[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 137 (Tuesday, October 12, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H9879-H9880]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




    THERE IS SORROW WHEN ANYONE IS LOST, BUT ESPECIALLY OUR CHILDREN

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Sherwood). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Mr. Speaker, there are several items that I 
would like to address this evening. Earlier today in debate, I 
acknowledged that this past weekend, 6 of our young people in the State 
of Texas died by way of a tragic automobile accident. I do want to make 
it clear, as I was speaking at the time of the debate on the Hillory J. 
Farias date-rape drug, that the incident did not involve drugs, but as 
someone who advocates for children, along with many of my colleagues in 
this House, I wanted to be able to offer sympathy to the families of 
those wonderful young people and as well the institutions of higher 
learning that all of them were then attending,

[[Page H9880]]

and to say that any life is a great loss but certainly when our young 
people are taken in the prime of their life, these youngsters were 18 
and 20, 22, 21, it is a great loss. So I offer my deepest sympathy to 
those colleges and the families and to the friends and youngsters who 
have experienced that, and I hope that we can find a solution to some 
of these tragic accidents and find a way to prevent tragic car 
accidents like this one, so that we can prevent this loss of life.
  Let me also take a special moment to speak again on the Hillory J. 
Farias bill, because there was an individual that I did not get to 
thank enough, and that is the Harris County medical examiner, Dr. Joy 
M. Carter. This has been a long journey in our community and for the 
Farias family in particular it has been long because the accusations 
were that the young lady, their niece, their granddaughter, had taken 
drugs. This was another drug case, and it was only at the persistence 
of the law enforcement and Dr. Carter to be able to answer the cries of 
the family to be able to detect, and Dr. Carter, of course, is a woman 
physician and medical examiner who persisted in detecting or attempting 
to detect this very difficult drug.
  So I want to thank her for her work in this, and I want to read from 
her testimony dated July 27, 1998.

       A common feature of date-rape drugs is their ability to be 
     ingested without knowledge and the inducement of an altered 
     state of consciousness or memory loss. These drugs are not 
     easily detected nor considered regularly as a causative agent 
     in a death or sexual assault so you do not usually look for 
     these drugs. Further, these drugs are not at all categorized 
     as Level I or II under the current Controlled Substances Act.

  Today, my colleagues have joined me in directing that, and I applaud 
them; but I do want to thank Dr. Carter for her extra interest and 
going the extra mile to give comfort to that family, to know that their 
young person was not on drugs.
  I would also like to just read an excerpt from the letter from the 
DEA which indicates that the DEA has documented 5,500 cases of 
overdose, toxicity, dependence and law enforcement encounters as it 
relates to GHB. The DEA has obtained documentation in the form of 
toxicology, autopsy and investigative reports from medical examiners on 
49 deaths that involve GHB, and they will continue to monitor this and 
ask that it be in Schedule II if it gets to be determined to be 
approved for medical use by the FDA.

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