[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 197 (Tuesday, December 12, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S18396-S18397]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          NATIONAL DRUG POLICY

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, I would to announce that the Office of 
National Drug Control Policy has just confirmed that Director Brown 
will make an announcement at 4:15 today regarding his future career 
plans. It has been widely reported that he will take a sociology 
professorship at Rice University in Houston. I wish him well. He is a 
very fine man.
  He was a good selection for this position. I believe he has given his 
heart and soul to it to the extent that he could. He has done a 
credible job. But I have to say the administration has barely paid any 
attention to him and his efforts on this issue.
  Unfortunately, under this administration drug control policy is in 
utter disarray. The number of 12- to 17-year-olds using marijuana has 
increased from 1.6 million in 1992 to 2.2 million in 1994. The category 
of ``recent marijuana use'' increased a staggering 200 percent among 
14- and 15-year-olds over the same period. One in three high school 
seniors now smokes marijuana.
  I have to say the President has stood up and condemned smoking 
cigarettes but has not condemned smoking marijuana.
  One in three high school students now smoke marijuana. There has been 
a 53-percent drop in our ability to interdict and push back drug 
shipments in the transit zone between 1993 and 1995. Drug purity is way 
up, street prices are down, and the number of drug-related emergency 
room admissions is at record levels.
  Federal law enforcement is under a very severe strain, and at the 
very time that the technical sophistication of the Cali Mafia is 
reaching new heights. Frankly, of those one in three high school 
students that are using marijuana, 30 percent of those who do it will 
try cocaine in the future of their lives. That is just a matter of 
fact. It is a statistic we know. And this has gone up so dramatically 
fast that I am really concerned about it.
  The Gallup Poll as released today showed that 94 percent of Americans 
view illegal drug use as either a crisis or a very serious problem. 
These people are right. We simply need to do better.
  As a start, I urge President Clinton to appoint a replacement 
director at the earliest possible date. It is vital to our Nation's 
effectiveness against drugs that we have a coordinated strategy against 
drug abuse in our executive branch of Government. Almost 3 years into 
the administration no nominee has been forwarded to the Senate for the 
purpose of ONDCP Deputy Director for Supply Reduction--in 3 years. This 
position should be filled immediately as well.

  I believe that whoever is appointed ought to use that bully pulpit to 
let the American people know that we have had it up to here with drug 
abuse in our country, with this cancer that has been eating away at our 
children, and which, naturally because of the permissiveness of our 
society, is resulting in more and more drug use. We have to do 
something about it.
  I wish Director Brown, Lee Brown, well. I like him personally. I know 
how frustrating it must have been. The first thing they did when he 
took over the Office of National Drug Control Policy was to cut his 
staff almost completely. Frankly, it is hard to do this job without the 
backing of the President of the United States. I really do not believe 
this administration has backed him in the way that they should have 
backed him. Despite that, he has done the best he could.
  I personally want to acknowledge that on the floor. I want to pay my 
respects to him. I have admiration for him. I think his heart was 
always in the right place, and I think he did the best he could under 
the circumstances.
  I just hope in these next few years--especially this next year--we do 
something about this, that we replace him and get a deputy for the next 
Director as soon as we can, and that we start fighting this issue with 
everything we have. 

[[Page S18397]]

  I yield the floor.
  Mr. McCAIN addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Arizona.

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