July 19, 1971
Page 25856
SENATOR MUSKIE SPEAKS ON DRUG ABUSE
Mr. EAGLETON. Mr. President, recently, in testmony delivered before the Foreign Relations Committee, the Senator from Maine (Mr. MUSKIE) discussed one of his drug control bills, S. 1944, to provide for international drug control assistance.
In his testimony, Senator MUSKIE emphasized the need for immediate action on the international as well as the domestic front if the traffic in illegal drugs is to be stopped. The Senator's testimony suggests some possible solutions to our massive drug problem, and to give it the widest possible circulation I ask unanimous consent that it be printed into the RECORD.
There being no objection, the testimony was ordered to be printed in the RECORD, as follows:
TESTIMONY OF SENATOR EDMUND S. MUSKIE
I want to thank the Committee for this opportunity to discuss my bill, S. 1944, to amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to provide for International Drug Control Assistance.
My bill authorizes the President to furnish bilateral assistance to any friendly foreign country, and to international organizations – such as the United Nations Special Fund for Drug Abuse Control – for the control or elimination of the production, processing, or distribution of narcotic and psychotropic drugs. It emphasizes crop substitution in opium-producing nations; new employment opportunities for those now engaged in opium production; assistance to law enforcement and government regulatory agencies; and treatment, rehabilitation, and preventive education programs suitable to diverse cultures.
This bill is similar to legislation introduced by Representative Scheuer in the House (H.R. 7492), with whom I have been working closely. It is also similar to portions of Senator Mondale's bill (S. 509) and Senator Church's bill (S. 1188) which I also support.
Mr. Chairman, we must bring opium production under control. The narcotics plague in this nation has reached such proportions that any delay in our efforts to destroy it can only have devastating effects on our people.
I am talking about the evil white powder Stewart Alsop calls the "city killer” – the powder that produces half of our crime and most of the fear which stalks our streets.
I am talking about the epidemic of heroin – the sickness of an addiction which has already afflicted people in every part of our country.
And I am talking about the countless condemned Americans:
About 1,000 babies born each year in New York City as addicts, helpless heirs to the terrible pain of their mother's habit. About the thousands of veterans exposed to heroin in Vietnam who are now carrying a horrible curse home to their families and our towns.
About more than 100,000 despondent and disillusioned people whose health and will and hope have been shattered almost beyond repair.
We have not done enough to cope with that problem. But we have made a beginning. Last year, the Congress authorized nearly a quarter of a billion dollars for narcotics treatment and prevention programs over the next two fiscal years. In May I introduced a bill (S. 1945) also introduced by Rep. Scheuer, to create a special White House Office to coordinate the drug fight here at home and around the world.
I am pleased that the Administration has finally decided to follow up on these congressional initiatives. I commend the President for reversing his earlier decision and requesting the money Congress has authorized for treatment. And I am pleased that the President has sent up legislation similar to the Muskie-Scheuer bill to create an Office of Drug Abuse Control.
But narcotics addiction is not just an American problem. Opium and its derivatives are used by addicts all over the world, and in some areas the per capita consumption of narcotics is a good deal larger than in the United States. As long as poppy is grown to supply addicts and users in these foreign areas, some opium will be available and will be utilized to supply the demand for opiates in this country. Thus, if the United States is ever to control narcotics addiction in this country, we must participate in a meaningful way in an international effort to control or eliminate opium production wherever it exists.
Today, the major international treaty which relates to the drug trade is the single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961.
This convention is primarily designed to control the production of opium for legitimate medicinal purposes – for such drugs as morphine and codeine. The single convention is supervised by the International Narcotics Control Board which reports to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.
In one sense, the single convention must be considered a great success. Opium grown in India, Turkey, and the USSR for medicinal use does not enter the illicit market once it is collected by the governments concerned. The problem is with opium which never passes through official channels. From the American point of view, this problem has been particularly serious in Turkey, which until recently has been estimated to supply 80% of the illegal opium that reaches our shores.
For this reason, I was particularly gratified by the announcement yesterday of Turkey's decision to eliminate opium production in 1972. Representative Scheuer and I had urged the Administration in a letter of April 29 to negotiate with the Turkish Government a reduction this fall of the opium producing provinces to 3 or 4 and a total ban of all production by 1972.
Yesterday we issued a statement congratulating the Administration for its success in arriving at just such an agreement and praising the Turkish Government for taking this major step in helping to curb the world-wide heroin trade.
I hope the Administration will follow up on this agreement by assisting Turkey in the difficult task of enforcing such a ban. The problem of law enforcement is all the more difficult when one considers that enough opium to supply all addicts in America today could be produced in a 5 to 10 square mile area. The United States is in a unique position to give Turkey the technical and financial assistance necessary to enforce the opium production ban, as would be provided by the Muskie-Scheuer bill.
But even if Turkish opium supplies to the illegal market are eliminated, a broad international approach to the problem will still be required. The successful elimination of Turkish sources would probably not cut significantly the flow of illegal drugs into the United States. Dealers in illicit drugs have demonstrated remarkable flexibility in replacing sources of supply that have been eliminated. And new sources of supply are easy to find. Most of the world's supply of illegal opium is produced in the far east. Burma, Laos, and Thailand account for more than half of the illegal world supply, with the Afghanistan-Pakistan region running second. The elimination of opium production in these areas will no doubt prove even more difficult than the Turkish case, since production usually occurs in remote areas over which the central government has inadequate administrative control, and since opium is often the only cash crop which can be both grown in these areas and transported to markets.
In fact, there is evidence now accumulating that the poppy fields of southeast Asia are contributing more and more to the heroin epidemic in the United States. And that is directly connected to our tragic involvement in the war in southeast Asia.
During the last few years, as production of opium gum has been gradually reduced in Turkey, the number of heroin addicts on the streets of American cities has nonetheless doubled, tripled, and quadrupled. And so has drug-related crime. In 1967, for example, the President's National Crime Commission reported that less than 10% of the persons arrested for serious crimes in New York City were addicts. Today, in cities like New York or Washington, half or more of the serious crimes are committed by addicts.
The spread of the heroin epidemic in America corresponds precisely to the escalation of our involvement in the war in southeast Asia.
The amount of illegal narcotics being smuggled into this country from southeast Asia has already reached shocking proportions. The Bureau of Customs has recently announced that between the beginning of March and April 24 of this year, it made 248 seizures of narcotics through Army and Air Force post offices. One package it seized originating in Bangkok contained 17 pounds of heroin, an amount valued at $1.75 million when sold on the street.
One of the most disturbing aspects of the drug traffic in southeast Asia is that it is apparently carried on, to a considerable degree, right under the noses of American officials, and many of its kingpins are evidently corrupt officials receiving American assistance. These facts were contained in a remarkable study compiled by Reps. Morgan F. Murphy (D-IIl.) and Robert H. Steele (R-Conn.) for the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.
The report alleged, for example, that the Laotian and South Vietnamese air forces are deeply involved in smuggling heroin into South Vietnam. It also said that Air America planes have been used to smuggle heroin, although it adds that there is no evidence to link American officials or an American agency to the smuggling activities. And the report claims that the Laotian tribesmen, who with U.S. aid are fighting the Communists, are principal growers of poppy.
But most alarming, the report alleges that official corruption among our allies in southeast Asia plays an important role in the drug traffic that is destroying the social and economic fabric of our cities here at home. Though they say it is difficult to assess the extent of corruption, Murphy and Steele report:
Reliable sources report that at least two high-ranking Laotian officials, military and governmental, including chief of the Laotian general staff, are deeply involved in the heroin business.
In Thailand, a former diplomat and member of one of the most respected Thai families is reputed to be one of the key figures in the opium, morphine base, and heroin operations in that country and throughout southeast Asia.
Recently, a member of the South Vietnamese legislature and friend of high-ranking governmental officials, was arrested smuggling heroin into Vietnam. The U.S. military command has supplied Ambassador Bunker with the names of high-ranking Vietnamese officials it suspects of involvement in the heroin trade, and believes the corruption has reached the point where only forceful intervention by President Thieu can succeed in checking the traffic.
There have also been reports that Vice President Ky is implicated in the current heroin trade. The study mission was unable to find any evidence to support this allegation.
Mr. Chairman, this burgeoning narcotics traffic in southeast Asia cannot go unchecked. If it is in the interest of our national security to save the people of southeast Asia from Communism, it is certainly in our interest to save our citizens from the devastation of heroin addiction. Certainly, a first step for the United States in the war against drug addiction must be to pull our troops out of southeast Asia by the end of this year.
But, we must go further; we must demand that, as a condition of receiving further economic assistance, that our allies in southeast Asia smash the heroin traffic within their borders. They must root the corruption out of their own governments, arrest and convict the financiers of heroin traffic and the distributors of illegal drugs, and engage in aggressive programs to substitute other cash crops for the cultivation of poppy.
To engage in such a program will require massive assistance from the United States and from international organizations such as the United Nations special fund for drug abuse. A massive program to eradicate illegal drug traffic in southeast Asia must become a principal aim of our foreign assistance program to that part of the world. And it is to create a mechanism for such a program that S. 1944 must be enacted.
Mr. Chairman, I have been emphasizing that a true solution to the problem of drug abuse will be reached only through international cooperation involving the support of both producing and consuming countries. Later this year, in my Subcommittee on Arms Control, International Law and Organization, I hope to hold hearings on a range of programs in international organizations, and on possible changes in international treaties, for better control of the illegal drug trade. At that time, I hope to be able to supplement the efforts you are making here today, and that the Congress will be making in the coming months, to fight the drug crisis in the nation.
Drug addiction and related criminal activities will become worse before they will lessen. We must move to stop the illegal drug traffic – domestically and internationally. And we must move quickly.
Thank you very much for granting me the opportunity to testify.