December 2, 1971
Page 44102
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, the pending legislation, Senate bill S. 2097, as amended, the Drug Abuse Office and Treatment Act of 1971, is truly landmark anti-drug legislation. It will restructure the entire national effort to combat drug abuse. It represents a major commitment to focus the resources of our Federal Government in an effort to deal with one of the most serious problems facing our Nation today.
This legislation represents a constructive compromise between legislation introduced earlier this year by Senator HUGHES and myself, with Senators JAVITS and WILLIAMS, and the administration's drug bill. It was reported unanimously by both the Committee on Government Operations and the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, and every member of those committees has joined in cosponsorship. In all, 52 Members of this body have cosponsored S. 2097, as amended.
The legislation before us today is a bipartisan compromise bill, worked out among Senators on both committees that reported it and the administration.
Mr. President, I must especially commend the outstanding work of the senior Senator from Connecticut (Mr. RIBICOFF) whose Subcommittee on Executive Reorganization and Government Research considered this bill jointly with my own Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations. Senator RIBICOFF's efforts were of valuable assistance on the development of the compromise bill.
I would also like to commend the efforts of Senator PERCY, the sponsor of the administration bill, Senator JAVITS and Senator GURNEY, for their effective work toward reaching this compromise. In particular, I would like to cite Senator HUGHES, who has long provided leadership in the Senate in this important area, for his efforts in helping to draft this compromise legislation.
In addition, Mr. President, I would like this body to take note of the anti-drug efforts of a Member of the other House, Representative JAMES H. SCHEUER, of New York, whose counsel was invaluable to me as we in the Senate were working toward this compromise legislation. Earlier this year, Congressman SCHEUER joined with me in introducing important drug legislation, the substance of which is incorporated in the bill we are considering today.
It is not difficult to understand why so many Senators, on both sides of the political aisle, have put political considerations aside to join in cosponsoring this bipartisan compromise, comprehensive drug legislation.
I am talking about the epidemic of heroin addiction which is infesting cities and towns across our land. I am talking about people twisted into addicts and lawbreakers
– About 1,000 babies born each year in New York City as addicts, helpless heirs to the terrible pain of their mothers' habit.
– About a section of New York City, where 18,000 men and women – out of a total population of 58,000 – are helpless slaves to the heroin habit.
– About the model cities area right here in Washington, a scant four blocks from this Chamber and just six blocks from the White House, where 24 percent of the boys between 15 and 19 years old, and 36 percent of the young men between 20 and 24, are addicted to heroin.
– About the soldiers who do not go to jail or flee to Canada – and are now carrying a horrible curse home to their towns and their families.
– About 250,000 or 300,000 Americans who attack countless fellow citizens and steal billions of dollars to feed an expensive, murderous, implacable addiction.
As the hearings Senator RIBICOFF's subcommittee and mine conducted during July revealed, heroin is still too easily available in too many places and Federal, State, and local programs together are reaching just a small percentage of America's addicts.
Mr. President, we were fortunate to have before us three significant pieces of legislation to deal with the drug problem:
The Muskie-Scheuer bill to create a White House level office to coordinate the Federal antidrug effort;
The administration bill, introduced by Senator PERCY, to bring together under a Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention major treatment, education, and research programs of the Federal Government, and
The Hughes-Muskie-Javits-Williams bill to create a White House office to coordinate and set policy for the Federal anti-drug effort and to devote significant resources to the treatment of heroin addiction.
The extensive hearings we conducted on those pieces of legislation convinced me that we needed a bill to restructure the Federal drug effort. As I said at the close of those hearings:
We need new ideas and new approaches to combat the drug problem. But most of all, we need the willingness on the part of the Administration to devote the resources necessary to deal with the problem.
For my part, I am more and more convinced that the legislation that finally emerges from the Congress should be of the order of the legislation that Senator Hughes and I, with Senators Javits and Williams, introduced to reform the entire Federal attack on dangerous drugs. For whatever bill emerges from the Congress must contain, as that bill does, hundreds of millions of new dollars to do the research and develop the programs that are needed to fight the war against narcotics.
The compromise legislation we are considering today embodies the principal elements of the Hughes-Muskie bill. I believe the compromise bill is significant in several respects.
First, it calls for the development of a comprehensive, coordinated long-term Federal strategy to combat drug abuse, providing, for the first time, a mechanism to develop a unified Federal policy against drug abuse, focusing all of our resources, including law enforcement, treatment, education, and research.
Second, the bill creates a Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention in the Executive Office of the President to pull together heretofore scattered Federal anti-drug programs. The special action office will be broad in scope, responsible for determining the Federal policy toward treatment, education, and research programs, for recommending and consulting on law enforcement policy and for coordinating all Federal drug programs.
Third, it requires that the Veterans' Administration provide treatment and rehabilitation services for any former servicemen suffering from drug addiction, no matter the status of their discharge and it requires the Civil Service Commission to develop treatment and rehabilitation programs for drug addicts employed by the Federal Government.
Fourth, it establishes a National Institute on Drug Abuse within the National Institute of Mental Health to admittees of State drug abuse programs, currently in NIMH.
Fifth, it creates two much-needed programs to aid the States and localities in developing anti-drug treatment and prevention programs of their own. The first of these provides funds, according to a formula, to the States to help them plan, establish, maintain, coordinate, and evaluate drug abuse programs. The need for this program was underscored by a survey Senator RIBICOFF and I took on behalf of our subcommittees, of State drug abuse programs, which indicated a great need among the States for learning more about the extent and nature of their drug problem and planning how to combat it:
The second of these provides funds for prevention and treatment programs in areas that we believe require special emphasis because they are of special importance. This program, for example, provides training seminars and educational programs for employees in the public and private sectors. It provides for vocational rehabilitation counseling, education and services for persons in treatment and rehabilitation programs. It provides for model and experimental treatment and rehabilitation programs within State and local criminal justice systems. It provides programs under which multi-disciplinary groups can determine causes of drug abuse in a specific area and then prescribe and implement methods for dealing with that problem. And it provides for research grants to develop new and better ways to prevent and treat drug abuse.
Mr. President, this legislation is no panacea for the drug problem that afflicts our Nation. But it will have a significant impact on the drug abuse problem.
This bill proves once again that outstanding legislation in the public interest is the result of a generally bipartisan effort. It is most significant that Senators on both sides of the political aisle have put partisan considerations aside in drafting this legislation to deal with one of the most serious problems facing our Nation today.