecution to go with, because remember the
victim has pretty much been incapacitated by this. Although she
could be walking around and looking like she is functioning, so
the people around her may not know in fact that she is nearly
in a comatose state. Training law enforcement to do that,
training folks to understand and public awareness campaigns
about, you know, closed containers.
If you look at these bottles of water right here on this
table, Mr. Harman's bottle of water is exactly the invitation
that is given to put something in. And it is just so easy to
walk by and put something in that at a club. My open container
here, you know, that kind of public training.
Where sexual assault and the drugs come in, it is going to
have to be a multi-issue sort of campaign. Because on one hand,
you are dealing with the prevention message of drugs, but at
the same time dealing with the prevention message of sexual
assault, and helping society understand what rape and sexual
assault is. So there is a double message. VAWA can help with
that.
On your point of additional Federal laws and, you know,
things like that, the problem we are specifically having in
Georgia--and I believe last year only two adult women who were
victims, their cases were actually--they were found guilty.
Part of that reason is, unfortunately, mandatory minimums. And
we got tough on crime, which is, you know, philosophically a
fabulous idea, but the rape conviction rate in Georgia has
continually gone down since that happened.
The problem with that is the public education piece of what
people perceive to be rape and sexual assault, and are not
willing to put away Johnny, local football hero, because he
tried to push the limits too far in acquaintance rape, as most
of these are.
So I am not clear that, alone, toughening a law is where it
is at, without actually coupling with that the messaging about
prevention on both drugs and sexual assault.
Mr. Mica. Well, how would you deal with mandatory minimums
at the Federal level? I mean, how would you modify current
mandatory minimums?
Ms. Flowers. I believe that, in most cases, the Judges
having the discretion to make those types of calls, including
extended probationary periods. The recidivism on rape and
sexual assault is 67 percent. So even if we lock somebody up
and they get the maximum, they are back on the street, and
without some programs that ease them back into society, it is
probably going to happen again. And even in the case, I believe
South Carolina has instituted, you know, chemical castration.
That is not working, either. Because rape is not a physical,
sexual gratification but a mental power and control, the
castration is not doing anything.
So I think that giving Judges discretion in programs that
keep folks, you know, at least under surveillance for a longer
period of time might be necessary.
Mr. Mica. Well, the problem we have is trying to identify
successful programs to put some of these people in, whether
they are habitual sexual offenders or habitual drug offenders
or users. And we are not finding very good success stories. Our
subcommittee, I think, within the House and the Senate, the
Congress would pour whatever funds we could or resources we
could into successful programs.
Now there is an exception with some of the faith-based
programs, we have higher success rates, and we are trying to
modify some of the law to allow the support which heretofore
has not been available for some of these other groups. Are
there any specific programs you can report to the subcommittee
that are particularly effective that should have our support,
and any modifications in our criteria for extending support to
successful programs?
Ms. Flowers. The short answer is, no. The longer answer is,
even with the crime statistics that were released within the
last 2 weeks, touting how all crimes across the board were
going down. If you look specifically at rape and sexual
assault, that was the one crime that actually went up in terms
of numbers. And that has happened regularly. And we do not talk
about it.
So I think one of the things that we need to do, as a
country, and certainly in Georgia, is we need to begin talking
about it, and we need to be talking about rape and sexual
assault as the heinous crime that it is. That is No. 1.
No. 2, I think what can be done more in terms of resources
and successful programs that have just started, are local
prevention awareness and ad campaigns. A lot of the campaigns,
one of them that you have talked about, in terms of the drug
campaigns, tend to be created, you know, by some ad campaign
that thinks that they have come up with the right idea, but do
not talk to the folks in Carrollton, do not specifically
address how the folks live and deal in that community.
One of the things that we did here in Georgia was to spend
about $40,000 on a public awareness campaign, first of all to
find out what Georgians knew about sexual assault and rape, and
it was pretty bad. It was actually horrible, what we came up
with. But it allowed us to design an education program for
Georgia, and now is probably going to be used by the entire
south, because the demographics are so similar. And allowing us
what to find out what resonates in our own communities, as
opposed to some boilerplate prevention ad campaign that gets
dumped on us, is the recommendation that I would make.
Mr. Mica. Thank you.
Mr. Harman, your daughter died the victim of illegal
narcotics which were given to her. Was there any attempt to go
after those who provided her these narcotics?
Mr. Harman. Yes, he is in jail now. He got a big-name
lawyer in Atlanta here to keep him out of jail, I guess, for
maybe 2\1/2\, close to 3 years. Well, about 2\1/2\ years. He
has been in jail about a year now. And I do not think he got
much time. Truthfully, I did not keep up with it that much.
Mr. Mica. Do you think the penalties are adequate? I have
had parents similar to you tell me that, you know, they feel
that if someone had used a weapon and destroyed their child,
there would be a tougher penalty. Here they have used narcotics
which led to just a horrible and painful death for your
daughter and your family. And yet they get off with a lesser
penalty. It seems that there is a growing family of victims
that now are asking that there be some tougher penalties for
people who are providing death and destruction to their family
members. What is your opinion?
Mr. Harman. I have got mixed emotions on it. I agree with
what the other panelists said, in a lot of ways, and I am not--
I am strong on penalty on things. But I am not naive enough to
know that we cannot stop the drugs in this country completely,
unless there is a desire out there not to take drugs. That is
the main thing. Until we can educate the people in this country
against drugs, they have got to do that as the No. 1 thing, I
guess. As long as there is a desire, they are going to get them
somewhere, the people to provide it for them.
But on the other hand, too, that it is too much in this
country, to me, I guess, coddling the people that are the
criminals, and do not look at the victims out there. I mean,
whether it is the victim themselves or the victim's family or
whatever like that, there is too many excuses for the criminals
out there that, you know, they did this because of this, that,
or whatever, their childhood, or whatever happened to them or
how they were brought up or whatever. To me, you have to take
responsibility for actions you do sometime in life, when you
get old enough, whatever that age might be, you have to be
responsible for what you do, no matter what your background or
what other circumstances were.
In that aspect, there needs to be something done. I do not
have the answers for sure. And I know there is so much money in
drugs itself, that it is going to be a real--just about
impossible thing to do. There is a lot of fine judges, a lot of
fine sheriffs, policemen, DEA, Customs, or whatever people out
there. I am not saying there is not. But there is so much money
involved out there and so much corruption that a lot of this
stuff does not get arrested to start with. But after they are
arrested, I think there needs to be some real stiff penalties
for them.
Like on the other hand, I think there are people out there
that need to rehabilitate, for sure, before they get back on
the streets, and there needs to be an education in the schools.
I have gone to different schools around the State, some over
there in Alabama, different civic organizations, churches, and
spoke to a lot of young people about the water left open, water
drinks, mixed drinks, Coca-Cola or whatever. If you are at a
party, make sure, telling the young people to not leave your
drinks, even with a friend. If it is an open drink served to
you somewhere, you know, ask to open it yourself or whatever.
So I have, you know, done a lot of that around the State. So
there needs to be a lot more of that done.
But still, I still go back to this, we need some strong
drug policy for the dealers, the big dealers, the
manufacturers, this kind of thing, so long as there is a desire
to use these and need for them in the country, I know we will
never block it out completely because people will provide it
for them. But still, I would like to see as much as possible
done to wipe out as much as we can.
Especially, I think, illegal immigration, this kind of
thing, reminds me of the Mexican border down there, I would
like to see something done about--I do not think there is
nothing done about so much illegal immigration coming across
the border, which leads to so many drugs coming across the
border like that. So many trucks that come across the border
unstopped, you do not know what is in them, you know. I do not
have the answer, but I think that something needs to be done.
Mr. Mica. It is a Federal responsibility. Well, I
appreciate that. I particularly want to thank you for your
testimony. And also for your personal efforts to try to turn
this horrible tragedy into something positive. I again thank
you on behalf of the subcommittee.
Let me yield now to the gentleman from Georgia, Mr. Barr,
for questions.
Mr. Barr. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
What you all have told me today, I mean it really is very,
very enlightening. You do not think of putting your life at
risk if you are in a commercial establishment and you happen to
leave a bottle of water open, rather than closed. And that you
cannot even, in that sort of setting, trust leaving a drink on
the table for a few moments while you go to the restroom. It
really is tragic that we have to worry about such things, but
obviously we do. And it is one thing for us to talk about it,
but it is quite another to sensitize young people who, as you
said, Ned, think they are invincible, and do not think of these
things. But to sensitize them to be cognizant of just the
specific act of not leaving an open drink somewhere. It may
cost a few dollars to get another one when you come back, but
it is certainly a small price to pay for possibly saving your
life.
But those are the realities, and I think, Ms. Flowers, what
you mentioned about education is very, very important. And you
mentioned, I think you mentioned specifically some of the
national advertising that General McCaffrey and the Office of
National Drug Control Policy have instituted with Federal
funding over the last few years. And I think you mentioned
that, while it is all well and good, I think they have come up
with some very, very effective advertising to alert people to
the national drug problem. It is on a very broad level. Is
there anything specifically that you could suggest to us, in
terms of better directing some of those moneys to local
communities? Mr. Harman mentioned that--I think, I do not want
to put words in your mouth--but one of the things that Holly
and his family faced was a lack of understanding during some of
those critical minutes and hours and days over exactly what it
is, what it was that they were facing. Are there some specific
steps that you can recommend to us when we look, for example,
to next year's funding for the National Drug Control Policy
Office, in terms of how to better direct those moneys, to
better educate local law enforcement, parents, local educators,
bar establishment owners and so forth?
Ms. Flowers. I think you are on the right track with that,
yes. I think the money needs to get to the local community. I
am very much a proponent of local focus groups, and really
finding out what resonates with people in various communities.
One of the things that we did in Georgia was bring in
campaigns that were being used in all different States,
nationally, because we thought, well, you know, if it is not
broke, do not fix it, and if these campaigns work to educate
people about sexual assault and what can happen, we will just
purchase those ads and run them here.
What we found out for Georgians is that it did not work for
them at all. We conducted focus groups in north Georgia and
rural areas, we did male-female. And in fact, the one ad, in
fact, that was running out in California had the exact opposite
effect of what we thought it should have in front of Georgians.
And so one of the things that I think is missing, when we
put money into a campaign, like CDC, and ask for prevention, it
is for them, so you know, it all gets boggled up. You all know
this because you work with it every day--in some State agency
someplace, and it never--either does not get to the local
community or the local community is not running a focus group
and there is some thing that is put out for them and they are
told, you know, run an ad. And so a bunch of well-meaning
people come together, and they put something out, but nobody is
listening because it does not resonate with them.
And that was my point about, does it resonate in
Carrollton? Are there ways that, through State coalitions on
maybe a combination of drug coalitions, the anti-drug
coalitions and anti-rape coalitions, that they come together
and choose some target communities to put together focus groups
and run those, and find out what is going to work. Because I
think Mr. Harman's point is really good. I mean, trying to
stamp out all the drug dealers is the wrong end of it. Let us
educate folks on this end to say, why use it to begin with?
And I think then, in combination with the community and the
national overlay of media, we might actually be getting at
something.
Mr. Barr. One of the things you mentioned in your written
testimony was, ``Although GHB was originally considered a safe
and natural food supplement,'' and then you go on. When was it
considered that? How long ago are we talking about?
Ms. Flowers. Just a few years ago. I do not have the exact
year, but it was sold in health food stores, mostly for body
builders. Actually, I think just in the past 2 or 3 years, was
still pretty available, and sometimes you can still get the
different components of GHB, either through your health food
store. There is something called, I think it is GLB, it is a
precursor--I think I have got that initial right--a precursor
to GHB, which is still available in health food stores. And so
you can go and buy that and overlay a couple of other things on
it and basically have GHB again.
I mean, we are over here talking about illegal drugs coming
across the border when I can go to Lindburgh Plaza's health
food store and probably pick up everything I need.
Mr. Barr. You mentioned also that some standard screenings
are not available in the United States that might do a better
job and a quicker job of identifying some of these substances.
And here again, as Mr. Harman was indicating, this was perhaps
one of the problems, or was one of the problems. We will never
know whether it could have saved Holly's life or not, but it
was one of the problems, not knowing exactly what they were
confronted with at the time that this happened. And I remember
that tragic weekend also, Ned, getting a call from Ms. Brock,
our representative there. And it was a great deal of
uncertainty about what we were faced with, what the law
enforcement was facing, what the doctors were facing, what the
family was facing.
Are there screenings that are available? Is it a matter of
just not having the proper funding, or are priority decisions
being made so that we are putting money at the local level, for
example, into other areas and not purchasing the equipment that
needs to be purchased to better identify these substances?
Ms. Flowers. I think it is a combination of both. On an
international level, there is a team that has put together a
new rape kit, which I do not know if you are familiar with the
standard rape kit we use here in Georgia, it is an envelope
about this big (indicating), and it contains some slides and
swabs that cost about $7.50. And the law enforcement is
responsible for transporting it to and from the hospital.
Anybody can buy the rape kit itself, however some law
enforcement agencies, because of their desire to control the
process, will tell hospitals, you are not allowed to buy it. So
they have to wait for law enforcement to come with the rape
kit. That is a delay, etc.
On an international level, they have got a--it is a more
expensive rape kit, but it has got everything contained in it.
Mr. Barr. Excuse me, when you say more expensive, what sort
of magnitude are we talking about? Are we talking about a few
dollars?
Ms. Flowers. Our rape kit is $7.50, and this one would
probably be, I would suspect, in the $40 range, but I do not
know what the mass production, if the cost would come down on
that or anything. You know, if everything else, the price would
probably come down over time. But it is a self-contained kit
that has got so much dye and everything in it that these tests
can be run on the spot. If you were not in a hospital setting,
you could actually conduct a rape exam, which is the point you
want to get to. So further advancement in those type of
screenings would be helpful.
The problem with these drugs is that they are pretty much
out of your system in about 12 hours, basically. We usually say
that the maximum rape exam can be done at 72 hours for just
about all other evidence, and make sure that you have preserved
the best evidence that you can. But these--you know, you have
an individual who is woken up after basically a semi-comatose
situation the night before, and maybe she remembers getting to
where she is and maybe she does not. And the way these drugs
work, you are sort of in a black-out stage. Rape seems to be a
sort of he-said, she-said sort of crime anyway, and so she
cannot even completely tell law enforcement what it is that is
going on.
Mr. Barr. And that creates problems that, as Mr. Harman
said, these high-priced lawyers can use as----
Ms. Flowers. Exactly.
Mr. Barr [continuing]. You know, to drive wedges in the
testimony.
Ms. Flowers. You are at the hospital now, and you are
trying to tell them. And in Holly's case, she was unable to
tell them what the symptoms are. So you know, that is where the
education piece comes in, recognizing these symptoms, both in--
I mean, Holly had to beg girlfriends to come and pick her up
and to even take her someplace. That the people around here
were probably aware, as most people are with their friends, of
how quickly they become intoxicated. They probably know that
Holly had two drinks at a restaurant, that she was not going to
be having seizures and falling down and not being able to
communicate effectively.
That is all about educating everybody around you, law
enforcement. You know, if I stumble up some evening out of
Buckhead on a Friday night after I have been in a club,
somebody spiked my drink and I stumble off to a law enforcement
officer, I am just going to look drunk, and he may just push me
aside and say, you know what, you need to go find your friends,
you need to find a ride home, ma'am, you need to, you know, get
on out of here. Instead of maybe recognizing the signs that I
have been drugged and I need help, before we end up in a
situation like Holly.
Mr. Barr. So a key component would be better educating law
enforcement on the street, on the beat----
Ms. Flowers. Yes.
Mr. Barr [continuing]. To the danger signs of these date
rape drugs?
Ms. Flowers. Correct. But I think one of the other things
that we have done is we have educated in isolation. So we have
law enforcement being educated and prosecution over here, the
advocates over here, and the medical community. What we support
is the concept of all four of those components being needed to
address this. And educating those people collectively, so that
they work effectively as a team when something like this
happens. So that law enforcement sees the young woman, who then
transports to the medical facility who also recognizes the
symptoms as the advocates come in to support and help.
Mr. Barr. Thank you. Mr. Massell, you mentioned zero
tolerance, and I think you mentioned New York's experience in
recent years to sort of pull itself back from the brink of
destruction, symbolic destruction, I suppose. We have seen
these problems in the Atlanta area as well over the years, the
problems with Underground Atlanta, a tremendous positive
concept and it went downhill, for some of these very same
reasons that we are talking about here. And it can take, at
best, years to redevelop a community's reputation for safety
and to draw those people back. Once you lose them, you have
lost them, and you have to, you know, start all over again, and
it can take a lot of time and be very devastating on a
community, not only from the personal side, as Mr. Harman
related, but from the business standpoint as well.
Could you elaborate just a little more on perhaps some of
the specific steps that we could look at with regard to the
Buckhead community, for example, similar to what has happened
up in New York?
Mr. Massell. Well, first of all I would like to endorse and
echo the description you just gave of what can happen in a
community when it does not have enforcement, and lawlessness
runs wild, because it not only affects the business of the
nearby orderly establishments, like restaurants that might not
be in the late-night arena, it also starts affecting the image
of the community and this affects the businesses in retail, it
affects even sales and rentals of condominiums and apartments
and then single-family homes. And what happens is the property
values go down and that decreases ad valorem taxation, income
to the city. And the cost is dramatic. And left unchecked, it
can make a tremendous difference and a very foolish frugality
of not providing the amount of law enforcement that could
offset this.
As far as zero tolerance, in my opinion, you have to
sometimes use a two-by-four to get a donkey's attention, and if
necessary you arrest those that jay-walk and those that do not
have their seatbelts on and those who throw cigarette butts out
the window and any other violation of any existing ordinance.
And then people get the clear picture that you are not going to
tolerate lawlessness. And what happens, we found anyway in our
community in the Buckhead nightlife area, that it is not so
much the people in the clubs that are causing the problems.
In fact, right now the club business is off a minimum of 20
percent. But it is these hangers-on, and according to the law
enforcement people, the criminal element, including drug
vendors, use this as cover and come into the community, and
they can operate without much fear of detection, going into the
neighborhoods around with burglaries and car theft and other
violations. So that what is needed is this enforcement image
that tells people, this is not a comfortable place for the
criminal to live or work or operate. And so they will leave
this area.
And that could have saved underground, it could have been
done quick enough, in my opinion. And that is what is needed
very quickly in the Buckhead Village area.
Mr. Barr. Do you think that sort of approach would have a
high likelihood of succeeding at the challenge that you laid
out at the beginning of this hearing, and that is to stop this
problem from becoming an epidemic before it does? Are we still
in that window of opportunity where we can do that?
Mr. Massell. Yes. Right now, we have a lot of misbehavior,
which is disturbing to the quality of life, which is a very
important factor to consider. But the crime rate is still
relatively small, and the truth is that the drug usage has not
reached what would be considered epidemic proportions in the
Village. But it surely can if it is not curtailed. And that is
why I am pleading for whatever help we can get in the Buckhead
community from whatever source is available.
Mr. Barr. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, if I could, I know that you have been very
kind in extending the period of time for question and answer.
If I could just ask one final question.
Mr. Harman, as you indicated during the last few years
since Holly's tragic death, you spent at least part of your
time, probably a good deal of your time, traveling and speaking
and helping to try and educate others in a way that will avoid
them having to go through the same tragedy that you all did.
But looking at the community in Carrollton, in Carroll County,
where this tragedy occurred with Holly, have you noticed any
changes? Are people more sensitive to these problems, our young
people, our schools, our law enforcement, so that hopefully
others, as you indicated, will learn from the tragedy that you
all have had to deal with? Have you noticed some changes over
the last 4 years?
Mr. Harman. Somewhat. You know, individual cases, I have
had people come up to me and say that this has changed their
lives, and knowing about Holly and hearing about her, and how a
lot of young people, they are more aware when they go anywhere
just out in public, especially bars, this kind of thing, they
are more aware of what they are doing, and their drinks,
whatever, they are more aware of it from what has happened.
They say they are.
And we have urged, when I am going around talking, like
Mayor Massell said about zero tolerancy, we have urged that in
the community, in the high schools, this kind of thing. We have
urged them to put that policy into effect in different schools
and the local law enforcement in different areas we have spoke
in. I think those things can have a big effect on it. And the
things Ms. Flowers said, on the education part, really needs to
be done a lot more of.
Mr. Barr. Do you know, Ned, specifically whether some of
the pre-existing programs, such as the D.A.R.E. program, the
Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, are they talking about
these types of drugs, the danger signs of which are very
different from marijuana and cocaine, and so forth? Are they
well educated as to the danger signs and helping to educate our
young people to do some of the things we have talked about here
today, that would increase the chances of preventing this sort
of thing?
Mr. Harman. Honestly, I do not know. I have not heard one
of them speak. I know there is a lot of it in our community, to
go around speaking like that, but I have never been in it
before when they have been there. They do that on their own, I
think, at different times.
I might say, a lot of education needs to be out there on
the drugs in the communities, but just to throw a different
wrinkle at it, it is a lot more deeper, to me, in this country.
Our local community, the State, the whole country is a moral
decay out there, to me, that we are going to have to address
sometime or other in our country, get some morals back into our
people, the young people, parents or whatever it might be,
where it needs to come from. But in the school system,
churches, community action or whatever. But there is no regard
for human life out there. And especially in Holly's case, these
guys, you know, if they had just carried her to the hospital
and rolled her out, they did not have to get involved with the
drug people, if they just carried her when they saw her pass
out or go into convulsions, if they had just carried her there
and just rolled her out in front of the emergency room, I think
Holly would still be here today.
Mr. Barr. In that particular case, were there others
besides the perpetrators themselves that knew this had
happened?
Mr. Harman. Well, there were other people there, from what
I understand. Now you know, we will never know the truth of the
whole thing, because Holly was unable to speak. From her
girlfriend, where we get most of my information, that was there
with her, she says that the people there, one of the boys
there, would not let anybody call the police, call 9-1-1 or do
anything like. Afraid they would get in trouble, I guess. And
would not help her get into the car, and she was just by
herself, nobody would help her. When she had to go across town
to the roommate, at the college there, to get another roommate
to come back and help to get Holly in the car.
But you know, there is so much regard for animals, I make
my living off my animals and crops, this kind of thing, is more
regard for animals in this country, it seems like, than there
are for human rights nowadays. And I am not saying we do not
need to treat animals good, because I do treat animals good,
because that is where I make my living from. But there is a lot
of people out in this country that have more regard for
animals' rights than they do for human rights. I just think we
just got to somehow get a grip on this country about the
morals, about regard for human life.
I do not know, it seems like I think on the local level is
where we have got to do most of our stuff. I am really strong
on the local level thing, and maybe something can be used on
the local level, too. But on the national level, too, or State
level, whatever, looks like there could be something--I do not
watch this MTV, something like that, but somewhere where, you
know, I can talk, and you all can talk and a lot of grown-ups
can talk to young people. But unless you can hit them where
they are and pay attention, MTV, or whatever it might be. I
could not stand to watch the stuff, myself. But that or some of
the things that young people go to.
If you can make them aware of it in that aspect of it,
where they show some real-life stuff, something like what
happened to Holly, with all the instruments hooked to her, in a
coma, let them know this kind of stuff, dramatization of it, or
let them know what happens to people. Whether it is slipped to
you or whether you do it as a recreation thing, they need to be
more aware of what can happen to you, the consequences of it
somehow.
Mr. Barr. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Mica. Thank you, Mr. Barr. And I would like to thank
our three panelists this morning. I think you have described a
new challenge that we face. While we have made some progress on
curtailing homicides in this country, we have seen an increase
in sexual assaults related to illegal narcotics use. Where we
have made progress again in homicides, with the homicides now
being exceeded by drug overdose and death through illegal
narcotics, and so much of the crime in this country tied into
illegal narcotics, we are hopeful that we can work with the
local officials in a local-State, private-public partnership to
try to bring resources, assistance and meaningful Federal
programs that will be more effective in dealing with what
Atlanta faces and other communities face.
We thank each of you, particularly you, Mr. Harman, who
gave such compelling testimony. I wish every young person and
parent could have heard that today. It probably would make a
great deal of difference and maybe a few will again take away
from here some hope for the future, even though you have
suffered a terrible personal loss. So we thank you in
particular, and the other panelists. And I will excuse the
witnesses at this time, and call our second panel.
Our second panel this morning consists of four witnesses.
The first one is Jason Saliba who is the Assistant District
Attorney of Cobb County. He is joined on the panel by Paul
Howard who is the District Attorney of Fulton County. We also
have on this panel John Andrejko, and he is the Special Agent
in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Agency. We have our final
panelist, Robert Gattison, and Mr. Gattison is the Special
Agent in Charge of the Atlanta office of the U.S. Customs
Service. I would like to welcome the four panelists.
As I indicated to our first panel, this subcommittee is a
subcommittee of the Committee on Government Reform of the House
of Representatives and an investigations and oversight panel of
Congress. We do swear in our witnesses, which I will do in just
a moment. Additionally, if you have any lengthy statements or
documentation, we will run a clock, we have four panelists
here. Try to limit your oral comments and presentation to the
subcommittee to 5 minutes. That will allow us enough time for
questions. But if you do have additional statements,
documentation or information you would like submitted to the
record, upon request through the Chair, that will be made part
of the permanent record of this hearing.
With those comments, I would like to now ask the witnesses
if they would stand to be sworn. Raise your right hands.
[Witnesses sworn.]
Mr. Mica. The witnesses answered in the affirmative. We
appreciate your coming forward this morning and providing us
your testimony. Let me start, if I may, with the Assistant
District Attorney of Cobb County, GA, Jason Saliba. Welcome
sir, and you are recognized.
STATEMENTS OF JASON SALIBA, ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY, COBB
COUNTY, GA; PAUL HOWARD, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, FULTON COUNTY, GA;
JOHN ANDREJKO, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, DRUG ENFORCEMENT
ADMINISTRATION; AND ROBERT GATTISON, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE,
ATLANTA, U.S. CUSTOMS SERVICE
Mr. Saliba. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and to the members of
your staff, and of course, Representative Barr who invited us
here. I would like to thank you for allowing law enforcement to
be heard on this issue.
Our jurisdiction for Cobb County, GA is one of the
northernmost suburbs of the city of Atlanta. I am currently
assigned to what is called the MCS Narcotics Unit. That is a
task force of local agencies who provide manpower, as well as
resources, under the direction of a command staff. We also have
a good working relationship with the Drug Enforcement
Administration, and in fact have an agent assigned to them as a
task force agent.
Over the last 5 to 6 years, we have seen a dramatic
increase in certain of the drugs that are before this committee
today. The first of those is methamphetamine. As the committee
probably knows, for a long time, methamphetamine was controlled
predominantly by biker organizations in this country and was
brought in from Canada. Over the last few years we have seen a
shift in that.
That drug is now controlled predominantly, we believe, by
Mexican organized crime units. Indications from our
intelligence group within Cobb County, as well as what is
shared between the agencies in the city of Atlanta is that
those groups are bringing that in from out of the country. We
have had recently in the suburban part of Atlanta several labs
in various counties, which were found by law enforcement and
seized and destroyed.
However, the amount of methamphetamine that we are seeing
is not consistent with the laboratories being found here. We
have gone from ounce quantities to pound-type quantities that
our agents are dealing with. And it is not only Cobb County, it
is the surrounding counties around us, because all of our task
forces work together and trade information.
With the fall of cocaine in its social status, not the
amount of use but its social status not being what it once was,
people in this area have turned to methamphetamine. It is a
drug which produces a similar type high or reaction, however it
is much longer lasting, and the prices are similar and
comparable. The organizations who are importing this into our
area are exceedingly organized.
The other drug that we are seeing a massive increase in is
MDMA, or what is known as Ecstasy. As the previous panel
testified, it is a large drug among the youth and young adults
of our community. It exists not only in the Buckhead area and
in the high night life areas where there is a large
concentration, but it exists, we are finding in most
neighborhood bars and restaurants and things of that nature,
all through the suburbs in Atlanta.
College students, teenagers, they do not understand that
this is the same type of effect and the same type of danger as
heroin and cocaine, the things that have been much more
publicized and directed at the youth over the years. It comes
in through, we believe, the northeastern and northern United
States. It is manufactured out of this country predominantly.
This year alone, we have seized 34 percent more dosage
units of MDMA than in the last 5 years combined, 140 percent
higher seizure rate than in the highest year we had, which was
back in the mid-1990's. The date-rape drugs, as far as Rohypnol
and GHB present their own problems to our local law
enforcement, particularly GHB. Local law enforcement prides
itself on working from both ends of the spectrum.
We have undercover agents of course who try to infiltrate
drug organizations and stop that type of activity. But our
standard police officers, those of every agency in and around
the city of Atlanta are trained if they stop an automobile and
they smell burned marijuana or they see scales, they see
residue in bags, things of that nature, that they are to report
that. And they bring in the drug agents and an investigation
commences.
However with GHB, that is a much harder task. If you walk
into someone's house, they have several bottles of water, like
those sitting before the panel, any one of those could contain
GHB and law enforcement would never know. And they obviously do
not have the resources to test every single substance that is
clear in liquid found in every single home. I do not believe we
have any accurate statistics, there is a lot of anecdotal
evidence that GHB is very prevalent in the Atlanta area.
Seizures have remained somewhat steady, however the seizures we
have made have been of large quantities, not the single-dosage
units.
We are here to ask today, to talk of course, and answer
questions, but also ask for the cooperation of the local
agencies, as well as the Federal agencies. I do not think that
we can do this alone, I do not think the Federal agencies can
do it alone. We have a longstanding commitment in Cobb County
to working with the other agencies that are represented here,
and they have been very good to us over the years. We would
like thank them for that and ask for that continued support.
Mr. Mica. Thank you for your testimony. And I would like
now to recognize Paul Howard, who is the District Attorney of
Fulton County. You are welcomed and recognized at this time.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Saliba follows:]
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Mr. Howard. Good morning. Again, I would like thank the
Congress for being here and examining what I believe is a very
important issue. I would like to restrict my comments to the
date rape drugs. And I have prepared some comments that I
submitted, and I would like to----
Mr. Mica. Without objection, your entire statement will be
made part of the record. Please proceed.
Mr. Howard. On January 28th, a Fulton County Jury convicted
two defendants for rape and aggravated sodomy upon a local
college student. The conviction was unique in that it
represented the first sexual assault involving the use of a so-
called date-rape drug to be prosecuted in the State of Georgia.
The facts and circumstances of the case were all too familiar.
On March 31, 1998, the defendants made the acquaintance of
the victim and one of her female friends while the defendants
visited the young lady's dormitory room at Georgia State
University, which is one of our local colleges. The defendants
brought that night a baby food jar containing Gamma
HydroxyButyrate [GHB], G, or liquid X, which they had purchased
somewhere near the campus.
At the urging of the defendants, the victim and her friend
ingested a small amount of the drug thinking that it would
produce a mild high, but instead, both of the women lost
consciousness; their breathing was slowed to a dangerous pace.
And while one of the women lay unconscious in the bathroom, the
other woman was sexually assaulted by both men. Had another
student not stopped by just by chance and called 9-1-1, none of
this would have ever been brought to the public's attention.
Even worse, more serious physical harm would have resulted to
these two young ladies.
The jury convicted the defendants in this case in less than
90 minutes. The trial judge, along with the defense, had
successfully suggested during the trial that the victim was as
much to blame for what happened as the defendants, and the
defendants in this case were granted a retrial. And at the
retrial, some of the evidence that was excluded during the
first trial, under our State's rape shield law, was admitted
and these defendants were acquitted.
Even though we had eye witness testimony and the victim's
brave determination to undergo the pain of a second trial, it
did not outweigh the misunderstanding and confusion surrounding
these date-rape drugs, and the ways which they affect sexual
assault cases.
Recognizing this after first trial, my office sponsored a
short educational seminar on the dangers of date rape drugs. In
addition to the staff members from my office, speakers included
members of the Grady Rape Crisis Center, the Georgia Poison
Center and the Georgia Network to End Sexual Assault. Mr. Ned
Harman, whom you heard from before, was also on hand to bring
the real dangers of these substances to the public. Deans of
students and panhellenic councils, student leaders from over a
dozen area colleges and universities, as well as
representatives from the county and city boards of education
were invited to attend and the response was overwhelming.
And Congressmen, I would like for you all to know that the
most common question that they asked was, what can our young
people do to protect themselves, and what should we know about
these drugs? And I believe that these concerns are well
founded, because these drugs are easily slipped into beverages,
alcoholic or otherwise, rendering the victim sedated, confused
and, at worst, unconscious or comatose.
These drugs are a sexual predator's dream come true. And
once an assault has taken place, the amnesia which commonly
accompanies these other symptoms leaves the victim uncertain of
what has actually taken place, and unable to fully assist law
enforcement in the prosecution of those responsible. Hence,
most sexual experts in law enforcement agencies in this area
feel certain that incidents such as this involving date rape
drugs are seriously under-reported. Even if a woman has reason
to believe that she has been the victim of a sexual attack
while under the influence of one of these substances, the
feelings of guilt or shame at having willingly ingested the
drug may prevent her from seeking help, the help she needs, or
may lead her to believe that she cannot seek the justice she
deserves. And the threat posed by these drugs we believe is
also growing.
In the last year, the city of Atlanta Police Department has
encountered over 200 cases involving club drugs, a designation
that includes not only GHB but Rohypnol, Ketamine and Ecstasy.
And in 1999 alone, the Georgia Poison Center received 26
Ketamine-related calls, 37 Rohypnol-related calls, and an
astounding 265 GHB-related calls. And 15 of the calls related
to Rohypnol, and 20 of the GHB calls specifically indicated
that the exposure to the drug was malicious in nature. Many of
these calls also report that alcohol was used concurrently with
the drug.
I see that my time is up. I have some other statistics
regarding what we believe is a growing danger, and I also have
three areas of suggestions that I think that the Congress might
examine in trying to eliminate this threat.
Mr. Mica. Thank you. We will get back to you on your
recommendations. I would like to recognize now John Andrejko,
who is the Special Agent in Charge of our Drug Enforcement
activities here. Thank you and you are recognized.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Howard follows:]
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Mr. Andrejko. Good morning, Chairman Mica, and
distinguished members of the committee. I am pleased to have
the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the
emerging drug threats facing the youth of America. I would
first like to thank you personally, and the committee for its
continued support of the Drug Enforcement Administration, and
overall support of drug law enforcement. I do request that
written testimony be accepted into the record.
Mr. Mica. Without objection, your entire statement will be
made part of the record. Please proceed.
Mr. Andrejko. Thank you.
As you are well aware, the alarming spread of illegal drug
abuse by our youth is having a profound effect in communities
throughout the United States. It is fair to state that the
increasing use of synthetic or club drugs, such as MDMA, also
known as Ecstasy, GHB, Ketamine, LSD and methamphetamine by
young adults is quickly becoming one of the most significant
law enforcement and social issues facing our Nation today.
Perhaps most frightening is the decreased perception of risk
that young teens have regarding the use of these drugs.
Although all club drugs pose significant threats to our
youth, today I will focus upon the dangers of methamphetamine
and MDMA or Ecstasy. While methamphetamines are not an entirely
new problem in the United States, about 6 years ago an upsurge
of methamphetamine trafficking and abuse began taking hold in
many regions of the Nation, starting on the West Coast and
rapidly expanding throughout the United States.
DEA statistics indicate that in 1993, DEA seized a total
218 methamphetamine labs nationwide. Current DEA statistics
indicate that in 1999, DEA alone seized 2021 clandestine
laboratories and that the total number of laboratories seized
by Federal, State and local law enforcement offices nationwide
was 7,060. Methamphetamine clandestine laboratory seizures
within DEA's Atlanta field division also have greatly
increased. Five years ago, DEA seized less than five
methamphetamine laboratories, just in the northern district of
Georgia. In fiscal year 1999, a total of 34 laboratories were
seized, and to date in the northern district of Georgia, a
total of 44 laboratories have been seized in fiscal year 2000.
The majority of methamphetamine available for consumption
in the southeast area, and especially in Georgia, originates in
Mexico, California and Texas, and is transported via couriers
by vehicles, commercial tractor-trailers and commercial postal
services. In the last few years, a substantial amount of
investigations initiated by the DEA Atlanta field division
involved methamphetamine distribution and increasingly more
methamphetamine violators have been arrested. The figures for
those arrested have increased from 307 in fiscal year 1997 to
521 in fiscal year 2000. In 1996, the DEA Atlanta field
division seized a total of 54 pounds of methamphetamine. For
the last 3 fiscal years, methamphetamine seizures have
continued to trend upward. For the last fiscal year, fiscal
year 1999, DEA Atlanta seized 469 pounds of methamphetamine.
Seizures for fiscal year 2000 are not final, but show a slight
decrease.
As many of us know, the violence associated with
methamphetamine trafficking and use has also produced a
collateral impact on the crime statistics of communities across
the United States. Methamphetamine-related violence usually
results from the user under the influence of the drug. Over the
course of the last 2 years, the national methamphetamine
situation has changed significantly. Until 1999, the
methamphetamine problem was increasing at a dramatic rate.
The national purity level for methamphetamine, as well as
amphetamine, has gone down dramatically in 1999 to 2000.
Precursor chemical controls, international letter of non-
objection program and chemical interdiction, combined with
aggressive national and local law enforcement efforts has
produced positive results.
We are cautiously optimistic. However the recent explosion
of Ecstasy seizures and related emergency room episodes are of
great concern. Recent statistics indicate that between 1998 and
1999, use of Ecstasy rose by a third among 10th graders and by
56 percent among 12th graders.
Mr. Chairman, while Ecstasy abuse currently is not as
widespread as that of many other drugs, it nonetheless
increased at an alarming rate; 800 percent over a 4-year
period. Traditionally, the Ecstasy drug market in the United
States has been supplied and controlled by western European-
based traffickers. In recent years, Israeli organized crime
syndicates, some composed of Russian emigres associated with
Russian organized crime syndicates have forged relationships
with the western European traffickers.
What unites these drug trafficking organizations is the
enormous profit realized, along with the fact that MDMA is
typically not produced in the United States. Although estimates
vary, the cost of producing an MDMA tablet can run between 50
cents to $1. By the time the pill reaches U.S. soil, it can be
sold for $25 to $40 per pill. Thus a $10,000 investment can
realize a potential profit of almost $360,000.
Presently, DEA has several ongoing investigations into
these drug trafficking organizations. DEA's Special Operations
Division conducted one such investigation. This investigation,
entitled Operation Rave, focused on an MDMA distribution cell
that operated throughout the northeast and Florida. The leader
of this organization, an Israeli national, was responsible for
the distribution of approximately 150,000 tablets of MDMA per
week.
This and related spin-off investigations resulted in the
arrest of 105 defendants, the seizures of 620,000 tablets of
MDMA and approximately $935,000 in U.S. currency. The
significance of this investigation was the fact that it
identified for the first time, the involvement of Israeli and
Russian crime groups in MDMA trafficking. The MDMA situation in
Georgia mirrors national trends. MDMA is very popular among
middle-class college-age students who mistakenly perceive this
designer drug to be harmless. In the Atlanta metropolitan area,
like in many other metropolitan cities throughout the United
States, MDMA is widely available in the night club scene, at
rave parties, college campuses and health fitness centers.
Even though a few MDMA laboratories have been seized in the
Atlanta field division, the bulk of MDMA pills available in the
Atlanta metropolitan area are manufactured in the Netherlands,
transported overland to other European cities, and transshipped
into this area via Canada and Mexico. The trafficking of MDMA
in the Atlanta area appears to be controlled by local drug
traffickers with connections to Russian and Israeli organized
crime members.
Within the last few months, two major seizures of MDMA have
been made in the Atlanta metropolitan area. One totaled 70,000
pills and the other 30,000 pills. In addition, approximately
27,000 kilograms of MDMA was destined for distribution in the
Atlanta area and was seized by DEA.
These drug trafficking organizations control their
operations through sophisticated networks of production,
distribution, money laundering and security cells. Prosecuting
these drug king pins who command and control the organizations
requires law enforcement to find some way to get inside their
sophisticated structures to obtain evidence of their crimes.
Often the only feasible means of infiltrating these structures
is through the use of electronic surveillance. To effectively
deploy these methods and to stay one step ahead of the
traffickers, law enforcement must be able to move on available
information as expeditiously as possible.
In conclusion, legislation such as House Bill H.R. 297, the
Methamphetamine Proliferation Act of 1999 and companion Senate
Bill S. 486 which calls for the Sentencing Commission to amend
guidelines, to increase penalties associated with manufacturing
and trafficking of Ecstasy and an assessment of the abuse of
and trafficking in GHB will be tremendous asset to law
enforcement.
Again, I applaud the chairman for his unwavering dedication
and support to this serious issue. I thank you for providing me
the opportunity to address the committee, and I look forward to
taking any questions you may have on this important issue.
Mr. Mica. Thank you. And we will withhold questions until
we have heard from our final witness, which is Robert Gattison.
And he is Special Agent in Charge of the Atlanta Office of U.S.
Customs. Welcome, sir, and you are recognized.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Andrejko follows:]
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Mr. Gattison. I would like to thank the committee for this
opportunity to testify here today regarding the law enforcement
activities of the U.S. Customs Service as they relate to the
smuggling of methamphetamine and date rape or club drugs.
As America's front line, the Customs Service is uniquely
positioned at the borders to identify, intercept and
investigate the importation of large quantities of dangerous
drugs which are smuggled into the United States through our
ports of entry. We often act as the early warning system in
identifying new drug trends or methods of operation employed by
violators who attempt to smuggle drugs into the United States.
The Customs Service has experienced a dramatic increase in our
seizures, investigations and related arrests that focus on date
rape or club drugs of all kinds. But specifically the synthetic
drug commonly known as Ecstasy.
The abuse of Ecstasy has spread throughout the United
States at an unprecedented level and can be primarily
attributed to two key factors. Its enormous profit and
marketing techniques used by criminal organizations who
manufacture, smuggle and distribute it. From a smuggler's
standpoint, Ecstasy is one of the most lucrative drugs in the
world. Tablets cost just pennies apiece to produce in Europe.
They can be sold on the streets of America for as much as $40 a
tablet. For an initial investment of just $100,000, an Ecstasy
smuggler can reap nearly $5 million in profit. The 9 million
tablets that U.S. Customs has seized thus far in fiscal year
2000 are worth, at $30 per pill, approximately $270 million.
The profitability to import Ecstasy is enhanced because of
its insidious marketing techniques that smugglers and
distributors employ to lure teens into using these drugs. In
our status conscious society, tablets are designed with brand
names and logos, such as the Mitsubishi logo, the Rolex symbol,
the Adidas emblem, the Nike trademark, just to name a few.
To distinguish one's competitor's product from another, the
logos are specifically selected to appeal to the young and
affluent Ecstasy users. Nicknames for the club drugs, such as
Ecstasy for MDMA, Grievous Bodily Harm for GHB, Special-K for
Ketamine, and roofies for Rohypnol have an allure which make
them attractive to young adults. These seemingly benign
trademarks and enticing nicknames make it difficult for the
user to associate the actual danger that the use of this hard
drug can cause.
During fiscal 1999, U.S. Customs seized 3 million tablets
of Ecstasy, more than seven times the 400,000 tablets that we
seized in 1997. This upward surge continues in fiscal year
2000. We have already seized approximately 9 million tablets
during the first 8 months of this year. This represents
approximately a 22 percent increase from 1997.
Furthermore, during fiscal year to date, we have arrested
over 280 individuals involved in Ecstasy smuggling relating to
seizures at our ports of entry. In addition to Ecstasy, in
fiscal year 2000, Customs has seized over 800 pounds of
methamphetamine. This represents more than an 800 percent
increase over fiscal year 1999.
The vast majority of Ecstasy is produced in the
Netherlands. The Netherlands is to Ecstasy as Colombia is to
cocaine. Smugglers export primarily from Amsterdam or across
the uncontrolled borders to neighboring European Union states,
other international hubs, such as Brussels, Frankfurt,
Dusseldorf, Paris or London. In the Caribbean, the Dominican
Republic has recently become a staging area for Ecstasy
destined for the United States from the Netherlands.
Investigations and seizures activity by the Customs Service has
identified three primary gateway areas where Ecstasy is
smuggled into the United States. These are New York, California
and Florida.
There is no coincidence that these areas have emerged as
focal points for Ecstasy smuggling. They are all transportation
centers with strong European ties. They all have large
concentration of young adults that are the primary target of
consumers of Ecstasy, and they are headquarters for criminal
organizations that smuggle Ecstasy. These groups use couriers
from all walks of life to thwart Customs. We have arrested
teenagers, bankruptcy attorneys and members of the clergy who
have attempted to evade Customs inspection. Couriers have
concealed Ecstasy in luggage, body cavities, and have even
ingested tablets wrapped in condoms.
There has been a dramatic rise in passenger air traffic
through Atlanta Hartsfield International Airport over the past
few years, placing Atlanta No. 1 in the world for passenger
traffic. With this overall increase in the total number of air
travelers transiting into and through Hartsfield International
Airport, Atlanta has been an equally dramatic rise in the
number of international passengers arriving into Atlanta from
abroad.
Let me present some statistics that should illustrate just
how real the threat of Ecstasy smuggling in the United States
through Atlanta has become. In fiscal 1997, there were no
recorded Ecstasy seizures made by inspectors at Atlanta's
Hartsfield International Airport. In fiscal 1998, inspectors
made four separate seizures of Ecstasy totaling approximately
33,600 individual tablets.
Fiscal 1999 and fiscal 2000 seizures statistics really
illustrate just how popular this drug has become here in the
United States. Inspectors made three seizures, Ecstasy
seizures, in fiscal 1999 resulting in five arrests and the
confiscation of over 85,800 tablets of Ecstasy. Although the
total weight of Ecstasy seizures slightly decreased in fiscal
2000, the number of separate seizures and arrests for smuggling
Ecstasy more than doubled. In fiscal year 2000 thus far, the
Customs Service in Atlanta is responsible for seven separate
Ecstasy seizures resulting in the arrest of nine individuals
and the confiscation of approximately 57,420 tablets, valued at
over $1.1 million.
I brought several exhibits with me today to illustrate the
concealment methods used to smuggle Ecstasy into the United
States. Several of these exhibits were seized right here at
Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport. If I could pause
for just 1 second, that is the Mitsubishi symbol there. All of
these seizures took place at Atlanta's Hartsfield International
Airport.
The second chart shows the concealment methods. The bottom
left-hand corner being the use of the new x-ray machine that
Customs now utilizes at some of the airports, and we do have
one here at Atlanta's Hartsfield International Airport.
Mr. Barr. What are we seeing there, in that one?
Mr. Gattison. That is not an internal, sir.
Mr. Barr. It is taped to their body?
Mr. Gattison. It is taped to their body. Yes, sir.
Until recently, commercial air passengers presented the
highest risk for Ecstasy smuggling. However, in a recent series
of large seizures at the express mail hubs in Memphis, as well
as a large number of smaller seizures at the express
consignments and international mail facilities suggest that
these may be the current method of choice for smuggling
organizations.
Our seizures of Ecstasy and the followup investigations
have identified numerous criminal drug smuggling organizations
that are heavily involved in this highly profitable activity.
Investigations have disclosed that the Israeli organized crime
is heavily involved. And in addition to Israeli organized
crime, there is intelligence that Mexican and Colombian
traffickers are getting involved. The involvement of organized
smuggling organizations require us to use the most
sophisticated and often effective tools available to monitor
the activities of these syndicates. This often includes wire
taps, cell phone locators and dialed number reporters, so forth
an so on. These tools are critically important in our effort to
combat Ecstasy smuggling.
In order to coordinate and focus on investigations and
enhance the flow of intelligence to our inspectors on the front
lines, we have created an Ecstasy task force at Customs
Headquarters in Washington. The task force is comprised of
Customs inspectors, special agents, intelligence analysts that
work full time on Ecstasy investigations. The mission of the
task force to manage the national and international
investigative activities of multi-jurisdictional cases,
maximize the level of case exploitation and support and enhance
day-to-day inspectional operations relative to Ecstasy
smuggling.
We routinely coordinate with DEA and our foreign law
enforcement counterparts. In addition, intelligence and seizure
information on drug smuggling is exchanged on a weekly basis
via INTERPOL. In an effort to better deal with this emerging
threat, Commissioner Kelly has also created a Web site to get
the awareness message out to the public.
Ecstasy has emerged as a very popular drug of abuse
threatening our Nation's youth. Non-traditional organized crime
primarily controls the Ecstasy manufacturing process in the
Netherlands region and the smuggling of this drug into and
across our Nation's borders.
I would like to thank the committee for the opportunity to
testify here today and for your continuing support to our
important mission. I am confident that working together, the
people sitting at this table can have an impact against Ecstasy
smuggling. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Gattison follows:]
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Mr. Mica. Thank you, Mr. Gattison.
Let me first call Mr. Paul Howard who is the District
Attorney for Fulton County. You had several recommendations you
wanted to make to the subcommittee. I would like to recognize
you at this time.
Mr. Howard. There are four things that I think the
committee ought to consider. First of all, I think that there
should be some definitive report which covers this area of
unreporting, as it relates specifically to date rape drugs. The
normal figure that we look at, as prosecutors, with sexual
assaults, is probably about one-third of the victims who failed
to report. Many of the experts believe that what we are talking
about is probably as many as 80 percent of the victims of date
rape drugs who do not report the findings, or do not report the
criminal offense.
I mentioned that we held a short seminar with college
leaders. And one of the things that they reported is that they
saw an increase in the number of young people that committed
suicide, who were depressed, who for some sudden reason became
academically uninvolved, and many of them thought that it had
directly to do with the use of date rape drugs.
So I think that there really needs to be more work done to
find out exactly how many people are not reporting it, and also
to bring to the public's attention the great harm that is
caused by the use of the drugs, as we have heard from Mr.
Harman.
My second recommendation is that we would really step up
the elimination of some of the sources of these drugs. And
through the Customs agency and through the DEA, I think that
there ought to be special divisions or units which concentrate
on just these date rape drugs. I think we ought to eliminate
any representation vested in this country that these date rape
drugs are somehow legitimate, either as used by veterinarians
or use for body builders. I now believe, and I am not sure
about this, but as of 1999 as I understand it, GHB was not even
on the Federal controlled drug list. And I think that, if it is
not, then it should be. As Rohypnol, it should be a banned drug
by Federal law. It is banned, I believe, in about 21 States,
and it should be done also under the Federal Controlled
Substances Act.
The third thing that I am recommending is that there ought
to be a great increase in the funding for education. I believe
that every State ought to have some protocol that specifically
deals with date rape drugs and how they ought to be handled,
not only by the medical authorities, but by the law enforcement
authorities, and the hospitals as well. I think that we have
got to increase the general knowledge to the public,
particularly as it involves young people, and as it involves
young people who use and participate in night club and bar
activities. I think what we have got to do now is increase the
information among the judiciary, among prosecutors and among
law enforcement.
The last thing, in terms of the funding for education, I
think that we also ought to look at providing some kind of
treatment or counseling for victims, victims like Mr. Harman's
daughter who spent several years in a comatose state. I think
that there ought to be special kinds of treatment and
counseling for those folks.
Now the last thing, and the question was asked regarding
whether or not we need an increased penalty or Federal penalty
for the defendants in date rape cases. Well, I believe that,
probably as a prosecutor, our main problem involves proof, and
it involves the use of consent, when our victims in many cases
do not remember exactly what has happened. And I think the
Congress and the Federal Government might be very important and
influential in working with local authorities to shape State
laws to make sure that they recognize this special
circumstance. Because if you do not recognize this special
circumstance of a victim who does not remember what has
happened, then it is possible to eliminate the possibility that
the defendant would ever be prosecuted.
Now I think there was some discussion about mandatory
sentences. I think that we ought to retain mandatory sentences
for these crimes. Now one of the things, and one of the
realities is, as many of the speakers have pointed out, this is
a middle-class drug in many respects. And I think that if some
of the laws on the books right now were enforced, I think we
might see some difference. And I as a prosecutor would like to
not see the focus on the dangers of these drugs lessened by
removing them from some structured sentence or mandatory
category.
Thank you.
Mr. Mica. Thank you for those comments.
I wanted to go back to a question of source of what we are
seeing come into this area and the United States, and you
testified, Mr. Saliba, that the source of meth is predominantly
Mexican organized crime, is that correct, still, or are you
seeing local lab as the production source?
Mr. Saliba. We are seeing both, and I speak predominantly
for the areas of the northern suburbs. My counterparts in the
other counties, along with myself, have had discussions about
this. But I do not think that the local labs that we have
found, what is not--obviously we do not know how extensive that
is. DEA has done a good job of finding those, we do not know
how many more are out there. They are very active in that area.
However the amounts of methamphetamine that we are seeing, even
at lower quality, are not consistent with the small-type labs
that are being found right now in the jurisdictions that we
serve. Now whether those are coming in from the super labs out
in the western United States, or straight in from Mexico, we do
not know. Our sources indicate that most of what is
distributed, and our arrest statistics are being distributed by
Mexican organized crime, when it gets up into the large
amounts.
Now once it gets into our counties, it is being distributed
out through the normal drug trafficking networks, it is cut
down, percentages are cut down, it is distributed among dealers
put on the street. But our larger arrests have all been of
folks predominantly previously criminally deported aliens,
predominantly folks that we know have organized crime ties
within those organizations. And that appears to us to be the
source of the methamphetamine that we are seeing.
Now as I said, the actual place of manufacture, we do not
know. We only know who is distributing it.
Mr. Mica. Since this is coming across the borders, a great
deal of it, across State borders at least we know, do you feel
we have adequate Federal resources, is there adequate
cooperative efforts, or is there some deficit that Congress is
not addressing as far as providing resources, funding, laws, to
deal with the problem that you have at hand?
Mr. Saliba. I think there is a twofold problem. As I said,
in the area of Atlanta, we have excellent cooperation, with
Customs, Drug Enforcement Administration, with every Federal
law enforcement agency. Our task force has been up and running
since 1980, and since approximately that time, we have had an
agent assigned to one of the task force groups at the Drug
Enforcement Administration.
I do not think, personally, that there are adequate
resources for any law enforcement agency, be it State or
Federal, to handle what is going on. The amount of profit that
can be made off methamphetamine and the other synthetic drugs
is enormous. They can afford lots of things that we cannot.
They can afford to lose a lot of their product to law
enforcement and a lot of it still makes it to the street. I
think every agency is doing what they can, but I think funding,
particularly for the Federal agencies, as well as through the
States to their agencies, would be of enormous assistance.
I think the other place where there should be a lot of
help, and I will echo the sentiments of Mr. Howard here, there
are a lot of places wherein we take jurisdiction over cases
that are made jointly with Federal agents because we have
stricter sentencing. There are a lot of areas, predominantly
MDMA, where the Federal guidelines have stricter sentencing.
I think there should be conformity brought between the
Federal Government, and I think the Federal Government should
talk to the State governments. You should not be allowed,
depending on who arrests you, or depending on which agency
infiltrates your organization, to have a lesser penalty and to
take your chances that way. I think the disparity, and I think
the criminals know the disparity, they know who is
investigating them and they know what kind of jail time they
are actually doing.
The last thing I think that my boss, Pat Head, has done
that I think is extremely important is, we no longer, in Cobb
County, do sentences of illegal aliens involved in drugs that
are suspendable upon deportation. We insist that they serve
their sentence in State custody before they are remanded to the
custody of the Immigration Service to be removed from this
country. I think for a long time, State agencies, as well as
Federal agencies, have asked that these people, for reasons of
economy of scale, be removed from the country. But they come
right back. They know they are going to do a year or two in
jail, and that is the cost of doing business.
With State guidelines being what they are in trafficking,
they are now doing a minimum in Georgia of 10 years in jail,
without possibility of parole. And I think that, in and of
itself, might put some of these folks out of business, or at
least take a generation of drug dealers at a time off the
street, as we try to adapt to the problem.
I think also education is very important, and I think we
are educating our children way too late. I think when you talk
about targeting ad campaign at high school students, I think
that is too late. They may be the ones using the drugs, but
they know when they are in middle school what the upper-class
students are doing. They know what is socially acceptable. They
know what will be accepted and what will not. And I think we
need to, just as we have with all the other drugs in this
country, we should target those ad campaigns at elementary and
middle school children.
Mr. Mica. Thank you.
Let me move to Mr. Gattison, with the U.S. Customs Service.
We know that with Ecstasy, we are getting an incredible volume
coming out of the Netherlands. Can you share with the
subcommittee the status of reopening the Customs Office in the
Netherlands? Are you aware of what is going on there?
Mr. Gattison. Well, I am aware that the office was closed a
few years ago. I know we are looking into opening new offices
around the world.
Mr. Mica. Can you provide us with specific information,
including the Director's intention of reopening the Netherlands
operation, and to what degree, and what he needs to get that
done?
Mr. Gattison. I have no information specifically.
Mr. Mica. Can you provide that to this subcommittee?
Mr. Gattison. Yes, I can.
Mr. Mica. We think it is very important. We visited during
the recess with the Dutch officials, and we have a big gap
there. And it is a huge transportation hub. They have also been
handicapped by having previously passed some liberalized
narcotics legislation, which they have now altered, but they
are suffering some of the consequences from it. And it is
certain from your testimony that continues to be the major
production source of Ecstasy coming into the United States.
That is what you testified, is it not?
Mr. Gattison. That is correct.
Mr. Mica. And you are seeing that stuff come in through
Hartsfield, and across the State lines here?
Mr. Gattison. Southwest border of the United States, up
into the Atlanta area. There has been one particular
investigation that we can tie back to the Mexican border.
Mr. Mica. What about suggestions of having some more
concentrated effort to deal with Ecstasy or certain drugs that
we see in surges? Of course, meth, and we have the problem of
precursor chemicals and other things coming in for meth
production here, but also meth coming across the border,
Mexican organized crime involved in this. Is it wise for
Customs to have a targeted effort for these new waves of large
quantity illegal narcotics, or continue sort of with the plan
that you now have?
Mr. Gattison. Yes, it is. But we do that internally. When
we identify a trend or something to that effect, we locally
reorganize the office and put agents or assign agents full time
to work in that specific area. So yes, it is wise. But we do it
internally within the agency.
But also the task force in Washington is there to
coordinate and focus us on investigations nationwide and
international.
Mr. Mica. We still remain concerned. We know that 80, 90
percent of the Ecstasy is coming out of the Netherlands. You
have identified Dutch and Israeli and other large operators
here, and I know you have had some seizures. It sounds like we
do not have our plan entirely together to tackle this, if we do
not have a concentrated effort in the Netherlands, which is the
source of production. So if you would provide the subcommittee
with a detailed outline of how you are going to approach this
there, we would appreciate it, for the record.
Mr. Andrejko, you testified about some of the DEA
enforcement efforts, and I think you also testified about the
difficulty in dealing with the GHB problem?
Mr. Andrejko. Yes.
Mr. Mica. How do we deal with this new designer drug and
how can we most effectively deal with enforcement? And I think
you heard the difficulty the local District Attorney had in
trying to prosecute cases where the evidence literally and the
means for committing the crime renders the victim unable to
testify or to be a witness under the current criteria. How do
we deal with this from a drug enforcement standpoint?
Mr. Andrejko. To address the initial part of your
question----
Mr. Mica. And you did compliment us on the legislation
before. Does this adequately address the concerns that you have
heard raised here today?
Mr. Andrejko. The pending legislation certainly is very
supportive. GHB was put under the Controlled Substances Act
back in February of the year 2000, it was made a Schedule 2
drug. And as a result of the concerns of the Congress and of
the Attorney General, DEA was tasked with trying to put
together some type of an enforcement mechanism to report what
is going on with regard to the use and abuse of GHB in the
United States.
And what we did in our operations division in Washington,
DC, was put together a team of law enforcement officials, both
from the office of operations agents, intelligence analysts,
diversion investigators, working very closely with State and
local offices to try and identify those individuals who have
been manufacturing and distributing GHB and other club drugs
throughout the United States.
That information is being reviewed, it is being shared with
the Attorney General. I believe she is going to be reporting
back to your committee and to other elements in Congress the
result of what those initial findings have been.
With regard to what we can do in law enforcement to try
develop evidence to bring to a courtroom to have the victim and
the episode that the person underwent result in a conviction,
it is very difficult to try to answer that question from my
perspective.
Mr. Mica. I think Mr. Howard brought up an interesting
aspect of the problem that we face in these prosecutions. I do
not think that the law, as I have seen drafted, deals with
that. It is a very unique aspect of dealing with a problem that
has surfaced. Almost the drug is eliminating the witness's
memory or ability to testify, and I do not know of any
legislation that we have or anything that has been proposed
that deals with something like that. It may be something we
want to pursue and see if there is something that could be
included, and I think we may have a shot at passing that
legislation before the Congress recesses. But if you have any
suggestions, we would certainly welcome them, by Mr. Howard and
Mr. Saliba, maybe you could look at that. And we would be most
willing to explore some tightening of the law.
Mr. Andrejko. Increasing penalties for those who are
convicted of trafficking in club drugs would certainly help. It
would certainly send the right message. Perhaps looking at some
of the threshold amounts that are set by the prosecution
offices in the United States could be an advantageous element
to law enforcement, to try to go ahead and maybe lower the
amounts which would allow them prosecution on the Federal
level.
We have been very successful, for example, in targeting
traffickers who have been the violent drug traffickers
throughout the United States, throughout our local enforcement
program, our met team program. And when we have been able to go
ahead and use the Federal laws to target those individuals on
the convictions, we have looked at the statistics that deal
with, for example, violence and drug use in those communities
prior to a meth deployment, and then after the meth deployment.
And we have seen that those numbers, overall throughout the
United States, have decreased.
I think you all are aware of the fact, I am sure you are
aware of the fact that, in many communities, the individuals
who are the violent criminals, those individuals that commit
the most violent criminal acts. If you could target those
individuals, identify them, arrest them and put them in jail,
there seems to be a decrease then in the resulting amount of
violence in the area.
If we could use the same type of logic perhaps with regard
to club drug manufacturers and distributors, perhaps we could
have a positive impact on what is going on in this country and
other areas of the world today.
Mr. Mica. Thank you. Let me yield now to Mr. Barr, if I
may.
Mr. Barr. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to thank
our four panel members here, and it reminds me once again why I
appreciate your holding these field hearings outside of
Washington, DC. We have four gentlemen here who work very hard
at actually solving the problems in our community, and they are
not so much concerned about what the Washington Post might say
about them, or the policy spin of people in Washington. They
are concerned with results and their work speaks for
themselves. And I appreciate very much them being here with us
today to relate some of the specific experiences that they have
had on the front lines.
One of those, Mr. Howard, that I remember from the news,
and I was intrigued by your brief description of the Iverson
case. In that case, was there any evidence that the victims,
the two women victims, had ingested the drugs for the purposes
of being raped?
Mr. Howard. No.
Mr. Barr. Is this--and I know, as you have relayed in this,
I remember in the retrial, the defendants were acquitted, and
you also indicated here that the judge seemed to have some sort
of feeling that the victims were as much to blame for what
happened as the defendants. Do you see this in other type of
drug cases, where you have a perpetrator and a victim, and the
victim takes the mind-altering drugs, yet then becomes a victim
to acts to which they obviously did not consent, or is this a
phenomena that you are seeing with regard to date rape drugs?
Mr. Howard. It is mainly something that is focused upon
date rape drugs. And unfortunately, it still relates back to
the misconception about rape itself, that many people
unfortunately still think that part of the blame lies with the
victim and not with the defendant. So you can easily see how,
in a case involving a date rape drug, where in this case, where
these two young ladies ingested it, simply they thought for
recreational reasons, to get a mild high. The feeling of the
judge was that it was the victim's fault. And that causes--it
has caused us a lot of problems, because that incident took
place in 1998. We tried it in 1999.
Even though the police in Atlanta reported a number, and I
believe over 200 incidents involving these drugs, we have had
only 5 cases reported at the rape crisis center at Grady. And I
think that it has had the chilling effect of saying to the
victims that, if you come to court, then you might be seen as
the person who was at fault.
Mr. Barr. I think you were here for the previous panel, at
least part of their testimony. And one of the witnesses spoke
about different types of rape kits that can be used and many of
which are in common usage in this country and which do not
provide the means to readily identify some of these date rape
drugs.
Are there kits that are available, are they in common usage
or are they cost prohibitive at this point, or for some other
reason not in common usage?
Mr. Howard. There are kits available and they do cost more.
And in fact, even with something as mundane as a urinalysis
examination to test for the methamphetamines, there is an
additional cost, a cost that is higher than testing for cocaine
and marijuana. So there is an additional cost that many--since
the rape kits are generally paid for by law enforcement
agencies, many of them have not updated those rape kits to
include the test for date rape drugs.
But here again, we have got two other factors that are
working. One is the fact that the drug will get out of your
system within about 12 hours. And so that is why I think that
it is important that the protocols be put together which
include the medical community so that they will realize that we
need to test and retrieve this kind of evidence right away. The
other factor that we still are involved with is the under-
reporting or the lack of reporting or even reporting on a
timely basis, because even if you report the incidents and it
is after that time period, there is no way that we can test to
find out whether or not the drug is in your system.
Mr. Barr. Given the fact that we know there is under-
reporting and it is not really a new phenomenon, can a case
such as the Iverson case do tremendous damage in your effort to
try and get people to report these cases more?
Mr. Howard. I think it does. I think particularly when you
take this case in that we actually had an eye-witness, the
security person from Georgia State, who came in, who responded
to the 911 call, actually witnessed the sexual assault. And I
think it does have a chilling effect and I think it has had one
in our community, when women see this and believe that there is
really no reason for me to report it.
You know, that is why I think that it is important that the
education extend not only to the general public and young
people, but it also should extend to our judiciary, to
prosecutors and to law enforcement as well.
Mr. Barr. Speaking of that, have there been any efforts
made at the State level to take a look at both funding for some
of these issues such as the better date rape kits, the rape
kits, or to look at some of the problems that you have
identified today with regard to prosecution of some of these
cases? Is there anything pending at the State general assembly
or at the Governor's office?
Mr. Howard. I think right now there is a move--and I think
Ms. Flowers mentioned that there is a proposal that I am aware
of--where they are asking for a separate facility from Grady
Hospital, one that would be operated by nurses as opposed to
within the hospital complex, that is focused simply on the care
of women and their reporting. Now that is going on.
I am not aware of any effort in the State that is afoot to
change the proof problems that prosecutors run into. The only
other effort is also something that Ms. Flowers mentioned, is
the effort to reduce the sentence for the crime of rape.
As you are aware, right now in the State of Georgia, there
is simply one crime and that is the crime of rape and the
sentence is from zero to 20 years and a mandatory minimum of 10
years. There has been some effort made and an effort made last
year to actually include the crime of aggravated assault with
intent to rape, which many people believe will generate some
new sentences.
But those are the only things that I am aware of that are
taking place.
Mr. Barr. I forget which one, Mr. Andrejko or Mr. Gattison,
mentioned the Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act that we
have passed out of Judiciary Committee, I do not think that it
has come up, has it, Mr. Chairman, on the floor of the House
yet?
Mr. Mica. I believe that is correct.
Mr. Barr. We hope to get that through. If we cannot, we
will work on it again next year, but we are trying to deal with
some of this at the national level as well.
I forget which one of you mentioned this, or maybe more
than one of you, the problem with the accessibility or
availability of these drugs through the Internet. Is this a
problem that is manifesting itself in alarming proportions with
young people being--having access to the Internet and getting
these drugs?
Mr. Gattison. Yes, I think it is a problem because they can
shop online and they can order stuff overseas online and come
in through mail facilities right to their homes without ever
leaving their library or study or wherever they have their
computers.
Also there is advertisement for these drugs on the Internet
where individuals can go again and advertise and shop and buy.
Mr. Barr. What are they identified as? Do they use some of
these benign sounding terms that we have heard about?
Mr. Gattison. That is correct.
Mr. Barr. I mean they do not advertise them as date rape
drugs, or do they?
Mr. Gattison. No, they advertise them with the slang name
roofies, things of that nature. I know you are aware of our
smuggling center in Washington that pretty much surfs the net
looking for all types of international crime and they have
identified several sites out there on the Web where they are
selling primarily Ecstasy.
Mr. Barr. Are current laws sufficient to address this
problem when you see a concerted effort to sell these drugs
over the Internet or are there changes that would need to be
made to Federal law to address that specific problem. And I
know it is difficult, given first amendment concerns, but are
these cases being prosecuted, do you know?
Mr. Gattison. Well, I think they are, I think as best they
can be prosecuted. We are working with the Web site owners in
giving us information and identifying those individuals
involved in that and then we are also going and doing some
undercover work on the Internet, attempting to purchase
quantities and identifying people overseas and in the United
States that are involved in that, and hopefully getting them
prosecuted for smuggling charges and other Title 21 violations.
I think, John, you may want to address that a little bit as
well.
Mr. Andrejko. A problem that we are seeing on the Internet
is really dealing with the manufacturing process with
methamphetamine. It is very, very easy to manufacture
methamphetamine and what you find on the Internet are how-to
formulas, if you will. If we were trying to--if I tried, for
example, to convert the coca paste into the coca paste--I mean
the coca leaf into the coca paste into the base into the
hydrochloride, or if you got the opium poppy and tried to
manufacture that into the morphine and refine it into heroin,
it is a very difficult process that I could not do, none of us
probably in this room could do because it requires a tremendous
amount of chemical knowledge on an individual's part. But with
regard to methamphetamine, anyone can make it very, very
easily. You do not need a college education for it, you do not
need a degree in chemistry. You can be an elementary school
dropout and it is a very easy process to follow. It can be made
in the back of a hotel room, in the back of a truck, in a
garage or someone's house. So we are seeing more and more
information on how to make, for example, how to manufacture
methamphetamine on the Internet.
And the lab locations where we have responded, including
here in the State of Georgia, we have had printouts from the
Internet on how to go ahead and manufacture this stuff. That
documentation was seized at the lab site itself.
Mr. Howard. Congressman Barr.
Mr. Barr. Yes, sir?
Mr. Howard. I just want to mention to you that probably
most prosecutors are using a manual provided by the American
Prosecutors Research Institute that talks specifically about
Rohypnol and the other GHB and the other date rape drugs. And I
think they issued this in 1998 and at the time that they issued
it, what the prosecutors complained about is the issuance of
these drugs through the mail. And I guess it shows how much
times have changed, because they mention just in passing that
the recipes are on the Internet, as Mr. Andrejko says, but now
you can find them all over the Internet, recipes to put
together these drugs.
One of the things that I think is particularly interesting
is that in I believe about 70 foreign countries, the drug
Rohypnol is in fact legal and so it is legal--it is used as a
sedative and as a sleeping pill, and so it is legal for them to
produce it in those countries. And I think, it seems to me,
that one of the areas that Congress might look at is whether or
not American drug manufacturers are manufacturing these drugs
in foreign countries that are later on being shipped back to
this country and used as date rape drugs.
Mr. Barr. That is a problem that we had some testimony on a
couple of years ago. It is a very serious problem.
Mr. Andrejko, does DEA have a special unit to address the
problem of date rape drugs?
Mr. Andrejko. We have a special unit in our headquarters
building set up to go ahead and coordinate what is going on
throughout our domestic divisions in the United States, to
report back then to that unit that will compile the data and
then bring that data to the attention of the Attorney General,
who my understanding is supposed to share that information with
the Congress.
There is a special operation called Flashback, which is the
name of the program that goes ahead and tracks that
information, that will go ahead and assess that information,
give directions out to the DEA divisions to go ahead and work
closely with the State and local agencies to try to learn from
them what is actually happening on the State and local level to
try to identify those individuals or trafficking groups who
perhaps are manufacturing and distributing the date rape drugs,
try to design an enforcement program to go ahead and address
those issues, but at the same time relate back to the Attorney
General, to the DEA Administrator, what it is we are seeing in
the United States. That is an ongoing process that began
sometime around June-July, the summer months, of this year. And
it is a program that we are waiting to see what the final
results will be, but I believe it was mandated for the Attorney
General to go ahead and do that and DEA was given the focal
point for that type of reporting element.
Mr. Barr. There are two programs, one which I am very
familiar with because it was operational while I was the U.S.
Attorney, and that is the OCDETF program, the Organized Crime
Drug Enforcement Task Forces. There is another one, the HIDTA
or High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program.
Do these two programs coordinate with each other and is the
HIDTA program the most effective way, in your view, to address
the problem of intensive drug trafficking in certain areas?
Mr. Andrejko. In my opinion, they are complementary
programs. When you have a HIDTA in operation in an area, for
example, like Atlanta and targets are identified and then
prosecutions take place, the prosecutions that occur are
brought through the OCDETF program, so one complements the
other, so to speak. Two different types of funding mechanisms,
however. And what you have is the HIDTA program looking at some
of the trafficking groups dealing with limited areas within a
particular city. You may have the OCDETF program trying to
encompass a much larger aspect of what the drug problem is. And
I mention that in passing because the HIDTA program in Atlanta
focuses just on two counties, Fulton County and DeKalb County.
So by design, this particular HIDTA program has to deal with
law enforcement issues in those two counties. The OCDETF
program, however, encompasses all of the different districts
throughout the State and can go into more jurisdictional
investigations as well very freely without some of the
restraints that sometimes you see in a HIDTA, depending on what
its mission and goal is.
Mr. Barr. Mr. Macklin with our committee staff, just a
little bit ago handed me an article here that just came in
talking about Ecstasy use in the armed forces. I know we do not
have anybody here from DOD but Mr. Gattison and Mr. Andrejko,
is this a problem that you are seeing or are you more aware of
the increasing problem of date rape drugs in our armed forces?
Mr. Andrejko. I do not have any information with regard to
that aspect. However, we could get in touch with our
headquarters intelligence division, ask them to research that
and provide you with a response.
Mr. Barr. Thank you, I would appreciate that if we could,
Mr. Chairman. That is an angle that apparently is becoming more
of a problem as well.
On the earlier panel we spent some amount of time talking
about the national message, for example, through the OCDETF
advertising program and we have held some hearings, the
chairman has held some hearings in Washington focusing on that.
But we heard that it would be very helpful, from some of the
other witnesses, to try and do a better job of targeting for
educational purposes the advertising for date rape drugs,
methamphetamine, more locally. Particularly from the standpoint
of our local prosecutors, Mr. Saliba and Mr. Howard, would this
be of benefit and do you have any particular suggestions as to
how we might better get those funds to you so that you can use
them better to address specific problems on which the public
needs to be educated in your communities?
Mr. Saliba. I believe it needs to be done. I will let Mr.
Howard address the funding. He is obviously in his position
much more involved in that than I am in mine. But to give the
committee an example, I have a 16-year-old niece and a 12-year-
old nephew who I have the privilege and sometimes duty of
chaperoning to different events. Last weekend--she is from a
small town in Alabama, about 50,000 folks--I took her and a
group of her friends to a concert down in Atlanta. And during
that concert, I had a chance to talk to them and take them out
to dinner. They all understand and have been raised properly
that they should not do drugs, but the questions they were
asking, based on my position, was things like is Ecstasy really
that bad. You know, we know about cocaine, we know about
marijuana, methamphetamine though is not the same thing, is it,
although it has the exact same chemical effect. And I think
that shows the deficiency that over the years has developed, in
that what necessarily by the time funding is completed, the ad
campaigns are completed, a generic ``do not do drugs'' I do not
think tells them what they need to know. I think that money
should come down through whatever process to the States to do
what one of the prior panelists suggested, find out what is
needed in each area.
In the area I prosecute in, we have done a good job of
educating people of the dangers of cocaine; there are a lot of
our youth that do not understand that Ecstasy really is a drug
and it really is harmful. And I think it goes beyond any given
drug, it goes to a year-to-year trend, what is popular at that
time, what is available. And I think that that is an area where
the States are uniquely qualified to determine that need and to
handle that type of program and I think that it definitely
needs to be done and it needs to be moved down more to a local
level to affect more of our young people. Those are the folks
who grow older, who grow into the drug business, if they are
already using drugs. And I think the earlier we start and the
more directed that message is, the better we are.
Mr. Barr. Thank you. Mr. Howard.
Mr. Howard. I agree. I believe that it is critical because
what you get the feeling is that what you are fighting is
popular culture. And what goes on in our music and
entertainment industries, there is a message that these drugs
are OK, where some drugs might be seen as illegal--crack
cocaine. And I think we need to change that message and one of
the things that I pointed out is showing people the deadly harm
that results from the use of what they believe is simply a
recreational drug that is used to create a mild high.
I think that what ought to happen, the sources, the grants
that are already being made available to the States, I just
think that the amounts ought to be increased and there ought to
be some specifically designated items just for this purpose.
And I think that they ought to be made available to
prosecutors, but it is also a good idea to make them available
to agencies like the Georgia Task Force on Sexual Assaults, so
that they will work in conjunction with prosecutors to get out
the right messages.
Mr. Barr. Just in conclusion, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Andrejko,
Mr. Gattison, do you agree with that and are there some
specific things that you can suggest to us from the Federal
standpoint that we could be doing to help you in that
cooperative effort in trying to sort of customize and localize
that message particularly because of the misinformation and
misimpression that is out there about this very dangerous
category of drugs?
Mr. Andrejko. I think there is. I think more emphasis and
resources have to be devoted to that area. Back in the latter
part of July and the early part of August, the DEA recognized
that there was a major problem, really not only in the United
States but throughout the world with regard to Ecstasy and
dangerous drugs and club drugs and all. We convened a panel of
experts from the world, if you will, the international
community in Washington, DC. Over 300 people attended, people
from all facets of both State, Federal and local level and the
international community.
One of the panelists had made a presentation with regard to
something that Mr. Howard referred to a little bit, and that
was when they went onto the Internet and you go into the
information bases there, there were so many positive things
talked about, referred to, shown as examples, with regard to
the designer drugs and there was nothing on the Internet for
example to counteract that. And the only program I think that
was trying to do that was the program out of ONDCP. They were
trying to put together a series of commercial and other
information to go into the Internet starting some time in the
fall. So there is a tremendous amount of money that had to be
generated to do something with regard to commercials worldwide
or even just domestically in the United States.
I know Dr. Alan Leshner with the NIDA program also was
trying to, on a case-by-case basis as he had gone ahead and
uncovered statistics and studies and results of the
debilitating effects of these drugs on the human body, tried to
get it onto the Internet and start to put as much of that
information out there for generally used purposes, so to speak.
But there is not enough in my opinion, also, with regard to
that area with demand reduction and with drug education and so
forth. And whatever we could do to bring it down to the local
level would be very beneficial in my opinion as well.
Mr. Garrison. To follow up on that, I mentioned earlier
about the Commissioner's Web site, the Commissioner has
initiated his Web site where he is trying to address that same
issue with parents, getting the message out to the public that
it is a harmful drug. We also have the task force again that
feeds information to the Commissioner and also to people to
place that on the Web site.
And again, the chairman's question earlier about resources
for specific types of violations, you know, you can only do so
much with what you have and when you have a trend or you have a
problem like we have here at Atlanta's Hartsfield, you take
what you have and you focus it in on those particular problems,
and then you do the best you can. But of course, if we had
additional resources, we could come up with specific groups to
target, specific problems like Ecstasy in this area.
Mr. Barr. You referred there to the problem at Hartsfield,
just for the record, I think there has been a lot of
information and perhaps misinformation about it, the bottom
left picture there of the x ray. It is my understanding that
that device is used only with the consent of the person, is
that correct?
Mr. Gattison. That is correct.
Mr. Barr. So it is not that everybody that goes through
Hartsfield has these x rays. There has to be probable cause, an
articulable suspicion and so forth to request the person and
they have to consent to it.
Mr. Gattison. Right. They have a choice. If there is
reasonable suspicion that a violation is occurring, the
inspector gives the passenger the option whether to be
personally searched by an individual inspector or go through
the x-ray machine and it has to be concurred by the supervisory
inspector on duty at the time.
Mr. Barr. Thank you. Just one final question. We have heard
some testimony with regard to the Mexican angle to the
methamphetamine trafficking in particular. Mr. Saliba and Mr.
Howard, is that problem, from an immigration standpoint, being
adequately addressed? Are you getting the support that you need
when you find folks in your communities that are prosecuted or
that need to be prosecuted and that are here in this country
illegally, such as in this case from Mexico. Do you get the
cooperation and the Federal resources that you need from an
immigration standpoint to assist you?
Mr. Howard. Well, I can just say that we have had probably
the greatest amount of cooperation from the FBI. Usually what
happens with us is that we have a defendant who flees from our
jurisdiction to escape prosecution. And we have had on many
occasions to call upon the FBI to assist us in trying to locate
them. With the Immigration Service, the problem in Atlanta has
been one of so many people and so few resources. And I am sure
you are familiar with the claim that if you call the office,
the telephone will just ring. But the problem, as we have seen
it, is just that there have been so many people.
So as my colleague has mentioned, what has been the policy
for many years in our State was to just send them back. We have
seen this on many occasions, the same people that are returned
to countries, in the next year they are right back causing the
very same problems. And it is compounded by the fact that our
prison system is so overcrowded. So people are taking whatever
avenues are available to get defendants taken care of in some
other means.
But I think that most of our problems with immigration
probably have to do, in my experience, with just the large
numbers of people that we all have to deal with.
Mr. Saliba. I concur that they are--for years, we have had
an Immigration agent stationed one or the other of the pretrial
detention facilities in Cobb County, and they do what they can,
but there are so many folks that are arrested that have to have
detainers put on them, so many that go through the system and
either plead guilty or are convicted, that they cannot
possibly, with the resources they have, handle every case as
well as they would like to. They are very cooperative, but I
think the old saying is under-manned and over-worked. But as an
agency, they have been very good to our local law enforcement
folks when they could.
Mr. Barr. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I would
like to again thank the panel members.
Mr. Mica. Well, first of all, I want to thank
Representative Barr again for inviting us into his community to
examine the problem of illegal narcotics and in particular
today the methamphetamine and date rape drug situation.
I also want to thank the representatives of the two Federal
agencies who appeared as witnesses--the U.S. Customs Service
and Drug Enforcement Administration. We have a responsibility
as an oversight and investigation subcommittee to make certain
that our Federal agencies' programs, operations, funding are
adequate and also effective.
And I do want to particularly thank the two representatives
of the District Attorney Offices here today, the local offices,
for your insight. It is important that the programs that we
oversee mesh and work effectively with local and State programs
and also, as Mr. Barr said, all the best ideas do not emanate
from Washington, DC, so we need your cooperation, your
recommendations and we appreciate again you coming forward
today to provide us with your input.
And to the other panelists who were with us earlier, we
also appreciate their testimony.
As I said earlier, and under a unanimous consent request
from Mr. Barr, the record will remain open for this
subcommittee for additional testimony, comments, statements
through the Chair for a period of 2 weeks and those additions
will be provided to the permanent record.
Also, I would like to ask Mr. Gattison to please provide
the subcommittee with information particularly on the re-
establishment of the Customs operations, which are very
important to the subcommittee.
Mr. Barr, there being no further business to come before
this Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human
Resources, I declare this meeting adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:25 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
[Additional information submitted for the hearing record
follows:]
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