[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 125 (Thursday, September 12, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H10349-H10350]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION AND THE WAR ON DRUGS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of theHouse, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Mica] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, I come before theHouse once again, I intent to 
come before theHouse as many times as it takes, to see what we can do 
as a Congress, as a Nation, as parents, as concerned citizens to see 
how we can stem the drug epidemic in this country. I cannot think of 
any greater failure of an administration in my lifetime then the 
failure of this current administration in addressing and in fact 
ignoring the problem of drug abuse and drug misuse.
  It is a very documentable history. It is a story that began in 1992, 
and we see the results today in our communities and our streets and our 
schools and in our homes. What is interesting to note with this chart 
that I brought here today is the use of illegal drugs and the history 
of our efforts in that war on drugs.
  In 1980, we see where President Reagan took over and said, just say 
no. And his wife, Nancy Reagan, said, just say no, and provided the 
leadership to this Nation and to our young people and said, drugs are 
the wrong way to go. We see the chart from 1980 going down and then we 
see President Bush and Mrs. Bush, and they continued that policy of 
just say no, that drugs will destroy lives and drugs will destroy our 
young people.
  Then we see 1992, and the latest statistics are absolutely 
astounding. We see 1992, when President Clinton took office and he 
first fired the drug czar. Then he hired Joycelyn Elders, our chief 
health officer for this Nation, who said, just say maybe, maybe take 
drugs, kids.
  Then we saw the destruction of our interdiction program to stop in a 
most cost-effective manner drugs at their source. Then finally, in the 
insult to the highest office in this land, we saw the WhiteHouse 
failing to curtail the employment of people with admitted recent drug 
use and drug abuse histories, which just startled me as a member of the 
committee that investigated that matter. So this is what we see, this 
is what they did, and this is what we get.
  Take this second chart, if you would, teen drug use. These statistics 
should shock every Member of Congress and every parent and every person 
in the media, the rampant increase in drug use by our teenagers, 12 to 
17 years old. I repeated this yesterday, drug use up 78 percent, 
marijuana use, not the kind of marijuana of the 1960's and the 1970's, 
we are talking about more potent, more brain destructive, more

[[Page H10350]]

gene destructive marijuana than kids have ever used before, up 105 
percent. LSD use, 105 percent, cocaine, 166 percent increase.
  This is among our teenagers. So we see why we have 1.6 million of our 
Americans in jail, 70 percent of them in jail because of drug-related 
incidents. We see why we have honest citizens and senior citizens and 
Americans living behind bars in fear, afraid to go out at night, afraid 
to go out of their home because we have created this situation.
  Mr. Speaker, this is the problem, and what are we doing about it? As 
part of this new majority, as someone who called on the previous 
Congress to look at the situation and do something and examine it and 
restore drug interdiction, we are doing something. Today we are meeting 
and there are hearings on restoring our Coast Guard effort. Today we 
are working in the appropriations measures that are before this 
Congress to restore our military effort to stop drugs in a cost-
effective manner at their source. We are going to restore also our 
efforts with our Drug Enforcement Agency that were proposed for 
slashing by this administration, not by this new majority.
  So, Mr. Speaker, it takes leadership. It takes leadership from the 
WhiteHouse. It takes leadership from the Congress. We must set the 
standard. We cannot lower the standard. We cannot have a WhiteHouse or 
a President that in fact lower the standards for our young people 
because this is the results we get. This is a headline that every 
American should see, every American should see that.

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