IV

107TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H. RES. 569

Expressing support for the President’s 2002 National Drug Control Strategy

to reduce illegal drug use in the United States.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

OCTOBER 2, 2002

Mr. SOUDER (for himself and Mr. CUMMINGS) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Government Reform, and

in addition to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, for a period to

be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee

concerned

RESOLUTION

Expressing support for the President’s 2002 National Drug

Control Strategy to reduce illegal drug use in the United

States.

Whereas nearly 20,000 Americans, many of them children,

die of drug-induced deaths, more than 52,000 Americans

die from drug-related causes, and more than 600,000

Americans visit hospital emergency rooms for drug-related episodes every year;

Whereas the United States has for years been one of the

largest consumers of illegal drugs in the world;

Whereas more than 50 percent of high school seniors have experimented with an illegal drug at least once prior to
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graduation, 2,800,000 Americans are considered to be

‘‘dependent’’ on illegal drugs, and an additional

1,500,000 are in the less severe ‘‘abuser’’ category;

Whereas the societal costs, including lost productivity, of the

illegal drug problem in America have reached a staggering $160,000,000,000 per year;

Whereas the United States is experiencing a dramatic increase in the potency of marijuana and sharply escalating

use of drugs such as methamphetamines, ‘‘club drugs’’

such as MDMA (‘‘ecstasy’’) and abuse of legally prescribed drugs such as Oxycontin;

Whereas the Office of National Drug Control Policy within

the Executive Office of the President was established by

the National Narcotics Leadership Act of 1988 to coordinate the Nation’s overall counter-narcotics efforts;

Whereas the United States has consistently and firmly supported a ‘‘balanced’’ approach in the war on drugs, and

the National Drug Control Strategy for 2002 calls for

stopping drug use before it starts through education and

community action, healing America’s drug users by getting treatment resources where they are needed, and disrupting the market by attacking the economic basis of

the drug trade;

Whereas more than 5,000 community anti-drug coalitions

across America have been created to bring together parents, teachers, coaches, mentors, business leaders, faithbased organizations, and Federal, State, and local governments to reduce drug use through effective grassroots

efforts;

Whereas the President of the United States has directed the

Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attor-
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ney General to better define and address the so-called

‘‘treatment gap’’ in America through increased and more

effective drug treatment facilities across America and by

convincing nearly 90 percent of drug abusers, particularly

adolescents, that they in fact need help;

Whereas the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign

plays an important role in reducing drug use and social

disapproval of drugs;

Whereas there is a well-established link between the profits

from the illegal drug trade and the financing of many of

the world’s leading terrorist organizations, including the

Taliban, al-Qaeda, and the Fuerzas Armadas

Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), and the illegal

narcotics trade has contributed directly to social and political instability and loss of innocent life in democratic

nations in the Andean region and around the world;

Whereas the United States Government and the House of

Representatives are working closely with allied nations to

stop the international production and transit of illegal

drugs and promote alternative development and means of

economic growth;

Whereas the capabilities of the United States Coast Guard,

the United States Customs Service, and the United

States Border Patrol are critical to our Nation’s drug

interdiction efforts and must be maintained at no less

than their current levels;

Whereas Federal, State, and local law enforcement agencies

are working diligently to enforce laws prohibiting the use

of illegal drugs and to interdict illegal drug traffic to the

United States;
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Whereas the Supreme Court of the United States decisively

reaffirmed that the Controlled Substances Act is binding

national law in United States v. Oakland Cannabis Buyers’ Collective, 532 U.S. 483 (2001); and

Whereas the use of illegal drugs has been decisively rejected

by the American people as inconsistent with the general

welfare of the United States and individual dignity: Now,

therefore, be it

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives—

2 (1) expresses its support for the President of

3 the United States and the Office of National Drug

4 Control Policy in the goal to reduce drug use in

5 America by 10 percent during the next 2 years and

6 25 percent during the next 5 years;

7 (2) calls on all Americans to join in the effort

8 to prevent, reduce, and reject illegal drug use in

9 America by talking to children about the dangers

10 and consequences of illegal drug use and encour11 aging other responsible adults to do the same in

12 their families and communities;

13 (3) calls on the President, the Secretary of

14 State, the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney Gen15 eral, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Secretary of

16 Health and Human Services, the Secretary of

17 Transportation, the Director of the Office of Na18 tional Drug Control Policy, and the heads of sub19 sidiary agencies (including the Drug Enforcement
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1 Administration, the United States Customs Service,

2 the United States Coast Guard, and the Substance

3 Abuse and Mental Health Administration) to work

4 together to effectively implement the 2002 National

5 Drug Control Strategy and continue to seek ways to

6 improve the coordination among Federal, State, and

7 local governments, nonprofit organizations, corpora8 tions, foreign governments, and private citizens to

9 reduce the demand for international supply of illegal

10 drugs in the United States;

11 (4) expresses its sense that narcotics control is

12 an integral part of homeland security and should be

13 a priority mission for any new Department of Home14 land Security;

15 (5) commends all Federal, State, and local gov16 ernment personnel working to combat illegal drug

17 use in the United States, as well as community lead18 ers who seek to make a difference across the United

19 States; and

20 (6) reaffirms the sense of the House of Rep21 resentatives against any use of narcotic and other

22 drugs in a manner inconsistent with the Controlled

23 Substances Act.

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