[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 48 (Tuesday, April 16, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H3397]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     LET US FOCUS NATIONAL EFFORTS ON WINNING THE WAR AGAINST DRUGS

  (Mr. ZELIFF asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. ZELIFF. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Illinois, Denny Hastert, 
the gentleman from Florida, John Mica, the gentleman from Indiana, Mark 
Souder, and I just returned from a counternarcotics trip to Mexico, 
Panama, Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru. We met with various leaders in the 
anti-drug effort, including Peru's President Fujimori and Colombia's 
National Police Chief Serrano. We also met the brave Americans from 
several of our Government agencies in those countries, with armed 
patrols who went into the jungles of Bolivia and Peru where the bulk of 
the world's coca leaf is grown and processed in primitive drug labs.
  We watched as Bolivian antidrug units destroyed a pit where cocaine 
was made to ship to Colombia and Mexico, and then be shipped into our 
country. The deadly cocaine and heroin destroying our communities 
starts in the jungle and ends up in the streets of New Hampshire.
  We have people risking and even losing their lives on the front line. 
We need to get a commitment from our people and our national leaders to 
refocus our efforts on winning this war. Drugs and crime together are 
our Nation's No. 1 national security threat. We need to get everybody, 
from the President and Congress to teachers, parents, and media, 
talking about this threat to our Nation. We also need a plan that puts 
a priority on educating our people about the risk of narcotics, that 
includes treatment for those who are already addicted, as well as 
sufficient funds for law enforcement interdiction and eradication. We 
can win the war on drugs if we can put a man on the moon. We need to 
get moving now.

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