Mark Souder: “I submit these letters to further illustrate the matter raised by Mr. Graves. House of Representatives, Committee on…”

“I submit these letters to further illustrate the matter raised by Mr. Graves. House of Representatives, Committee on Government Reform, Washington, DC, August 12, 2005. Hon. Michael O. Leavitt, Secretary, Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, DC. It has been my understanding, from several sources, that the Department of Health and Human Services has been the principal barrier preventing the Administration from formulating a policy to address the methamphetamine epidemic. And now I have learned that the Department of Health and Human Services is a primary sponsor of a conference controlled by the Harm Reduction Coalition and the Harm Reduction Project in your home state of Utah, on August 19 and 20, 2005. I find this all to be deeply offensive. I am enormously frustrated with your Department for dithering on the meth issue while the rest of America fights an epidemic that is viciously tearing apart families and communities throughout the country. A foundational premise of the so-called ``harm reduction'' ideology promoted at the HHS-sponsored conference is that we should not be fighting a ``war on drugs,'' but rather limiting drugs' harmful effects. Harm reduction is, in fact, a vehicle drug legalization proponents have hijacked to pave the way to their ultimate objective. Any claim that your Department is unaware of the pro- legalization agenda and ``soft'' approach to illegal narcotics of the harm reduction advocates is utterly implausible.…”