Jim Ramstad: “we are about to spend almost $2 billion to escalate the war on drugs in Colombia, while here in the United States 26…”

“we are about to spend almost $2 billion to escalate the war on drugs in Colombia, while here in the United States 26 million American addicts and alcoholics go untreated. We have already spent over $600 million to eradicate drugs at their source in Colombia. And what has happened? Both cocaine and heroin production in Colombia have more than doubled. Colombia is now the source of 80 percent of the cocaine and 75 percent of the heroin in the United States. Let us face it, our supply-side efforts have been a colossal failure. Congress and the President need to wake up and face reality. Over the last 10 years, Mr. Speaker, the Federal Government has spent $150 billion to combat the supply of illegal drugs. Yet the cocaine market is glutted, as always, and heroin is readily available at record high purities. The number of hard-core addicts continues to increase every day. Our drug eradication and interdiction efforts have also been a costly failure.”