[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 104 (Tuesday, July 16, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1289]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       SYMBOLIC WAR AGAINST DRUGS

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 16, 1996

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, the much publicized Clinton administration 
cancellation of the U.S. entry visa for President Ernesto Samper of 
Colombia, because of his campaign's link with drug trafficking moneys, 
is a symbolic public gesture in the battle against illicit drugs.
  However, while it is a welcome message against those who deal with or 
are influenced by the drug traffickers, the actions critically needed 
from this administration in the war on drugs, are much more important 
than merely revoking one visa.
  Meanwhile, in our fight against the drug traffickers and their 
guerrilla allies in the most important drug producing nation in the 
world, Colombia, and other producing or transit nations around the 
globe, this administration has to do much more.
  Illicit drugs have cost our society billions of dollars each and 
every year in crime, violence, incarceration, health care, lost 
productivity, and lost lives, especially our young people.
  Revoking one visa in a nation like Colombia, is tantamount to 
providing a cup of water to fight a raging fire, when the local fire 
department has no equipment.
  We must also provide the dedicated and courageous men and women of 
the Colombian national police, who have suffered more than 3,000 
casualties in their real war, the equipment and supplies they need. We 
must aid them in waging the true battle against the traffickers, and 
their guerrilla supporters on the ground, who protect and support the 
cocaine labs and the air strips for processing and moving this poison 
eventually north to our cities, streets, and schools.
  The differences between these guerrillas and the drug traffickers 
they protect, is difficult to distinguish. While the Colombian national 
police have taken down the Cali cartel leadership and killed many of 
its key figures, it has not been cost free. They have lost many men, 
planes, and helicopters shot down in the deadly struggle, while our 
State Department bureaucracy has acted like this was just another 
foreign aid account service, if and when, it suits them.
  Only when we treat this struggle like the real war that it is, and we 
provide those willing to fight the battle with us, the tools to do the 
job, can the United States be seen as serious by taking the fight to 
the traffickers in this deadly struggle. It is in our national interest 
to fight this struggle abroad, before this corrosive poison reaches our 
shores and costs much more of our Nation's treasure, and the lives of 
so many of our people, especially our youth.
  We in the Congress have had to push very hard for many months in 
order to get six replacement helicopters for Colombia for those shot 
down or crashed in battles with the traffickers or the use of the 
highly professional Colombian National Police.
  These much needed excess U.S. Army Vietnam era helicopters, which our 
own military no longer needs, and older than many of the Colombia 
police pilots who fly them, are vital tools in the struggle against the 
narco-guerrillas.
  While the six Hueys finally arrived in early June, although late for 
the guerrillas' annual spring offensive, they were promptly, 
effectively used in seizing large quantities of narcotics, and 
medevacing out the wounded from the battlefield in this deadly struggle 
being waged in Colombia today.
  The Clinton administration has rolled back the source and transit 
resources efforts in favor of attempting to win a war by treating the 
wounded here at home. Supplying nearly $3 billion dollars annually for 
drug treatment programs in many cases, which at best produces limited 
results, while neglecting the source and transit nations, is a 
prescription for failure.
  Just a little of that $3 billion from treatment moneys properly 
placed in key nations like Colombia, will help drive drug prices up and 
purity levels down, as was the case in the Reagan/Bush eras where 
waging a real--not symbolic--war, reduced monthly cocaine use by nearly 
80 percent, from 5.5 million users down to 1.3 million users each 
month. It is doubtful that all those treatment moneys will produce 
anywhere near that almost 80 percent success rate.
  With the soaring drug use we are once again witnessing here at home, 
especially among the young, and our newest drug czar, having already 
abandoned the analogy of ``a drug war'', focusing primarily instead on 
the drug users and treating the wounded, we need more effective action. 
A real war must be waged against drugs, or we will face another lost 
generation to the evils of illicit narcotics.

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