Speech by Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minnesota), June 21, 2000

Speech by Sen. Paul Wellstone (D-Minnesota), June 21, 2000
Mr. WELLSTONE. I say to the Senator from Ohio, this effort to deal with the demand side and to get some substance abuse prevention and treatment moneys to our States and our communities, I have no doubt the Senator from Ohio is very committed to that. I look forward to working with him on this because, frankly, I think it is a scandal. We have so much evidence--Bill Moyers, the impressive journalist, has done such fine work on this--that we can treat this addiction, that we can make a huge difference. Senator Moynihan has spoken with such eloquence about the whole history of our efforts to constantly try to militarize and go for interdiction and not deal with the demand side. It is a completely one-sided proposition. I look forward to enlisting the support of my colleague from Ohio on this question. I know he will be there.

I will wait to respond to other Senators. I know Senator Durbin is going to speak and Senator Biden. As I listen to my colleagues, what I am hearing--and I think we should be explicit about this--is that this is not just a question of a kind of war on narcotics. Otherwise, we would be doing more on the demand side. This is a question of basically saying that we can't just focus on the police. We can't just provide help to the government for police action and building democratic institutions and economic development and every other kind of assistance possible. We have to directly provide the money for the military to basically conduct their anti-insurgency campaign in the southern part of Colombia with American advisers and support. I believe that means we are taking sides. If we are taking sides and we are now in the middle of this war, so be it. That is what I am hearing on the floor. I wanted to comment on that.

I retain the remainder of my time.

As of June 25, 2000, this document was also available online at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r106:S21JN0-36: