[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 32 (Monday, March 11, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1666-S1668]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
TEENAGE DRUG USE
Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, the Senate recently confirmed Gen. Barry
McCaffrey to be the Nation's new drug czar. He had to leave the
military service to take this position. He has a tough job. I have high
hopes for him and I compliment him for accepting this job and accepting
this challenge, because he could have gone even higher in the military
than he was, and it was pretty difficult to go much higher than Barry
McCaffrey already was. He was willing to do this. His father told him
he should do this in the best interests of our Nation and our young
people.
I have to say, during the last few years I have been critical of
President Clinton's lack of leadership on the drug issue. On September
29, 1993, I called upon editorialists and columnists to draw attention
to the drug issue and the need for Presidential leadership. At an
October 20, 1993, Judiciary Committee hearing, I said, ``Thus far, this
administration has been sending a terrible signal to our country: drug
control is no longer a national priority.''
I quoted A.M. Rosenthal's observation that President Clinton's
interest in fighting drugs can be summed up as, ``No leadership. No
role. No alerting. No policy.'' I cited a University of Michigan study
that even then showed that the decline in drug use among our Nation's
young people, which began during the Reagan-Bush years, had virtually
halted and marijuana and LSD use were even then on the rise, and that
was back in 1993. I have repeated these warnings--often with support
from Members on the other side of the aisle, especially the Senator
from Delaware, Senator Biden.
President Clinton has let the country down because of his failure to
lead on the drug issue. Americans expect moral leadership from their
President on an issue like this. We have gone from a Just Say No
Program under President Reagan, to pleading with President Clinton to
just say something. If the President is finally beginning to speak out
more because it is a political year--I know he just held a conference
on some aspects of this problem--then I say it is better late than
never. I commend him for it. We need him to use the bully pulpit to
speak out against drugs and to set an example for our youth of this
Nation.
Others agree with me. Last month, Diane Barry, communications
director of Join Together, a national resource clearinghouse of more
than 3,000 substance abuse organizations, said that, until recently,
President Clinton ``hasn't used the bully pulpit to keep attention on
this issue.'' Incidentally, after slashing the drug czar's office in
1993 from 147 positions to 25 positions, President Clinton, in this
campaign year, now wishes to beef up that office. For whatever
motivation, for whatever reason, I am pleased that he is willing to do
so. I commend him for it.
The February 16-18, 1996, USA Weekend, contains an article entitled,
``The New Pot Culture,'' by Monika Guttman, which notes that,
``Marijuana is back, more available and acceptable than before. * * *
Today, marijuana is openly promoted at concerts, on CD's, even on
clothes--sending teens a message of social acceptance that alarms many
experts.''
The February 20, 1996, New York Times reports on a nationwide survey
by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. That survey found that the
use of marijuana by adolescents is ``bound[ing] back after years of
decline * * *'' The survey noted, ``A profound reversal in adolescent
drug trends is continuing with teen-agers more tolerant about marijuana
and drugs in general. * * * Today's teens are less likely to consider
drug use harmful and risky, more likely to believe that drug use is
widespread and tolerated, and feel more pressure to try illegal drugs
than teens did just 2 years ago.'' Mr. President, this is a disaster
for our country.
According to the New York Times article, the survey attributed this
reversal ``in part to a glamorization of drugs in pop music, movies and
television shows and to an absence of national and community leadership
in discouraging experimentation with drugs.''
The Times article goes on:
. . . specialists in drug use like James E. Burke, chairman
of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, and Dr. Lloyd D.
Johnston, a social psychologist at the University of
Michigan's Institute for Social Research, see a link between
the increase in the use of marijuana by teen-agers and fewer
warnings by politicians, the press, and the entertainment
industry. Nancy Reagan's admonition to ``just say no,'' while
ridiculed by her critics, presaged a fall in illegal drug use
by adolescents in the 1980's, specialists say.
Regrettably, as the USA Weekend article notes, after 13 years of
decline, pot use is rising again. Between 1992 and 1994, marijuana use
among teenagers nearly doubled. The percentage of high school seniors
who think occasional pot smoking puts them at ``great risk'' declined
from 40.6 percent in 1991 to only 25.6 percent in 1995. In fact, so
many studies show teen pot use climbing rapidly that Steve Dnistrian of
the Partnership for a Drug-Free America contends ``we face a possible
epidemic.''
This is happening on President Clinton's watch.
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Drug use during the teen years, notes John Schowalter, clinical
director of the Yale Child Study Center,
. . . can have lifelong consequences. In the teen years, .
. . social, educational and physical development is taking
place at the fastest rate ever except for a child's first
year. [Pot] will completely mess up their reality testing.
Besides, regular pot use makes kids less interested in
school, sports and other activities, adds Schowalter . . .
The USA Weekend article continued:
Why, then, after more than a decade of decreasing interest,
are more teens toking? The most-cited explanation points to a
generation of adults for whom pot was almost a rite of
passage. Many parents ``had an experience with marijuana and
don't consider it as serious as other drugs,'' says U.S.
Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala. Susie
Williams Manning, director of an adolescent alcohol and
drug program in Lexington, S.C., says she often sees that
dynamic at work with client families: ``I've had parents
tell me they'd rather see their child smoke dope at home
than go out and use alcohol.''
That is abominable.
When I raised this very point a few weeks ago, and I suggested that
the Clinton administration's lack of leadership in speaking out against
this menace stems in part from the fact that some in the administration
may have grown up experimenting with marijuana, it was suggested on
behalf of the administration, perhaps facetiously, that this was a
canard. Just listen to this:
``One of the things we learned in the '80s [when marijuana
use declined] is [that] when all sectors of society speak in
unison, it's heard,'' says Lloyd Johnston, author of the
University of Michigan's respected annual teen drug study.
``Now we've seen an erosion of that single voice, and [teens
get] either no voice in some quarters or conflicting voices
in others.''--USA Weekend.
We have to get parents talking to their children about this.
Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and everyone should be impressing upon our
young people not to damage themselves with drugs, marijuana or
otherwise. If parents experimented with marijuana or other drugs in
their youth and might feel hypocritical about telling their kids not to
do so today, then, for your kids' sake, please get over it. Some
experts advise that parents tell their children that if they had it to
do over again, they wouldn't have used the stuff. Do not glamorize or
wax nostalgic about your past drug use in front of your kids. Make it
clear to your kids you do not want them to use pot or other drugs. Tell
them about the other things in life--art, literature, sports, and so
much else--that they should turn to for stimulation.
For those adults who do not think marijuana use is as troublesome as
I make it out to be, let me quote from the USA Weekend article again:
Age is down. Users are starting younger. In the 1992
Adolescent Drug Survey, the average age of first-time users
dropped to between 13 and 15, from 14-17 the year before.
Treatment centers report 12- and 13-year-olds enrolling,
formerly a rare event.
The effects now are clear. Unlike the drug experimentation
days of the 1960s and '70s, the effects pot use now have been
studied extensively. Among the conclusions: Marijuana reduces
coordination; slows reflexes; interferes with the ability to
measure distance, speed and time; and disrupts concentration
and short-term memory. According to Donald Tashkin at the
UCLA Medical School, there are also cancer risks: A marijuana
smoker is exposed to six times as many carcinogens as a
tobacco smoker.
Quantity is up. Kids today smoke larger amounts than their
elders did, thanks to innovations such as ``blunts'': short
cigars hollowed out and restuffed with pot or a pot-and-
tobacco mix. Marijuana is now often laced with other drugs,
as in ``primos,'' with cocaine and ``illies,'' with
formaldehyde, making the smoker ill. Result: In 1994, 50
percent more 12- to 17-year-olds ended up in emergency rooms
for smoking pot as in 1993.
Potency is up. The pot teens smoke today is not their
parents' cannabis. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
says the THC, or primary psychoactive chemical, of pot on the
street has doubled in the past decade, thanks to
sophisticated cloning and genetic manipulation . . . Sample
review in High Times magazine: ``three hits and you're
absolutely, totally and righteously screwed up for hours.''
And it's now understood that pot serves as a ``gateway''
drug. A 1994 study by the Center on Addiction and Substance
Abuse found 43 percent of teens who use pot by age 18 move on
to cocaine.
Everybody ought to read this article.
The article notes that a variety of cultural factors have helped
contribute to this very disturbing trend of increased teenage use of
marijuana, a point I recently made on the Senate floor. One factor is
permissive references to pot use on television, citing an example I
used, the Roseanne and Dan Conner characters smoking pot in the
bathroom on ``Roseanne''. Similar references in the movies contribute
to the problem. No one is talking about censorship, but greater
responsibility among producers, studios, directors, actors, and
musicians, would be helpful.
Merchandise and clothing with marijuana symbols are popular
items nationwide in stores frequented by teens. ``Some people
are influenced by images,'' [said one teenager] . . . ``You
see it on TV all the time.''
Part of the problem may well be, on the one hand, a reaction to the
materialism some teenagers may see around them, or to what appear to be
limited prospects for their future that other teens feel confront them
on the other.
I do not have all the answers, but I do know political, religious,
civic, sports, and entertainment figures must all speak out more
vigorously, more vigorously than they are doing today.
Our teenagers have to hear that there is more to life than the
immediate gratification they may think they will get from pot or other
drug use. They need to know what can really happen to a drug user, such
as some of the things I mentioned earlier. With Elaine and I, and 6
children and 15 grandchildren, I know that it can be difficult to get
across a message without sounding preachy. It is not so easy to tell a
grade schooled or a junior high school youngster about life's vast
possibilities and make it seem very real. We should not underestimate
the influence we can have on our children, our nephews and nieces, and
our grandchildren. We must talk to them.
Moreover, the adults in our children's lives can do more than talk
about it. We can take our kids to the local library and open up all of
the worlds one can find there. We can read with our children when they
are young. We can take them to sporting events or museums. We can show
them local historical sites. We can interest them not only in our
country's history, but in their own cultural heritage. We can help them
get involved in sports, scouting, or other recreational activities. If
religion is a part of your life, as I hope it is, perhaps you can help
make it a part of your children's lives. Our children can be a part of
something of interest to them that they must understand will be
destroyed by the use of drugs. By helping our young people be involved
in wholesome activities, the antidrug message becomes more than just
plain talk.
For those young people whose social or economic circumstances, or
immediate prospects, cause them to doubt that their future is going to
be worthwhile, we have to try very hard to reach them. This feeling of
despair can afflict children of any race or ethnic background, and it
can occur in an inner city, an affluent suburb, or a rural town. And I
know that exhortations alone are not enough if people are trapped in
violent, drug-infested neighborhoods. The kind of needed public and
private policies, involving a wide range of community resources, to
provide greater opportunity for youngsters are really beyond the scope
of these remarks. But such policies are part of what we need to do as a
society to combat the drug scourge. And, adults must lend a hand.
But if I could speak to those of our young people who feel such
despair, I would urge them to start with their most precious resource
of all--themselves. I would say to them, Mr. President: your dignity as
a human being, regardless of color, ethnicity, religion, or gender, is
your birthright. And drugs are not going to help you go anywhere but
down.
Another point must be made to children and young adults. No one can
take away your reputation, your good name--you can only give it away.
Do not let the drug dealer take away your chances for success or your
dignity. Do not let a friend sway you from what you know is right.
Mr. President, we all must do more to help our young people avoid
drug use. We must help show them the way. And we need strong moral
leadership from our country's leaders. The very future of our country
is at stake.
We need strong examples from our country's sports figures, our
country's business leaders, our country's entertainment leaders, and
our country's political leaders--in fact, from leaders of every type
and variety. And we need
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more of our religious institutions speaking out against the illicit use
of illegal drugs in the best interests of our children and our young
people today. But really it is society as a whole.
So I hope that we will all continue to work harder. I intend to help
General McCaffrey as much as I can to do his job, and I believe he will
be a great drug czar. And I am going to give everything I can to assist
him and help him to be able to accomplish that work in a way that will
be beneficial to everybody in America.
Mr. President, I appreciate this opportunity to mention some of these
things. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Lugar). The clerk will call the roll.
The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. HATFIELD. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order
for the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
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