[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 141 (Tuesday, September 12, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S13345]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                            THE WAR ON DRUGS

  Mr. DOLE. Mr. President, earlier today, the Department of Health and 
Human Services released the results of its 1994 National Household 
Survey on Drug Abuse. According to the survey, marijuana use among 
teenagers has nearly doubled since 1992, after 13 straight years of 
decline.
  This troubling fact confirms what we already know: Today, our 
children are smoking more dope, smoking and snorting more cocaine, and 
smoking and shooting up more heroin than at any time in recent memory.
  Unfortunately, while drug use has gone up during the past 2\1/2\ 
years, the Clinton administration has sat on the sidelines, 
transforming the war on drugs into a full-scale retreat.
  The President has abandoned the moral bully pulpit, cut the staff at 
the drug Czar's office by nearly 80 percent, and appointed a surgeon 
general who believes the best way to fight illegal drugs is to legalize 
them. He has presided over an administration that has de-emphasized the 
interdiction effort, allowed the number of Federal drug prosecutions to 
decline, and overseen a source-country effort that the General 
Accounting Office describes as badly managed and poorly coordinated.
  Mr. President, illegal drug use declined throughout the 1980's and 
early 1990's, so we know how to turn this dangerous problem around. It 
means sending a clear and unmistakable cultural message that drug use 
is wrong, stupid, and life-threatening. It means beefing up our 
interdiction and drug enforcement efforts. It means strengthening our 
work in the source countries by making clear that good relations with 
the United States require serious efforts to stop drug exports.
  And, yes, it means leadership at the top, starting with the President 
of the United States.
  Today's survey is yet another warning for America. We must renew our 
commitment to the war on drugs, with or without President Clinton as an 
ally.
  I yield the floor.
  

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