Purporting that adolescent drug use has reached “epidemic” levels, a joint hearing of the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth and Families, and the House Government Reform and Oversight Subcommittee on National Security was held today.
Those testifying before the House included Former Administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Robert Bonner, Executive Vice President of the Parents’ Resource Institute for Drug Education (PRIDE) Douglas Hall, Ohio Congressman Rob Portman, and others.
Hall’s appearance before the committees coincided with the release of a 1996 PRIDE survey indicating rising levels of adolescent illicit drug use. According to the study, nearly 38 percent of high school seniors reported trying marijuana once within the past year. “Drug use by today’s teenagers is not just part of growing up, a youthful indiscretion,” said Hall. “More students are using more drugs more frequently, and their use is more hardcore than we have ever seen.”
“Ladies and gentleman, drugs kill,” announced Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, Chairman of the House Subcommittee on Early Childhood, Youth and Families. “It is more important than ever to be absolutely uncompromising about this message.” “This hearing was nothing other than a pre-election dog and pony show,” said NORML Deputy Director Allen St. Pierre. “Despite claims from both parties that spending toward anti-drug efforts have been slashed, federal figures demonstrate that annual federal drug control spending increased from less than five billion in 1988 to more than 15 billion for fiscal year 1997. According to government statistics, illicit drug use during this period of time has remained virtually unchanged among adults and actually risen slightly among adolescents. We cannot continue to keep throwing money at the problem and arresting record numbers of adult users and expect any sort of tangible results.”
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre of NORML at (202) 483-5500.