Date: 1988-09-07
Speaker: DE LUGO (democrat)
Chamber: H

Mr. Chairman. not too long ago. drugs were a problem for only a few people in the territories and commonwealths. Today. they are a problem for every island resident. The need to get money to buy drugs and the big money that can be made selling them has spawned a vicious. new type of crime in the islands. Ruthless and brutal drug crime has victimized family after family. Violent crime rates in some islands actually range to double the national average or more. Police estimate that threequarters of thes. crimes are drug related. And this is an insular problem that doesnt Just affect the people of the islands. It affects their fellow Americans in the States as well. This is because drug abuse in the islands is often a byproduct of international trafficking. Drugs are shipped to the islands primarily to be transhipped to the States. The U.S. insular areas are the Nations insular borders in the Caribbean and the Pacific. They are also the least protected of the Nations borders. Drug traffickers know this. In recent years. they have used our islands to smuggle their deadly goods to the large and lucrative U.S. market. My home islands. the Virgin Islands. are right on the smugglers route from South America to the United States. Drug crime is too big a problem for insular governments to handle alone. They lack the resources and capability needed to fight it. To provide the needed help. our colleagues from the other Insular areas and I sponsored the U.S. Insular Areas Drug Abuse Act of 1986. Unfortunately. though. the administration hasnt implemented this law as intended. The authorized spending for Puerto Rico was appropriated. but the administration made me fight hard to get the $4 million that was authorized for the Virgin Islands. Further. none of the special assistance authorized for the Pacific has been appropriated. H 7092 Co The Customs Service has finally agreed to station an aerostat radar for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. but ye are still waiting for the Coast Guard to station a patrol vessel in St. Croix Tht administration hasnt given us the J irst required report on insular drug problems. even though its almost time for the second. Meanwhile. insular drug problems have gotten worse. New types of drugs. like the killer crack. are coming in. Over the past 5 years. Palau has developed a staggering heroin problem so serious that it is spilling over to Guam and other United States areas as well. According to the Drug Eiiforcement Administration and the World Health Organization. hundreds of Palaus 15.000 people may have used heroin. So. as chairman of the Insular and International Affairs Subcommittee. I sponsored the Insular Areas Drug Amendments of 1988. Our other colleagues from the insular areas. Fofo Sunia. JAIME FUSTER. and BEN BLAz joined me in sponsoring this bill. Its intent was to build upon the 1986 law by providing ongoing attention to the Nations drug problems in the insular areas. A hearing I held on our bill underscored the need for it. Testimony from witnesses such as Governors Alexander Farrelly of the Virgin Islands and Joseph Ada of Guam. Lt. Gov. Eni Hunkin of American Samoa. and senate president Iver Strldiron of the Virgin Islands as well as Reagan administration officials made it clear that the insular drug problem has become serious and has worsened. The hearing also made it clear that Federal law enforcement agencies are doing little about the problem. shortsightedly not fully recognizing how it fits in to the drug problem faced by the Nation. With the support of the subcommittees ranking Republican. BoB LArOMTARsINO. full committee chairman Mo UDALL. as well as the Speaker and the majority and minority leaders. almost all of our bills provisions have been included the bill we are debating today. the Omnibus Drug Initiative Act of 1988. Subtitle C of title V would allocate more money. training. and equipment for insular drug abuse control efforts. It would dedicate these resources on a longterm basis. Assistance would be provided for locally developedbut federally approvedcomprehensive drug abuse plans. The few differences between the omnibus bill and the bill we initially in. troduced reflect agreements with the minority and the Judiciary Committee. The bill would provide help for insular drug law enforcement. But it also recognizes that fighting drug crime is just one of the ways we must battle drug abuse. Education and rehabilitation are Just as important as law enforcement