[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 10607-10608]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



          ILLEGAL NARCOTICS AND DRUG ABUSE IN THE WAR ON DRUGS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 1999, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mica) is recognized 
for half of the time until midnight as the designee of the majority 
leader.
  Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, my colleagues, I come to the floor tonight 
with just a few minutes remaining before the magic hour of midnight 
when the House adjourns. I know the hour is late and my colleagues are 
tired and staff is tired, but I always try on Tuesday nights to address 
the House on the subject of illegal narcotics and drug abuse and the 
ravages that has placed upon our Nation.
  We heard earlier a resolution relating to music; and as I sat and 
heard the speakers talk about music and the importance of music in 
people's lives, I translated that also into the thought that there are 
15,973 Americans who died as a direct result of illegal narcotics in 
the latest statistical year, 1998. None of those individuals will ever 
hear music again.
  The drug czar has told us that over 52,000 people die as a result of 
direct and indirect causes of illegal narcotics, and none of those 
people will hear music in their lives. In fact, the only lives that the 
parents, mothers and fathers and sisters and brothers will hear are 
funeral dirges and, unfortunately, that music for funerals over the 
victims of drug abuse and misuse. That music is much too loud across 
our land and repeated over and over.
  It is equivalent for our young people to three Columbines every day 
across this country. And the latest statistics, and I would like to 
cite them, each week I come before the House to confirm that this 
situation is getting worse, rather than better. The latest report that 
we have on drug use being up is from USA Today, June 8, 2000, just a 
few days ago. This is an Associated Press story, and it is from the 
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report from the Center in 
Atlanta. They just released this report. The story says cocaine, 
marijuana, and cigarette use among high school students consistently 
increased during the 1990s according to a government survey.
  The report went on to say the increases in smoking and drug use came 
despite years of government-funded media campaigns urging teenagers to 
stay clean and sober. The record, again, from CDC went on to say that 
in 1991, 14.7 percent of the students surveyed said that they used 
marijuana. This was a survey involving 15,349 students in grade 9 
through 12. That number steadily increased to some 26.7 percent in 
1999, and students reporting that they tried marijuana at least once 
increased from 31.3 percent in 1991 to 47.2 percent in 1999; and in 
1991, 1.7 percent of the students surveyed said they had used cocaine 
at least once in the prior month.
  By 1999, that number rose to 4 percent. Those who had tried cocaine, 
who had at least tried cocaine, increased from 5.9 percent in 1991 to 
9.5 percent in 1999. The latest survey on drug use and abuse by the 
Centers for Disease Control, again, confirms the problem that we are 
facing across the land, and this is with cocaine, marijuana, and 
cigarettes.
  Of course, some of you may have seen this headline in the Washington 
papers, Suburban Teen Heroin Use On The Increase, and suburban teen 
heroin use and youth use of heroin and deadly, more purer heroin than 
we have seen back in the 1980s when we had single digit purity levels 
are now reaching some 70 percent and 80 percent deadly purity are 
affecting our young people; that deadly highly pure heroin is affecting 
our young people across the land. The number of heroin users in the 
United States has increased from 500,000 in 1996 to 980,000 in 1999.

                              {time}  2350

  The rate of use by children age 12 to 17 is extremely alarming. It 
increased from less than 1 in 1,000 in the 1980s to 2.7 per 1,000 in 
1996. First-time heroin users are getting younger. They averaged some 
26 years of age in 1991, now down to 17 years of age by 1997. Some of 
the latest statistics on drug use and abuse of heroin.
  I also have the latest DAWN interagency domestic heroin threat 
assessment, which was produced in February of this year, and it shows 
the emergency department heroin related incidents involving 12 to 17-
year-olds. From 1991 it was around 182, 1992, 232, and that soared in 
1997 to 1,397 mentions, again, dramatic increases. We see from CDC, we 
see from the DAWN heroin report, drugs across the board.
  That does not take into account our most recent epidemic, which is 
the problem of Ecstacy. I recently conducted a hearing in Central 
Florida on the problem of club drugs and designer drugs, Ecstacy, and 
we find that now we have another raging epidemic of drug use featured 
in Time Magazine, which is this past week's edition. ``The lure of 
Ecstacy,'' one of the designer drugs of choice for our young people, 
which we barely had mention of a year or two ago, and now we have 
incredible incidence of drug use of Ecstacy and abuse of Ecstacy and 
other designer drugs among our young people.
  The problems created by these illegal narcotics are pretty dramatic 
to our society. I cited the 15,973 deaths, and that in itself is 
serious, but the cost to our society is a quarter of a trillion dollars 
a year, plus incarceration of tens of thousands of individuals who 
commit felonies under the influence of illegal narcotics. How did we 
get ourselves into this situation?


                Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Terry). The gentleman from Florida (Mr. 
Mica) is recognized for the remainder of the time.
  Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, how did we get ourselves into this situation? 
How did we get the flood of illegal narcotics coming in, in 
unprecedented amounts, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, designer 
drugs, in a torrent which we have never before seen?
  Someone mentioned to me, a visiting female constituent from Florida, 
``You know, I haven't heard the President talk much about a war on 
drugs, and many people lately have said the war on drugs is a 
failure.'' In this discussion, I said, ``You know, I think you are 
right. I don't think we have really heard the President speak either to 
the Congress or to the American people about the war on drugs.''
  In this little search that I had conducted by our staff, we went 
through all of the times that President Clinton has publicly mentioned 
the war on drugs since taking office. We did a search of all of his 
public speeches and statements. We find eight mentions in 7 years; two 
in 1993, March 18, 1993, and April 28, 1993, and that during the 
appointment primarily of his new Drug Czar, who turned out to be a 
disaster, or as the President was gutting the drug czar's office from 
some 130 positions to some less than 30 positions.
  We hear other mentions, just casual mentions, about once per year of 
a war on drugs. That is basically because this administration has 
closed down the war on drugs.
  Finally, the last time we can find a mention of the President, once 
last year, February 15, 1999, mentioning the war on drugs in casual 
passing.
  In fact, the war on drugs was closed down by the Clinton 
Administration with the appointment of the chief health officer of the 
United States, the Surgeon General, Jocelyn Elders, who adopted the 
``Just Say Maybe,'' which, again, we can look at the statistics of drug 
abuse and misuse by our young people reaching record proportions. They 
understand a message or lack of a message from the highest office of 
our land to the highest health office of our land.

[[Page 10608]]

  The close-down on the war on drugs continued on the international 
scene. I do not have time to get into all the statistics tonight, but 
there is no question that this administration closed down the 
international programs that were so successful under the Reagan and 
Bush Administrations, that stopped drugs at their source, that stopped 
drugs before they came in to the United States and came in to our 
borders.
  What is sad is they perpetuated a myth that the war on drugs has been 
a failure, and some of their policies, again, closing down the efforts 
to stop drugs at their source, have resulted in an incredible volume of 
heroin, cocaine, coming into the United States.
  The most dramatic example, of course, is Colombia. For 6 or 7 years 
now this administration has done everything possible to stop resources, 
assistance, right up until the last few months, from getting to 
Colombia, and even the efforts to get equipment, resources, there, 
surplus materials, equipment authorized by the Congress, has been a 
bungled effort. That has had some direct impact.
  Colombia in 1992-1993 almost produced zero cocaine. There was almost 
no coca produced in Colombia. There was almost zero, none produced, of 
heroin. The poppies were almost nonexistent except for floral bouquets 
when this administration adopted its policy of stopping assistance in 
aid and drug combatting resources getting to Colombia. Now we are 
overwhelmed with the sheer volume.
  If that did not do enough damage, the policy of this administration 
is revealed in this Dallas Morning News article that appeared March 13, 
2000, about going after drug traffickers. ``Federal drug offenders 
spending less time in prison, study finds.''
  Now, liberal papers like the New York Times would have you believe 
that everyone who puffed a joint or was guilty of some minor possession 
would be behind bars. In fact, recently I have heard that comment after 
they editorialized and said we have to do away with the harsh 
Rockefeller laws.
  Our subcommittee in fact found that you really have to work hard to 
get in prison on a drug offense in the State of New York; that in fact 
70 percent of the people behind bars, according to the most recent and 
most extensive study ever taken by judicial officials in New York that 
was revealed to our committee, are in jail for committing two or more 
felonies. Of the 30 percent who remain, they have committed at least 
one felony, and very few of those who were in prison on lesser charges 
are there because of small possessions of drugs. In fact, most of them 
that are there on lower charges, the study found, are there because the 
charge was reduced. It was plea bargained down.
  So we have people who have committed in fact multiple felonies and 
serious offenses behind bars for these offenses. Our prisons and jails 
in New York, in particular, this study confirms, are not there because 
of minor drug offenses.
  Unfortunately, tonight we do not have time to get into further 
detail. We will try to do that in subsequent special orders and update 
the Congress, you, Mr. Speaker, and my colleagues on these issues, to 
try to separate fact from fiction and shed some light on how we can do 
a better job in a multifaceted approach to bringing one of the most 
serious social challenges we have ever faced as a Nation or a Congress 
under control.
  With those comments, unfortunately, my time has expired, and the 
business of the House has been completed.

                          ____________________