[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 45 (Wednesday, April 22, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H2127-H2128]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           TOBACCO IS THE GATEWAY DRUG TO MARIJUANA AND CRIME

  (Mr. BALDACCI asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BALDACCI. Mr. Speaker, Maine unfortunately leads the Nation in 
the category of teenage smoking and the increases in teenage smoking. 
Over 3,000 children every day are getting hooked on cigarettes and a 
thousand of them are dying because of it.
  Today a family came down from Maine and their daughter, Karen, is 
doing a study on tobacco. She is in the eighth grade and she is 
interested in history. She is the daughter of Sue and Kenny Cota from 
Maine.
  One of the things that was remarked about was the ability, that if 
this were a drug cartel from Colombia that wanted to be able to addict 
25 percent of our population, this Congress and this leadership would 
be falling all over themselves to do whatever they could do to make 
sure they put them out of business. But since it is the tobacco 
companies and the tobacco contributions and the tobacco influence, it 
seems that we are at a standstill from addressing the real problems 
that are confronting the young people of today.
  All the studies that are in the newspaper today show that smoking and 
marijuana are hooked together. Smoking, marijuana, drugs, and crime are 
hooked together because they commit the crimes to be able to pay for 
the smoking, marijuana, and drugs.

[[Page H2128]]

  When we talk about teen violence and crime, it is cigarettes that are 
the gateway drug. We have got to address this issue. I ask the 
leadership to address this issue and to have good, strong tobacco 
legislation to stop young people from smoking.

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