[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 56 (Tuesday, May 9, 2000)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3696-S3736]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. GRASSLEY:
  S. 2527. A bill to amend the Public Health Service Act to provide 
grant programs to reduce substance abuse, and for other purposes; to 
the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.


              drug treatment and research enhancement act

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I am sending a bill to the desk to help 
reinforce our national drug control effort. I held a hearing earlier 
today on the domestic consequences of a new wave of heroin use. This is 
a flesh and blood problem that touches all of us. What we see in our 
homes and schools across the nation is the emergence of a new threat to 
our young people. A purer form of heroin is making its presence felt. 
In rich neighborhoods and poor. In our cities and rural areas. In the 
lives of our young people and their families.

  No heroin consumed in this country is made here. Every gram of it is 
grown in some foreign field, processed in a distant, illegal lab, and 
smuggled into this country. Yet, this heroin makes its way here by 
every means possible. It walks, floats, flies, and sneaks across our 
borders.
  While the heroin used here comes from overseas, the consequences of 
its coming are felt in our homes, in our schools, in our neighborhoods. 
It is our young people who die. It is American families who bear the 
burden and pay the price. Heroin is an equal opportunity destroyer. It 
blights inner city streets, suburban neighborhoods, and rural 
communities alike. I fear that the problem is getting worse. And I am 
concerned that our current policies are simply not up to the challenge.
  Somewhere along the way, we lost the clear, consistent message that 
the only proper response to drugs is to say an emphatic ``NO''. We're 
supposed to be more sophisticated. More tolerant. More willing to 
listen to notions of making dangerous drugs more available. What all of 
this ``more'' has meant is that we have more young people using more 
drugs at younger ages. Today's heroin is cheaper and purer and more 
widely available. It is more aggressively marketed and it is presented 
as being safer, as ``user friendly''.
  In the late 1980s and early 1990s, heroin had a bad rap. All drugs 
did. That is less true today. In the last several years, heroin use 
among young people has doubled and attitudes about the dangers of the 
drug have shifted. While it is true that most of our 12 to 20 year olds 
still believe it bad, the new heroin that we see on our streets and in 
our schools is marketed to avoid this stigma. The chief reason that the 
old heroin was seen as bad was because you needed a needle to use it. 
With the new heroin you can get high from smoking or inhaling, at least 
at first. And we now have well-moneyed think tank talking heads who 
preach that the only consequence of heroin addiction is a mild case of 
constipation. That it is our drug laws that are dangerous not the 
drugs. In such an environment, we should not be too surprised that an 
increasing number of young people should be persuaded that heroin is 
okay.
  Communities in Plano, Texas and Orlando, Florida learned this to 
their dismay when dozens of high school kids died from heroin 
overdoses. I can think of no pain greater than that of a parent who 
must bid farewell forever to a child. It is somehow contrary to the 
natural order for a parent to precede a child in death. But the pain of 
addiction is a spreading circle of hurt. The hearing I held today on 
this problem brought this point home in the voices of those most 
affected: addicts and their families.
  The legislation that I offer today will help us address this new 
problem before it gets any worse. I am proposing that we look at the 
means to improve our prevention message to stop drug use before it 
starts. I hope to revitalize community and parent involvement.
  I am also proposing increased resources for addiction research and 
ways to get the best information and best practices into the hands of 
the professionals who must deal with addiction problems.

[[Page S3736]]

  In addition, I am calling for a new initiative to support juvenile 
residential treatment programs that work. Current research shows that 
we need more focused, long-term critical intervention for young addicts 
to break the cycle of addiction today before it becomes a worse problem 
tomorrow. Investment now means better chances for young people and for 
all of us later.
  It's not just a new heroin that plagues us. Designer drugs like 
methamphetamine and now Ecstasy are flooding this country. Along with 
heroin, these are marketed to our young people as safe and friendly. 
Left unanswered, we will see another generation of young lives 
blighted. We will see families torn up by a widening circle of hurt 
from drug use. We saw what a similar wave of drug use did to us and to 
a generaton of young people in the 1960s and 1970s. We cannot afford to 
go through this again. I hope we can begin today to renew our 
commitment to a drug free future for our young people. I ask my 
colleagues to join me in supporting the Drug Treatment and Research 
Enhancement Act.

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