Speech by Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-Minnesota), March 29, 2000

Speech by Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-Minnesota), March 29, 2000
AMENDMENT NO. 3 OFFERED BY MR. RAMSTAD
Mr. RAMSTAD. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

The CHAIRMAN. The Clerk will designate the amendment.

The text of the amendment is as follows:

Part B Amendment No. 3 offered by Mr. Ramstad:

Page 2, strike line 1 and all that follows through page 9, line 4.

The CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to House Resolution 450, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Ramstad) and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) each will control 10 minutes.

The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Ramstad).

Mr. RAMSTAD. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment would strike title I, the entire $1.7 billion in counternarcotics funding for Colombia. We have already spent over $600 million to eradicate drugs at their source in Colombia, and what has been the result? A recent study on our effort in Colombia shows that both cocaine and heroin production in Colombia have more than doubled. That has been the result.

Colombia is now the source of 80 percent of the cocaine and 75 percent of the heroin coming into the United States, both significant increases, the $600 million spent notwithstanding. That is what $600 million in Colombia has done, Mr. Chairman.

Now, tonight, we are being asked to spend almost $2 billion to escalate the war on drugs in Colombia. This is misdirected public policy; and it is simply wrong, when 58 percent of drug addicts who seek treatment here in our country are being denied treatment.

Let us face it, our drug eradication and interdiction efforts have been a costly and a colossal failure.

As a former United States Navy lieutenant commander, Sylvester Salcedo, who was involved in the Colombia effort as the Navy intelligence officer for 3 years, said today right outside this Capitol, `The $1.7 billion,' and I am quoting now, `proposed for drug eradication and interdiction in Colombia is good money thrown after bad.'

Lieutenant Commander Salcedo also said, and I am quoting, `We cannot make progress on the drug problem by increasing our failed effort in Colombia.' Let me repeat that. Somebody who was there 3 years in the Colombia effort, Lieutenant Commander Salcedo, said, `We cannot make progress on the drug problem by increasing our failed effort in Colombia.' Instead, he said we should confront the issue of demand here at home by providing treatment to our addicts in our own country.

Mr. Chairman, we need to listen to this veteran of the war on drugs who added, `Washington should not spend its money on more helicopters but on treatment for addicts. The $400 million cost of the helicopters alone in this bill would provide treatment for 200,000 Americans addicted to drugs.'

Mr. Chairman, when President Richard Nixon first declared war on drugs in 1971, he directed 60 percent of the funding to treatment. To date, we are down to 18 percent for treatment. That is right. Sixty-six percent on the supply side, eradication, interdiction, border patrol. Sixty-six percent on the supply side; 16 percent for education and prevention; and 18 percent for treatment.

That is why over half the treatment beds available 10 years ago are gone. That is why 58 percent of the addicts seeking treatment last year were denied access. Our priorities in the war on drugs are wrong, and they are not working. Instead of spending two-thirds of our resources on the supply side and one-third on the demand side, those should clearly be reversed.

The bottom line is this, Mr. Chairman, we will never curb the drug epidemic until we curb the insatiable demand for drugs here at home. The drug problem goes much deeper than illegal drugs coming into our Nation. The fundamental problem is the addiction that causes people to crave and demand drugs.

Mr. Chairman, this is a defining moment in the 30-year effort to curb illegal drug use in America. We can keep pumping money into the eradication and interdiction dead end; or we can get serious, and we can shift our focus and resources to the drug addiction problem here at home.

It is time to reject the $1.7 billion for the failed policy in Colombia. It is time to redirect those dollars to drug treatment here at home. Congress needs to just say no to this Colombia boondoggle.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

As of March 30, 2000, this document was also available online at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r106:H29MR0-173: