[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 129 (Wednesday, September 18, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H10574]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  TEEN DRUG PROBLEM IS NATIONAL CRISIS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Mica] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, I come to the floor again. I have been here 
just about every day recently, talking about what I consider a national 
crisis, as a parent, as a father, someone concerned about the future of 
my children, how I tried to raise my children, and talk about the 
serious problem of teen drug use and abuse.
  What prompted me today to come to the floor is really an ad I have 
seen which features the President talking about his efforts to curtail 
drug use, and I just do not think that the President is really dealing 
with the facts here.
  Now, if we listen to the ad, the President says the Republicans cut 
funding in programs. Now, I just have to remind the Congress and the 
American people that, in fact, from 1992 to 1994, the House of 
Representatives was controlled, by an overwhelming majority, 250 
Democrats plus, I believe, and the Senate was controlled by the other 
party, and the White House was controlled by the Democrats. Now, we did 
not have the power to do anything in that time period except raise 
concerns.
  I came to this floor repeatedly and raised concerns. I had over 100 
Members sign a letter to the committee of jurisdiction asking for 
hearings because we knew then what was starting to happen; that we 
cannot put all our eggs in one basket in treatment, in the end, 
treating only the wounded, as it may be in a battle, and not paying 
attention to education, to interdiction, and also importantly to 
enforcement.
  Here we see the results. Again I bring this to the floor. Twice as 
many teens using drugs as in 1992. These are the facts. This is not 
something that the Republicans have manufactured, the new majority has 
manufactured. It is the result of firing the Drug Czar's office, of 
hiring a Surgeon General, the chief health officer of the country, who 
says, ``just say maybe.''

                              {time}  1445

  Then we had a President who got on TV, and I still cannot believe it. 
I was personally offended by it because I have children, and he said if 
he had it to do over again, he would inhale. What kind of message does 
that send to our people? And what does it do? And the evidence is here 
again. These are the statistics and the latest.
  Overall drug use by our teenagers 12 to 17, up 78 percent; marijuana 
use up 105 percent; LSD use up 105 percent during this time frame; and, 
cocaine use up 166 percent. And heroin is epidemic even in my own 
community. I brought the headlines from my community.
  So what the President has sown, now we are reaping with our children. 
First of all, they controlled the House of Representatives, the other 
body, and the White House. Then, to top it off, they killed our 
interdiction program. And I spoke out against it on the floor. We even 
met with the President in Miami and we said this is a disaster. We 
stopped our radar sharing and our information sharing to shoot down 
drug planes in the Andean region.
  They transferred, this administration transferred, and I met with the 
agents in South America who told me that they transferred, $40 million 
and left them with a shoestring operation in Haiti for their agenda and 
nation-building in that country.
  So the facts are in that just treatment does not work. You have to 
have education, you have to have interdiction, and you have to have 
enforcement. The fact is in. The Republicans expressed concern, I 
expressed concern on the floor of this House in letters to the chairman 
and to the administration about what was going to take place.
  The fact is that now this new majority is taking steps to restore 
money in interdiction. We are giving our military and our Coast Guard 
the tools to stop drugs cost-effectively at our borders and at their 
sources. So we are taking positive steps. We are providing the 
leadership that is lacking in the White House.
  And, again, the President is wrong when he tells the American people 
that the Republicans, or the new majority, cut. We did not even have 
control. We did not have votes to change anything here, but we did 
express concern and this is the results you see today. Again, a 
situation out of control, a situation where we have lost our streets, 
lost our children, and we must turn this around.

                          ____________________