[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 123 (Tuesday, September 10, 1996)]
[Senate]
[Page S10190]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 TREASURY, POSTAL SERVICE, AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 
                                  1997

  The Senate continued with the consideration of the bill.
  Mr. KERREY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Senator 
Jeffords, Dorgan, Conrad, Inouye, Harkin, Leahy, Thurmond, Akaka, and 
Daschle be added as cosponsors of the IRS reorganization amendment that 
I offered earlier.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. KERREY. Mr. President, we are about to go out here pretty soon. I 
want to talk a couple of minutes prior to that. Whenever we get ready 
to propound the UC to come back in tomorrow, I will cease and desist 
and pick it up again tomorrow.
  I indicated earlier my support for the administration's selection of 
General McCaffrey to be the drug czar, the head of OMDCP. Indeed, I 
must say that I believe that some of that change can be attributed to 
last year Senator Shelby and I objected to the funding of the OMDCP 
office. That is when Dr. Brown was still there. We objected. We didn't 
see much progress. Change was made, and Senator Shelby and I support 
General McCaffrey and his position.
  There are three things that I think we need to focus on. One is you 
have to reduce the number of young people that are starting to use 
drugs to zero. That is only going to occur with the President leading.
  A lot of people made fun of Ronald Reagan and Nancy Reagan when they 
did this, ``Just say no.'' But the fact is it works. Kids do not know 
gray. They do not know in between. It is either yes or no, hot or cold, 
black or white. You have to say ``no'' over and over. Otherwise they 
will start. So that is issue No 1.
  You can see one of the reasons that we were concerned last year. You 
can see that of all the problems that we have--I do not know if you can 
see it on this pretty small thing compared to what we normally put up 
down here: marijuana, LSD, inhalants. In Nebraska we had a young man 
recently who was killed as a result of consumption of methamphetamine. 
Every State in the country is now seeing a substantial increase in 
methamphetamine. It is a drug more dangerous than cocaine because of 
its impact upon the body, more difficult to detect, and we are seeing 
increased consumption. That is why people are concerned. In spite of 
some success in other areas, we are not willing to battle it when it 
comes to youth.
  This is another little chart that shows alcohol and marijuana use in 
Nebraska in 1993 through 1995. It is up.
  I just do not think there is any other workable solution than the 
President of the United States on national television saying to the 
youth of America, ``Just say no.'' Over and over and over, we saw in 
the entertainment industry the bad guys who are the ones who smoked, 
drank, and did drugs--not the good guys. You have to send a message out 
there that these drugs are dangerous, and say to young people, ``Just 
do not do them.''
  Second, the big area is in the area of interdiction and reducing the 
amount of drugs coming in. Senator Shelby has been on our committee 
taking a big lead in making sure that our law enforcement people have 
the resources they need to knock those drugs down.
  The third area that I would like to call a little bit of attention to 
is the area of hardcore drug users. I am going to go through a couple 
of charts very quickly just so people understand how we spend our $15 
billion. This little thing you probably can't see. That is the drug 
czar up there; $137 million; Justice spent $7 billion; HHS, $2.3 
billion; Treasury, $1.1 billion; even Veterans' Affairs spent $1 
billion; Defense $800 million; Education $658 million. That is the 
proportion. The pie is put together something like that.
  But one of the most interesting, and I think telling, facts for an 
awful lot of us trying to figure out what to do, tell the kids ``no,'' 
and give the law enforcement people the resources. There is almost 
universal agreement on that.
  But one of the most difficult problems is this fact. This is how much 
every single year since 1987, and this is how far this goes back--10 
years. You can actually track it all the way back if you want to. We 
have been spending more and more, with a different mix of expenditures; 
different sort of combinations; one year a little more interdiction; 
one year maybe prevention, and treatment--all of this different mix of 
efforts. The number of hardcore drug users stayed the same at about 2.7 
million. It is a very important fact.
  I do not have an answer to it. I do not really know myself what we 
need to be doing with hardcore drug users. I had some experience in it. 
I was trained in pharmacy prior to getting a preinduction notice from 
my draft board and signing up for the world's hardest, most powerful 
Navy. I was trained in that. I was a patient in a hospital. My roommate 
was addicted to Dilantin from serious burns. So I got some experience 
with addiction.
  It seems to me that just in general terms the solution lies somewhere 
out there in the market. The solution I would love to see would be the 
President--because he is the guy in the pulpit--saying to the 
pharmaceutical companies, ``Look. You sell about $80 billion of over-
the-counter and prescription drugs every single year to 260 million 
Americans, plus or minus a few millions. That is $80 billion a year.'' 
The Senator from South Carolina was talking about jobs in America. The 
pharmaceutical industry is one of the most important employers in the 
United States. These 2.7 million hardcore drug users spend $60 billion 
a year to feed their drug habit. That is a lot of money, as I see it. 
It is almost three-fourths of all the money that is being spent on 
legal drugs by Americans through pharmaceutical companies. I believe 
the pharmaceutical companies know a lot about addiction. It is an 
addiction. They know a lot about addiction. They have done research on 
it. They have had experience all the way for the last 30 years. I know 
that when I was practicing pharmacy in 1965 our No. 1 moving 
pharmaceutical in the store in Lincoln where I worked was Dexedrine. 
They then said that Dexedrine was not habit forming. We now know it is 
very seriously addictive, and we have restricted access to it.
  I would put a challenge to it. There must be some better solution to 
what we have right now. Again, I have not reached any conclusion. I am 
not talking about legalization. I am not talking about basically 
throwing open the door and letting people have at it. But I know that 
when something is constant, when a number remains relatively constant, 
we ought to pay attention to it. I pay attention to gravity. I pay 
attention to things that stay the same no matter what I do. And the 
number of hardcore drug users in the United States of America has 
stayed the same regardless of what we have done.
  I think it deserves some additional attention by any Member who is 
trying to figure out how to make this $15 billion-plus expenditure that 
we make every single year work so that we can say that we are getting 
the job done.
  Again, I want to repeat. When it comes to kids, it has to be, ``Just 
say no.''
  It has to be from parents. It has to be from political leaders, and 
the most important political leader is the President of the United 
States. When it comes to interdiction, you just have to play hardball 
with these guys. They are bad guys. They have to be dealt with very 
firmly. You have to put an unwelcome sign out in the United States, in 
every single State. You have to make sure that local law enforcement 
people have the resources to get convictions, and on and on.
  But as for these hardcore drug users, I have to tell you, Mr. 
President, I am not persuaded at all that the status quo is working. 
All I have to offer right now is a big question mark. I have no 
answers, which is not altogether unusual for me when it comes to these 
more complex and difficult subjects.
  I am through with my remarks here. We are ready to go out.
  Mr. SHELBY. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SHELBY. 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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