[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 72 (Tuesday, May 21, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H5304-H5305]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    LACK OF NATIONAL DRUG POLICY CAUSING CRISES IN U.S. WAR ON DRUGS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Mica] is recognized during 
morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, today the State of Florida and the Nation are 
really reeling over the effects of President Clinton's lack of a 
national drug policy, and even more so his lack of a record on drug 
prosecution. The Clinton record is a disaster followed by disaster and 
deserves the attention of this Congress and the American people.
  I serve on the subcommittee that oversees our national drug policy 
and we have recently detailed this disaster in this report.
  Several months ago a Clinton Federal judge let cocaine dealers off 
the hook when they ran away from their drug-laden car. Only after a 
national outrage that ensued did the Clinton appointee finally relent. 
Federal prosecution of drug cases, again detailed in this report, have 
dropped 12 percent since President Clinton took office. Drug use among 
teenagers, cocaine, crack, heroin, and designer drugs among our youth, 
has grown to epidemic proportions, again detailed in this report all 
this occurring in the last 3 years. All this while President Clinton 
parades around the country talking about Federal regulations on teen 
smoking.
  Let me tell my colleagues what is happening. Marijuana use among our 
teenagers has increased by 50 percent per year each year of the 3 years 
since President Clinton has been elected. This is the legacy of his 
``just say maybe'' policy.

[[Page H5305]]

  Joycelyn Elders, who the President appointed, led our Nation as our 
Nation's top drug official, and now we have seen the results from her 
tenure. ``What ye sew ye shall reap.'' Teens now smoke marijuana that 
is up to 30 to 40 times more potent than that marijuana of the 1960's.
  While President Clinton is out talking about teens smoking 
cigarettes, they are, in fact, frying their brains, destroying their 
lives, and dying in incredible numbers while he ignores setting a 
national drug policy. President Clinton does not need to travel to New 
Jersey or other States to talk about the effects of teen smoking. 
President Clinton can stay right here in Washington, DC, where drugs 
have killed nearly 1,000 black males in drug violence since he took 
office.
  We thought the President was going to get serious about a national 
drug policy when he came to my State of Florida several weeks ago. We 
were grossly disappointed. His visit was a fiasco. They were to go to a 
public school and have a public student, in this case a young black 
student was supposed to make a presentation to the President. The White 
House staging people had a white private school student selected for 
the presentation. It caused a furor.
  Now, listen to this. The President's top Federal prosecutor in south 
Florida, an appointee who was trying a drug case, lost the drug case. 
First, we heard we had decreased prosecutions under his reign; then, 
when they prosecuted, he lost the case. And what did he do when he 
lost? He went to a strip bar and bit a stripper and last week resigned 
in disgrace.
  So we have a south Florida U.S. attorney forced to resign for biting 
a stripper, not to mention in central Florida the U.S. attorney had to 
resign a little over a year ago on charges of having a disorganized 
office and attempting to choke a reporter. Our two top Federal 
prosecutors.
  Mr. Speaker, we have a crisis in the drug war and we have a crisis in 
Federal prosecution. We have a crisis that I fear is really rooted in 
the White House and in the lack of leadership; the lack of providing a 
national drug policy for this Nation. So I ask my colleagues to read 
this report that details this disaster, and to suggest that we need 
some leadership on this issue or our teens are going to suffer a fate 
far worse, a fate far worse than smoking. They are dying in our streets 
and in our homes and across this country in larger numbers because of 
the failure of not having a national drug policy.

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