Paul Coverdell: “as most people know now, over the weekend, our former Senate majority leader announced in very broad, very specific…”

“as most people know now, over the weekend, our former Senate majority leader announced in very broad, very specific, very forceful terms his plan to come to grips with a surging, raging crime wave in the United States. All the data that I have seen over the last several years have indicated that crime, drugs, and the related two, are at the top or near the top over and over of grave concern on the part of American citizens. And well they should be, because at least the first premise of Government is to protect the persons and property and citizens of the United States. You cannot separate drugs from crime. Today, of the 80 percent of the 35,000 prisoners that are incarcerated in my State, they are there in prison from drug-related actions. As our attorney general, Attorney General Bowers, has said over and over again in Georgia, you can no longer separate the two. We are in the midst of a new drug epidemic; therefore, we will be in the midst of a surging crime epidemic. There is no way to fully document the ill-effect that the drug epidemic, drug-related crimes have done to the citizens of our country, and in the cost of lives, personal property. It is stunning data any time you look at it. It just begs for leadership to come forward.”