Speech by Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Florida), March 29, 2000

Speech by Rep. C.W. Bill Young (R-Florida), March 29, 2000
Mr. YOUNG of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, I reluctantly oppose the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Ramstad), and I know the emotion with which he offers this amendment. But I have to tell him that it was very disturbing when I listened to him say that this money would provide treatment for 200,000 addicts. I think, Mr. Chairman, that our goal here should be to eliminate that terrible drug that is causing these addicts, that the addicts are getting addicted to.

We need to destroy the fields where these poppies are growing. We need to destroy the mountain sites where the coca is growing. We need to eliminate the source of the drug. That way, if we dry up the source, we do a lot better than treating 200,000 addicts. What we will do is try to prevent 200,000 more people from becoming addicts. That is what we need to do.

Now, if we wanted to get rid of posse comitatus and let the United States military use its full force against the drug growers and the drug lords, that might be a way to solve this problem. But no one is going to repeal posse comitatus.

Or if we wanted to triple or quadruple the size of the United States Coast Guard and give them more helicopters and more ships and more manpower to interdict, we might be able to be a little more effective.

But the effective way is to eliminate these drugs at the source. Let us eliminate the opportunity for those 200,000 addicts that the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Ramstad) talked about. Let us eliminate the source of the drug that caused them to be addicts.

Let us think about whose kids are going to be next. If the drug is on the street, whose kid is going to be next? Who is going to become the next addict? Who is going to become the next casualty because of an overdose of drugs? Who is going to be the next person shot, killed because of a drug bust gone bad or drug violence on the streets?

[Page: H1553]

[TIME: 1945]

Stop the drugs at the source. Defeat this amendment. I reserve the balance of my time.

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