On the recordJune 15, 2016
Today my friend, Congressman Jones, and I are offering an amendment to end the DOD's involvement in and funding of the futile war on drugs in Afghanistan. In his most recent quarterly report from April 2016, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan, Mr. John Sopko, said that the United States has provided a total of $8.5 billion in funding for counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan since 2002. But these efforts have failed. They have been a colossal failure. Afghanistan remains the world's leading opium supplier. It provides over 90 percent of the world's opium today, and since our efforts in Afghanistan to counter poppy production and opium production, would you believe that their production has doubled? That is right. We have spent over $8 billion in counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan, and they have doubled their production in that period of time. If this isn't a measure of failure, I don't know what it is. Congress annually appropriates counternarcotics funds through the DOD drug interdiction and counterdrug accounts. It also appropriates drug interdiction funds via the State Department's International Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement account and through the Drug Enforcement Administration. My amendment would specifically end DOD funding for the Afghanistan drug war, which would substantially cut the United States overall spending on antidrug efforts there.…
