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The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Gutknecht). Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Mica] is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. MICA. Mr. Speaker, I come to the House floor tonight to talk about President Clinton and this administration's supposedly new policy relating to national drug control strategy.

Yesterday the President was in my State, and I was somewhat excited about the possibility of his coming to Florida and announcing a new drug strategy. Unfortunately, my hopes for some new approach to this tremendous problem facing our country, particularly under his stewardship, were immediately dashed when I first learned that the President's major activities were several Democratic fund-raising events in the Miami area and I guess a golf game and some other activities. I really thought he was going to come forth with a new strategy, but that was not the case.

Then I got my hopes up until I got a copy of the national drug control strategy that was just released by the administration. I had hoped that there would be some solid solutions to some of the problems, and I find that actually it is just sort of repackaging in sort of a slick cover some of the same approaches that have proven so ineffective during the past 3 1/2 years.

What is particularly disturbing is this whole pattern from this administration relating to drug abuse, substance abuse, and it started right after the President came into office when he first of all dismantled the drug czar's office and fired the bulk of the staff. Most of the reductions in the Executive Office of the White House, the downsizing, in fact, took place in the drug czar's office. Then the President ended drug testing for White House and executive staff members.

Then the President in fact appointed Joycelyn Elders our chief health officer for the Nation, and she adopted a policy of, instead of `Just say no,' her theme was `Just say maybe.' Maybe we should allow legalization. Maybe we should allow children to use drugs.

Then we saw the reversal of the policy in the Andean region, where we shared information with countries that were trying to stop drug trafficking. We denied radar and intelligence sharing through a distorted policy of this administration.

Then we saw the dismantling of interdiction for 2 years under the Democrat control of the House. We saw them take apart a program which had so many successes in the 1980's and early 1990's of stopping the flow of narcotics into this country.

Then we saw drug treatment as the major emphasis in the drug war. I heard my colleague from Indiana, Mr. Souder, say yesterday that drug treatment as the major emphasis in a drug war is like treating only the wounded in a conflict. We see the results of it even in the President's own strategy.

Adolescent drug use. If we look at this chart, in 1992 we see it going down. In 1992, when this administration took office, we see a dramatic, sharp increase. Every one of these chart figures streaming off the chart there in marijuana, LSD, inhalants, stimulants.

With marijuana, marijuana use increase has dramatically leaped forward in the past 3 1/2 years. In fact, there has been a 50-percent increase in marijuana use among our adolescents for each of the last 3 years.

So we see really a lack of leadership, we see a lack of initiative, ideas, and we see packaged again the same policy. We are not even at the level of interdiction funding of the last year of the Bush administration.

I look forward to working with the new drug czar, General McCaffrey, and the Members of Congress to turn this around But this is another policy for disaster. In fact, we must start getting serious about narcotics control and we must take a new, positive direction, not the path so unsuccessful in the past.