[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 51 (Thursday, April 30, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H2698-H2699]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                             ILLEGAL DRUGS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Pease). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mica) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, this is probably one of the biggest signs in 
the history of the House to be used in a special order, but I think it 
addresses one of the biggest problems that we as a Nation and we as a 
Congress face today. The theme of this sign that we have here today is 
Drugs Destroy Lives.
  This particular sign is actually part of a billboard and a message 
that we developed in my central Florida area. We have 20 of these 
billboards up right now in central Florida. We have more going up, to 
let our young people know that indeed drugs destroy lives, to let our 
citizens know that drug abuse will affect their lives and destroy their 
lives.
  We have a tremendous problem in not only my district but throughout 
the United States. That is why we are trying to create public awareness 
again among all of our population, particularly our young, to do 
something about that. That is why we in Congress today, and many 
Members from our side of the aisle and some from the other side of the 
aisle have joined together under the leadership of our Speaker to make 
drug abuse and illegal narcotics a number one priority of this Congress 
and of this Nation and our communities.
  You may say, why? Let me just tell you a little bit of why I am here 
with this message and why we are here with this billboard and we are 
going to spread this message across our land.
  Since 1992, and these are incredible statistics, drug use among teens 
has skyrocketed by 70 percent. I heard the Speaker of the House say 
today as we launched our major congressional initiative that in the 
1980s under President Reagan and then under President Bush, drug abuse 
and misuse dropped and dropped and dropped because we had a public 
awareness, we had a Just Say No, we had a commitment and a leadership 
from Washington and from every level, a focus on doing away with the 
narcotics problem and illegal drugs in our society, and it worked.
  But since 1992, 1993, and some of the actions of this administration, 
we have seen that trend turn around and now skyrocket with drug use 
among teens increasing by some 70 percent. The latest statistics show 
that half of the high school seniors think it is easy to obtain cocaine 
and LSD. These are the most recent statistics. Eighth grade use of 
drugs has increased 150 percent since 1992. Again a dramatic figure. 
Today the latest figures are that 25 percent of our high school seniors 
are current users of illegal drugs.
  This is a scourge across our whole land. We have a tremendous 
problem. Some of it is a result, quite frankly, of policy of this 
administration. I do not want to get into all the details of what took 
place in the past, but one of President Clinton's first actions on 
taking office was to gut the Office of National Drug Control Policy, 
our Drug Czar's office. The statistics and the facts are these. He cut 
the staff from 146 individuals, staff positions, to 25.
  In his first year, President Clinton cut $200 million from drug 
interdiction efforts in the Caribbean and another $200 million from 
alternative crop production and crop eradication. That means he took 
the bulk of money out of the programs that were the most cost-effective 
in stopping drugs at their source, in stopping drugs where they only 
cost a few cents, a few dollars.
  I serve on a committee that overviews this national drug policy, and 
we have seen that the most effective dollars can be spent where drugs 
are produced and grown in their source countries. We know that all of 
the cocaine and the heroin and some of these other products are coming 
both through Colombia, the cocaine, 100 percent of it is coming from 
Peru, Bolivia and Colombia, so why not target the source?
  We here in Congress are launching a program this week and today to 
stop drugs at their source. We are also launching a program that we 
think will help everyone by again bringing attention to this problem; 
not only bringing Federal resources such as we have done in central 
Florida, creating a high intensity drug traffic area, bringing every 
law enforcement mechanism together in central Florida and other 
communities, but across this whole land we are going to ask for 
accountability, responsibility, tough enforcement.
  We have started in my local community with this theme. We have a high 
intensity drug traffic area from Daytona Beach all the way through 
Orlando and over to Tampa. We have organized State, local and Federal 
forces. We are going to today launch a real

[[Page H2699]]

war on drugs. We are sending this message that in fact drugs can 
destroy lives.

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