[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 96 (Wednesday, July 9, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7113-S7114]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




      COMBATING THE FLOW OF NARCOTICS--SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION 34

  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, I joined my colleague and friend, Senator 
Dodd, in introducing a joint resolution calling on the President to 
take concrete steps to increase the level of international cooperation 
in combating the

[[Page S7114]]

flow of narcotics into this country, and to lead America toward coming 
to grips with the domestic demand that is tearing this country apart 
while enriching the drug cartels of Latin America and our own organized 
crime groups.
  This legislation acknowledges the problems endemic in waging the war 
on drugs while domestic demand continues to remain high. It further 
recognizes the failure of numerous previous efforts at stemming the 
flow of illegal narcotics. It consequently expresses the sense of 
Congress that the President should appoint a high level task force, to 
be chaired by the Director of the Office of National Drug Policy, to 
establish a framework for improving international cooperation in these 
efforts. Finally, and of particular importance, it suspends for 2 years 
the process by which countries are certified as cooperating in the war 
on drugs.
  The drug problem in this country dates at least as far back as the 
Civil War, when wounded soldiers were turned into morphine addicts as 
the only way to deaden the horrific pain caused from battle and 
disease. The problem grew to such an extent that President Nixon felt 
compelled to establish the Drug Enforcement Administration in order to 
better coordinate the antidrug effort. President Reagan assigned Vice 
President Bush to oversee a major escalation in the war on drugs, a war 
carried on at considerable monetary cost throughout the Bush 
administration. President Clinton, to his credit, appointed perhaps our 
finest ``drug czar'' in Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who has waged the drug 
war as valiantly as he led troops in combat during Desert Storm.
  And still, the flow of illegal narcotics continues virtually 
unimpeded. Record-breaking seizures serve mainly to remind us of how 
much more is getting through our porous borders undetected. Street 
prices alert us to the failure of our best efforts at putting a dent in 
the problem of drug trafficking. To the extent that one area, for 
example, cocaine, is tackled with any degree of success, another bigger 
problem--the resurgence in heroin abuse comes to mind--rises up in its 
place. Clearly, it is time to step back again and look more critically 
at every facet of the problem.
  I do not believe ``chicken-and-egg'' debates about which problem, 
supply or demand, should take higher priority serve any useful purpose. 
The bill we are offering today addresses both problems. Nor do I 
believe the certification process has accomplished its intended goal 
any more than such processes ever really do irrespective of the subject 
matter. In fact, the decision by the White House to decertify Colombia, 
which has waged a valiant and costly--in both lives and treasure--
struggle against extremely powerful and ruthless cartels while 
recertifying Mexico, whose law enforcement agencies are so rife with 
corruption that that country's equivalent of Gen. McCaffrey was 
arrested for drug-related crimes, illuminates all too well the 
impracticality of the current process.
  It is easy to argue that the drug problem has been studied to death. 
It has not, however, been examined from the perspective, and at the 
level, recommended in this resolution. If I believed for a second that 
this resolution represented just another attempt at studying the 
problem of drugs, I would not have attached my name to it. The 
recommended steps, however, combined with the suspension of the drug 
certification process, constitute a real and meaningful effort at 
focusing the Nation's attention on one of our most serious problems. 
Drugs are, in every sense of the word, a scourge upon our society. We 
must take a comprehensive, sober look at the scale of the problem and 
what realistically can be done about it. We must do this domestically 
and internationally. We must, once and for all, wage the war on drugs 
as though we intend to prevail. I hope that my colleagues in the Senate 
and the House of Representatives will support this legislation.

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