[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 45 (Wednesday, April 22, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H2125-H2126]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   NEEDLE EXCHANGE PROGRAM REFLECTS A DISASTROUS FEDERAL DRUG POLICY

  (Mr. PITTS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PITTS. Mr. Speaker, what is it about 1960s liberals and their 
absolute incapacity to distinguish between good science and bad? Again 
and again we see the same pattern where left-wing politics trumps 
science when it comes to regulation, environmental policy, secondhand 
smoke, safety and risk studies, global warming and, now, free needles 
for illegal drug users. It is always the same story: bogus science and 
new government programs.

[[Page H2126]]

  Many commonsense Democrats do not support this newest outrage. Soccer 
moms taking their kids to school certainly do not favor this policy. 
The President's own drug czar does not support this policy. Experts who 
have studied the problem do not support this policy; experts, that is, 
who believe that politics should not get in the way of good science.
  No, Mr. Speaker, the people who fail to fight the drug war and who 
make excuses for that failure to protect kids from drugs are the ones 
behind this disastrous policy.

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