Cass Ballenger: “Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to today's attack on tobacco. Obviously, they do not grow tobacco in Utah or…”

“Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to today's attack on tobacco. Obviously, they do not grow tobacco in Utah or Illinois. It seems obvious to me that the politically correct Clinton administration and some of my colleagues in the House have their sights set on America's tobacco industry. An industry which produces a legal product consumed by millions of Americans. Your Surgeon General thinks marijuana should be legalized. Do you want to put that in this bill? As the ranking Republican on the Select Education and Civil Rights Subcommittee, I worked with the subcommittee chairman Major Owens, Representative Bobby Scott, and Representative Scotty Baesler and others to clarify the language in the bill regarding tobacco. We worked out a compromise agreement that was satisfactory and approved by the Education and Labor Committee. I reject the attempt by Representative Durbin to undo this compromise. As a North Carolinian born and bred, I was troubled by how the Durbin amendment treats tobacco. Under the Durbin proposal, tobacco is equated with the use of illegal controlled substances. While I certainly appreciate the need to educate young people to allow them to make informed decisions about the use of tobacco, tobacco has never been considered a controlled substance under the Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act.”