Paul Coverdell: “I rise against the amendment of the Senator from Minnesota. I associate myself with the remarks of the Senator from…”

“I rise against the amendment of the Senator from Minnesota. I associate myself with the remarks of the Senator from Delaware. I would like to try to not repeat everything that has been said but try to underscore several fundamental basic points with regard to these issues. The first is that over the last 8 years, funding for drug treatment and drug prevention has increased by $1.6 billion. I repeat, it has increased over the last 8 years. The amendment of the Senator from Minnesota would increase it even further. On the interdiction side of the ledger, during the same 8 years, there has been a decrease in the funding for interdiction. So interdiction is dropping and treatment and prevention is growing. What happens when the Federal Government moves away from its responsibilities to protect our borders and to engage international narcotics entities? I can tell you what happens. The United States is flooded with more drugs--because there is nothing there to stop that--the price of those drugs plummets, and more of our children become addicted to narcotics.”