Bill Pascrell: “I am astonished and disgusted by the way our country has been treated by the other member countries of the United…”

“I am astonished and disgusted by the way our country has been treated by the other member countries of the United Nations. In 1964, the United States played a key role in establishing the U.N. International Narcotics Board. This board plays a crucial role in monitoring compliance with U.N. drug conventions on substance abuse and illegal trafficking. This May we lost our seat. We were voted off the very board we helped to establish. We were voted off by the 54-member U.N. Economic and Social Council. Only 29 of these member countries thought the United States should maintain its rightful place on this important board. Instead, our former seat will be held by the Netherlands. I have been told by those in the international community that this is just international politics as usual. I disagree. That is because anyone who reads the newspapers knows that Holland is to the drug Ecstacy what Colombia is to cocaine. Let us put our cards on the table. Eighty percent of the Ecstacy that makes its way to the United States is produced in the Netherlands, which is taking our place on the board that we created, or at least helped to create.”