[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 4513-4514]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1500

                          GHB--DATE RAPE DRUG

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. 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, I am back again. I am back 
again because young people are still dying from the date rape drug 
called GHB. I do, however, want to thank the gentleman from Michigan 
(Mr. Upton), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and 
Investigations, and the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Klink), the 
ranking member, for having me before the Subcommittee on Oversight and 
Investigations on the dangerous effects of GHB.
  It is an important topic to me because young people are still losing 
their lives, and parents are not informed of the dangerousness of GHB. 
This uncontrolled substance has been used to commit date rape by 
rendering victims helpless to defend themselves against attack. But Mr. 
Speaker, teenagers, teenagers who have no history of drug use are 
dying.
  So I thank the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Bliley), the chairman of 
the Committee on Commerce Chairman and the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. 
Dingell), the ranking member, and encourage a quick hearing on this 
matter, along with the Subcommittee on Health and the Environment of 
the Committee on Commerce, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis), 
and certainly I thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. McCollum), 
chairman of the Subcommittee on Crime, of which I sit on the Committee 
on the Judiciary, and let me thank my colleague, the gentleman from 
Michigan (Mr. Stupak), because we are committed to working together.
  The GHB legislation that I am sponsoring, H.R. 75, is named in honor 
of a 17-year-old from my community, Hillary J. Farias from LaPorte, 
Texas. Hillary died from an overdose of GHB that was put in her soda in 
a teenage nondrinking club on August 5, 1996. The gentlemen from 
Michigan (Mr. Upton) and (Mr. Stupak) have seen the same kinds of 
deaths in Michigan.
  My bill, H.R. 75, directs the Attorney General to schedule GHB as a 
Schedule I drug and to establish programs throughout the country to 
educate young people about the use of controlled substances. The DEA 
has been working to place this drug on Schedule I of the Controlled 
Substances Act at the Federal level, and we are looking

[[Page 4514]]

forward to the testing and report by the Food and Drug Administration.
  Do we realize that the GHB formula is on the Internet and it is made 
by the tub loads for these parties around the Nation. We realize that 
young people who have never been drug users are silently using this by 
way of those who think it is a joke or would like to see them 
immobilized and are dropping this in their nonalcoholic drinks. It has 
no taste or smell.
  Scheduling the drug on the Federal Controlled Substances Act allows 
Federal prosecutors to punish anyone who uses the drug under the Drug 
Induced Rape Prevention and Punishment Act. Certainly, it would 
prohibit these untimely and tragic deaths. Specifically, my bill would 
increase the sentence for someone using GHB to commit a sex crime to 20 
years imprisonment.
  GHB has been used to render victims helpless to defend against attack 
and it even erases any memory of the attack. It is responsible for as 
many as 60 emergency room admissions in the past 6 months in Houston.
  The recipe for this drug and its analogs can be accessed, as I said, 
on the Internet. In checking some of the web sites that focus on GHB, I 
was shocked to discover how easy it was to find misleading information 
on the effects on this drug. It is being touted as an anti-depressant, 
an aphrodisiac, a euphoriant, and as a sleep aid. One site even 
contends that the deaths attributable to GHB are actually caused by 
other underlying health problems.
  How about that? A 17-year-old volleyball player died with an overdose 
of GHB where a grandmother could not wake her the next morning, and she 
never made it to the hospital.
  I do believe if there are medicinal purposes for GHB, we can work 
through it. But the testimony last week before the subcommittee showed 
there is great evidence from law enforcement, DEA and other victims to 
suggest we must do something about GHB. I am looking forward to working 
with my colleagues, Mr. Stupak and Mr. Upton and Mr. Klink, Mr. Bliley 
and Mr. Dingell and Mr. Bilirakis to ensure that we stop this siege 
now.
  Oh, yes, many people will say too many laws, but there are never 
enough laws to save our teenagers. What do we say to a family who says, 
she was a good kid, she never took drugs, she was athletic. I know she 
would not do this to herself, and yet she is now dead, along with other 
teenagers younger than her.
  So as a mother and a legislator, I urge my colleagues to support this 
legislation and our efforts to protect women from violent sexual 
assault and as well, those innocent victims who now have lost their 
lives. We can do no less in tribute to them. Let us move this 
legislation, this collaborative legislation that we can work together 
on swiftly, quickly, fast, expeditiously, so that we can go on record 
in this Congress for saving young lives.

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