IIB 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2134 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
DECEMBER 9, 2009 
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations 
AN ACT 
To establish the Western Hemisphere Drug Policy 
Commission. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Western Hemisphere 
Drug Policy Commission Act of 2009’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) According to the Substance Abuse and Men-
tal Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) 
National Survey on Drug Use and Health, in 2008 
in the United States, there were an estimated 
25,768,000 users of marijuana, 5,255,000 users of 
cocaine, 850,000 users of methamphetamine, and 
453,000 users of heroin. 
(2) Nearly 100 percent of the United States co-
caine supply originates in the Andean countries of 
Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru and over 90 percent of 
the United States heroin supply originates in Colom-
bia and Mexico. 
(3) In those countries, the cultivation, produc-
tion and trafficking of cocaine and heroin generate 
violence, instability and corruption. 
(4) In the transit countries of Central America, 
Mexico, Venezuela, Ecuador, Haiti, and other Carib-
bean countries, drug trafficking is central to the 
growing strength of organized criminals to threaten 
local and national law enforcement, political institu-
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tions, citizen security, rule of law, and United States 
security and interests. 
(5) Drug-related violence is on the rise in Mex-
ico and along the United States-Mexico border. 
5,661 people died in Mexico in 2008 alone as a re-
sult of drug-related violence. This is more than dou-
ble the 2007 total of 2,773. 
(6) According to the Department of State’s 
June 2009 Trafficking in Persons report, organized 
criminal networks in Mexico also ‘‘traffic Mexican 
women and girls into the United States for commer-
cial sexual exploitation’’. 
(7) Extremist groups and their supporters in 
the Western Hemisphere, including the Revolu-
tionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and 
Hezbollah, often use drug trafficking to finance ter-
rorist activities. 
(8) From 1980–2008, United States counter-
narcotics assistance from the State and Defense De-
partments to Latin America and the Caribbean to-
taled about $11,300,000,000. 
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SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF WESTERN HEMISPHERE DRUG 
POLICY COMMISSION. 
There is established an independent commission to be 
known as the ‘‘Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commis-
sion’’ (in this Act referred to as the ‘‘Commission’’). 
SEC. 4. PURPOSE. 
The Commission shall review and evaluate United 
States policy regarding illicit drug supply reduction and 
interdiction, with particular emphasis on international 
drug policies and programs directed toward the countries 
of the Western Hemisphere, along with foreign and do-
mestic demand reduction policies and programs. The Com-
mission shall identify policy and program options to im-
prove existing international and domestic counternarcotics 
policy. 
SEC. 5. DUTIES OF THE COMMISSION. 
(a) REVIEW OF ILLICIT DRUG SUPPLY REDUCTION 
AND DEMAND REDUCTION POLICIES.—The Commission 
shall conduct a comprehensive review of United States pol-
icy regarding illicit drug supply reduction, interdiction, 
and demand reduction policies and shall, at a minimum, 
address the following topics: 
(1) An assessment of United States inter-
national illicit drug control policies in the Western 
Hemisphere. 
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