Benjamin Gilman: “It has affected every aspect of our society, not only security which has been hurt by the many drug abusers who are out…”

“It has affected every aspect of our society, not only security which has been hurt by the many drug abusers who are out there, but also industry itself, loss of productivity, absenteeism, the amount of accidents that occur. But most important, how it has impacted upon our young people, the overdose, the deaths, causing many of our young people to leave school and to go out on the street and become drug traffickers rather than to be productive members of our society. It has been estimated that drug abuse in our country costs over $500 billion in lost productivity, absenteeism, and all sorts of problems that it causes. We cannot say enough to convince our Nation to get behind our drug war to make certain that our communities are going to be drug-free and that our schools will be drug-free. I hope my colleagues will take a look at the proposal to cut funding for the drug-free school proposal. I think that is an extremely important measure. Prevention is so important.”