[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 128 (Tuesday, September 17, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H10432-H10433]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         DRUG ABUSE AND MISUSE UNDER THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION

  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, I come to the floor again today, I was here 
last week, I was here last year, I was here every year since I was 
elected in 1992, to talk about the problem of drug abuse and drug 
misuse in our country.
  I am here, sadly, 3\1/2\ years later again talking about what has 
taken place with this administration. We see across our great land and 
in my district the results of what has taken place. Mr. Speaker, let me 
recap what has taken place with this administration on the question of 
drug use and drug abuse.
  First, this President came in, and what did he do? He cut. He gutted, 
in fact, the White House drug czar's office from 140 to just a handful 
of people.
  The next thing he did, he employed as the chief health officer of our 
Nation Joycelyn Elders. Joycelyn Elders began the campaign of just say 
maybe, kids. Just try it, kids. Maybe we should legalize it, kids. 
Sending out that message, there was such an uproar that she finally was 
dismissed.
  Then the President took the step of dismantling the drug interdiction 
program. He dismantled it piece by piece, stopping drugs at their 
source. We know that cocaine, 100 percent of it is grown in Bolivia, 
Peru, and Colombia. We know its transit points, and we can stop it 
inexpensively at its source. Yet, he dismantled, he gutted this 
program.
  Then finally the ultimate insult to the American people and to the 
Congress and to the high office of the Presidency, the White House, 
which is supposed to set the standard for Americans, to set the highest 
level of performance of acceptability in our society and our 
Government. What did they do? Things got so bad in the folks that they 
were employing, and I sat on the committee that heard this testimony 
and was appalled. The Secret Service was so alarmed that folks were 
being hired with recent and past drug use histories, and we are not 
talking about marijuana here folks, we are talking about hallucinogenic 
drugs. We are talking about crack, about cocaine. We are talking about 
hard drugs being acceptable, used in the past, recent past in some 
cases for employment in the White House.
  Mr. Speaker, this is not acceptable. And this is what has been done 
by this administration, what has been done by this President, and this 
is the result. This is the result in my community. Look at this 
headline: Long Out of Sight, Heroin Is Back Killing Teens. In the past 
year central Florida has had more teenage heroin deaths than all the 
rest of the State.
  It is epidemic among our children. This is the result. Look at this: 
With Reagan and Bush, drug use and abuse went down in this country 
among our teenagers. And in 1992 it starts to shoot off the charts. 
Look at how it has affected our children with heroin, with crack, with 
marijuana, with hallucinogenic drugs. It is epidemic.
  We now have 1.6 million Americans in our prisons across this country, 
and 70 percent of the people that are in our prisons are there because 
of drug use and abuse. So we have set a bad example from this White 
House and this administration, and we can see the bad results here, 
crime and death.

                              {time}  1245

  The wrong Americans, too, are behind bars. Our elderly and senior 
citizens across this Nation are afraid to go out at night because of 
the crime that this has created. And we know, again, that nearly 70 
percent of those incarcerated and convicted of crime are drug-related 
incidents.
  But there is hope. This Congress, under the leadership of the 
gentleman from Pennsylvania, Chairman Clinger, under the leadership of 
the gentleman from New Hampshire, Chairman Zeliff, we are restoring the 
funds for the drug czar's office and the positions that were cut by 
this administration. We are bringing back together interdiction. We are 
going to use the military. We are going to use the coast guard. We are 
going to stop drugs at their source.
  Mr. Speaker, we are not going to just spend all the money on 
treatment.

[[Page H10433]]

Spending all the money on treatment like Clinton wants us to do is, in 
fact, like treating only the wounded in a battle. We have to fight this 
with education, interdiction, enforcement, and treatment; all four. The 
leadership must start in this Congress, and it must start at 1600 
Pennsylvania Avenue or we will see these results continue.
  So, Mr. Speaker, it is not acceptable. It is not acceptable in my 
community. I ask for assistance to help us make a positive change.

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