Chris Pappas: “the war on drugs is just that, a war. What I and a number of our colleagues will be talking about over the next 60…”

“the war on drugs is just that, a war. What I and a number of our colleagues will be talking about over the next 60 minutes or so is the war on drugs. In my opinion, there are few issues that are facing the people of our country as important as that. And this dialogue that we are going to be having tonight is really a continuation of what has been going on around the country for many years now; unfortunately, many decades. Mr. Speaker, each of us represents approximately 600,000 people in this House and unfortunately what had been a problem in maybe just certain urban settings 20, 30 years ago has now spread throughout suburbia and even into the rural areas of our country. Each of us here took the oath of office to serve the people that elected us and the majority of the issues that we deal with seem to be about national defense, about our balanced budget plan, about providing for tax relief for the people of our country. Yet there is a generation that is growing up that is facing, in my opinion, a very uncertain future because of the drug culture that is so rampant throughout our communities.”