[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 12 (Wednesday, February 9, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 9, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                    OPPOSITION TO DRUG LEGALIZATION

                                 ______


                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 9, 1994

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, the recent suggestion of Surgeon General 
Joycelyn Elders that the legalization of drugs merited study, and the 
Clinton administration's own policy of deemphasizing drug enforcement 
and interdiction in favor of treatment and rehabilitation, have created 
great concern in the drug enforcement community.
  I would like to commend to my colleagues a pair of articles on the 
subject that recently came to my attention. Both authors daily work 
with victims of drug abuse and their families.
  Father George Clements, a black priest who has seen first hand the 
impact of narcotics on Chicago's South Side, states categorically that 
``drugs is death,'' and says that were Jesus Christ alive today, he 
would be a drug fighter.
  Ms. Babette Wise, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Georgetown 
University Medical School, and coordinator of the university's alcohol 
and drug abuse clinic, declares that if anything, our drug abuse laws 
need strengthening.
  Both of these articles appeared in the Catholic Standard, the 
official newspaper of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, 
where the issue of drug use and its impact is far from an academic 
debate.
  The articles follow:

                     Jesus Would be a Drug Fighter

                      (By Father George Clements)

       Dr. Joycelyn Elders' suggestion to study drug legalization 
     is preposterous.
       The synonym for drugs is death.
       For 22 years I was pastor of Holy Angels Church in the 
     heart of Chicago's lowest socio-economic area. The many 
     funerals of drug overdose victims I conducted at Holy Angels 
     convinced me that drugs equal death.
       Were Jesus Christ walking the streets of New York or Miami 
     or Chicago today, he would be involved in fighting drugs. 
     Jesus never hesitated to take a stand on hard issues--like 
     leprosy. Despised and shunned, drug addicts are today's 
     lepers.
       Jesus hated leprosy and loved lepers. We must hate 
     addiction and love addicts.
       Many of us who battle the satanic evils of drugs are 
     ministers, lawyers, treatment counselors, orange-hat patrols, 
     police. We dare not lose heart, dare not surrender to the 
     screams that ``after all, everyone does drugs.''
       Had I listened to them, I would never have attacked the 
     drug paraphernalia empire. I had just come back from the 
     funeral of Tommy, a 16-year old drug overdose victim. I sat 
     with my head down on my desk sobbing uncontrollably.
       Suddenly the Holy Spirit yanked me up by my Roman collar: 
     ``Listen to your leader's message. Get up off your dead 
     posterior!''
       I jumped into my car and drove to a grocery store that 
     sells chewing gum, candy, potato chips and cookies. Many of 
     Holy Angels' 1,300 students are customers.
       On the store's shelves right next to those goodies was a 
     dazzling array of drug paraphernalia--crack pipes, coke 
     pipes, coke spoons, freebase kits, pony packs (small 
     cellophane containers), hypodermic needles and syringes.
       Each morning the white store owner drove from his affluent 
     suburb into our black neighborhood. That day I yelled at him 
     through his bullet-proof partition, ``Take that drug 
     excrement off your shelves, right now!''
       ``Get out of my store!''
       ``Would you allow your children to use this mess?''
       ``Of course not.''
       ``Why are you selling it here in our neighborhood?''
       ``Because you niggers don't care!''
       I left the store, stood in the doorway and said to every 
     prospective customer:
       ``You don't want to go in there. He's selling drug 
     paraphernalia to our kids.''
       ``Father, you're right. I'm not going in.''
       The owner had no customers, so 45 minutes later he came 
     outside.
       ``I've taken it off the shelves.''
       ``Where is it?''
       ``Back in the storage room.''
       ``Bring that stuff out here on the sidewalk. We are going 
     to take these baseball bats out the trunk of my car and smash 
     it up.''
       Soon, joined by other priests, we went to other stores, 
     doing the same thing, and finally to the state legislatures. 
     Now we are pushing for federal legislation to ban drug 
     paraphernalia.
       On a related note, I am disgusted at the pious declarations 
     of so-called ``role model'' athletes and entertainers. They 
     tell us they were once into drugs but are now drug free. The 
     hidden message youngsters hear is that if they happen to take 
     drugs they can simply follow their role models' example and 
     overcome the addiction.
       The athletes and entertainers I want to hear from are those 
     who openly state that they've never taken drugs, are not 
     presently taking drugs and have no intention of taking drugs 
     in the future.
       I am adamant: Love the addict, hate the addiction.
                                  ____


                     Law Must Not Become an Enabler

                          (By Babette A. Wise)

       Dr. Joycelyn Elders is correct that we should look at our 
     drug abuse laws.
       But any change should be in the direction of strengthening 
     the laws rather than weakening or eliminating them.
       Something is wrong when the leading U.S. health 
     professional hints at lessening the consequences for 
     dangerous, life-threatening behavior. Yet the surgeon general 
     said that drug legalization should be re-evaluated.
       That message should be labeled hazardous to the nation's 
     health.
       People most often seek help for drug or alcohol abuse when 
     there have been negative consequences in their lives. 
     Removing one of those negative consequences by legalizing 
     drugs is the wrong way to go.
       From my own experiences as a therapist in the field, I 
     estimate that only about 2 percent of patients I have seen 
     decide to seek help without experiencing a negative 
     consequence, such as an arrest.
       I spend most of my working hours with alcoholics, drug 
     addicts and their families. The good news is that drug 
     addicts can get better. What keeps them from getting better 
     are enablers.
       Enablers are those who, with the best of intentions, 
     facilitate substance abuse by covering up, denying or 
     eliminating any negative consequences. Parents, schools, 
     religious institutions, health professionals and friends all 
     want to be ``kind'' and to ``help'' those in need.
       But true help means focusing on the negative consequences 
     of substance abuse and searching for leverage to get the 
     abuser into treatment. Enablers do the opposite by removing 
     negative consequences.
       Intervention is a structured consequence led by a trained 
     professional. It's not easy, but it can help. Participants in 
     an intervention lovingly confront the addict with the facts. 
     If treatment is refused, family and friends must be prepared 
     to end the relationship. Threats will not work. The hope is 
     that the pressure and isolation will force the addict into 
     treatment.
       Parents can be the worst enablers. Continuing to provide 
     money, clothing, food and car keys to an addicted child is a 
     grave mistake.
       Educational institutions can be enablers. Lectures and 
     posters are meaningless without credible deterrents and 
     negative consequences for substance abuse.
       At Georgetown there is an alcohol and drug education 
     program structured like a DWI program.
       A student adjudicated for a substance-abuse-related problem 
     must attend this program, go to an Alcoholics Anonymous 
     meeting, pay a fine and perform community service. If it is 
     determined that the student has a serious addiction, 
     treatment will be mandatory.
       Only through the campus adjudication system could these 
     students have been reached.
       Health professionals can be enablers. Too many treat the 
     results of substance abuse, be it gastro-intestinal problems, 
     broken bones or even depression without diagnosing and 
     treating the primary problem: substance abuse.
       Addictive prescriptions should not be given to addicts 
     under the guise of ``helping'' to relieve physical or 
     emotional pain. The study of addictions should be standard in 
     medical school curricula.
       Addicts may function at a high level for quite some time 
     while their disease is eating them up inside.
       Many patients I treat would not be drug free were it not 
     for the legal consequences that made treatment a necessity.
       Dr. Elders should turn her power and talent in the 
     direction of educating enablers and away from any thought of 
     legalizing drugs. The law itself must not become an enabler.

                          ____________________