[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 135 (Thursday, September 26, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H11361-H11362]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        A NEW CRISIS IN DRUG USE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. McCollum] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, there are some very alarming new figures 
out from the Drug Enforcement Administration that I am aware of that we 
announced today from my office as chairman of the Subcommittee on 
Crime. The eastern Caribbean is now the transit area for more than 40 
percent of all the cocaine coming into the United States mainland, more 
than 40 percent.
  Previously, the figures were the Southwest border was the primary 
problem we had, with more than 70 percent, in the estimates of DEA, of 
the cocaine trafficking into our country. Today, we know that that 
shift is on that a lot of us have been fearing as we have watched the 
interdiction assets, the ships and the planes and the personnel and the 
radar necessary to track and interdict drugs in the eastern Caribbean, 
be reduced so dramatically over the last 3 years.
  It is a very serious crisis for my State of Florida as a result of 
that. Our young people, 12 to 17 years of age, have a dramatic increase 
in drug usage. Florida is above the national average, and we all know 
there has been more than a 100-percent increase in drug usage generally 
by young people in that age group over the last 3 years, over 166-
percent increase in cocaine use among that age group in one year alone, 
the last year measured by the United States Government. My State of 
Florida has even more than that.
  As alarming as that is, heroin use is up. In Orlando, FL, we had more 
overdose deaths of teenagers from heroin in Orlando just last year than 
the city of Los Angeles, which is 5 times our size. And the reason for 
that is pretty darn simple.
  When you look at the interdiction and the drug flow problem, you see 
that 62 percent of all heroin now is coming in from Colombia, not the 
Far East, and 99 percent of that is coming in through the eastern 
Caribbean or through direct flights into Miami or New York City. This 
problem is very simple right now. The problem is very serious. We have 
a crisis in Florida. We have a crisis in the Nation.
  Look at the figures on the eastern Caribbean, represented here 
historically, in terms of trying to stop this drug flow. We can see in 
1993, the Coast Guard, the Navy, the Air Force, and Customs had 
shipping days, the way they measure how much time they spend looking 
for drugs, of 371 ship-days for every single month of the year in 1993.

  But by 1996, because the funding had been cut and the requests by 
this administration and the drug policy office of the czar, they had 
cut the shipping days to 195 from 371. Now, current as of August of 
this year, we are down from 371 days of steaming out there, looking for 
drugs in the eastern Caribbean around Puerto Rico, where most of this 
comes from, to 195.
  Flight hours, the number of planes looking with night vision and 
radar scopes and so forth, down from 3,175 flight hours per month in 
1993, to this year in August, 1,149. One-third the number of hours are 
being spent in the air looking for drugs in the eastern Caribbean 
around Puerto Rico, where most of this comes in.
  And the number of radar stations, in 1994, there were 17 of them in 
the eastern Caribbean. Now there are only 89 looking for drugs. Is it 
any wonder we have this crisis? There is no wonder in my mind. This 
administration has not done the job that it should have.
  So the Florida Republicans, and some of the departments, joined with 
a separate letter, have written to the President about this, expressing 
our alarm, telling him about our concerns, about the crisis facing 
Florida, and asking him to do something about this, asking him to do 
something now, because the quantity is up, the price is down, and more 
kids are becoming users, Mr. President.
  In our letter we call upon you to take immediate action to plug the 
drug pipeline in the eastern Caribbean. We ask at the very least that 
the number of interdiction ship days and flight hours in the eastern 
Caribbean by Coast Guard, Customs and Department of Defense be restored 
to 1993 levels. Frankly, we say, we believe that everything it takes to 
seal off Puerto Rico from drug trafficking should be done immediately, 
because almost all the cocaine in the eastern Caribbean is coming into 
Puerto Rico and then coming into the mainland from Puerto Rico because 
not enough is being done to stop it.
  As you know, Puerto Rico is part of the United States, and the trip 
from Puerto Rico to Florida or New York is the same as going from 
Alabama to Illinois. We would not be degrading our

[[Page H11362]]

interdiction efforts along the Southwest border, we do not want you to 
do that. We want you to provide a massive deployment of Navy, Air 
Force, Coast Guard, and Customs ships, planes, radar, night vision 
surveillance equipment and the personnel to man them for an around-the-
clock operation designed to totally disrupt the drug trafficking 
through the eastern Caribbean.

  Do whatever it takes now, and we will support you, Mr. President, in 
seeking whatever funding from Congress that may be necessary.
  Mr. President, the current situation, our letter goes on to say, is 
totally unacceptable. If we can send our troops halfway around the 
world to protect our interests in Bosnia and the Middle East, surely we 
can send what forces are necessary to protect our shores from the 
deadly assault of drug trafficking.
  Now, frankly, this is the minimum that should be done now. This is an 
unfortunate time of year when elections are in progress and people are 
out there playing politics with all kinds of issues. This is serious. 
This is a letter that should be written no matter what the political 
climate. The reality is, drug trafficking from the eastern Caribbean is 
up substantially, 40 percent, under the new figures, never before 
released until today, of the Drug Enforcement Administration. Their 
estimates are 40 percent is coming through the eastern Caribbean.
  Mr. President, do something about it. Take the actions that are 
necessary. Let us stop the drugs from coming in through Puerto Rico.

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