[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.

[[Page S1667]]

  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

[[Page S1668]]

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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