Jeff Miller: “my friend from Florida was talking about the tie-in between crime and drugs and the need for the leadership at the top.…”

“my friend from Florida was talking about the tie-in between crime and drugs and the need for the leadership at the top. When the President of the United States, as we have said, laughs about whether he would do it again, he says, sure if I could, I tried it before. When the spokesman for the White House says, when asked about marijuana, quote: I was a kid in the 1970's, did I spoke a joint from time to time? Of course, I did. They do not say it is wrong. They do not say it was a mistake. They do not apologize for it. They just kind of laugh it off. Starting with marijuana is where we have to attack the problem, and that is where moral leadership is so important. There was a study out by Joseph Califano, the head of the center on addiction and substance abuse. He was Secretary of HHS under Jimmy Carter, a Democrat. A teenager who uses marijuana is 85 times more likely to graduate to cocaine than those who abstain. The percentage of children who are using marijuana that graduated from high school in 1992, 22 percent of graduating seniors had used marijuana during the past year. Last year, in 1995, that increased to 35 percent, going from 22 to 35 percent in 4 short years. Mr. Speaker, let me read what Joseph Califano said, quote: The jump in marijuana use among America's children from 1992 to 1994 signals that 820,000 more of these children will try cocaine in their lifetime. Of that number, about 58,000 will become regular users and cocaine addicts.…”