Charles Rangel: “first let me join those who regretted to hear the leaving of this battlefield from one of our great warriors, someone…”

“first let me join those who regretted to hear the leaving of this battlefield from one of our great warriors, someone that speaks his mind and has very strong convictions. Mr. Speaker, I was interested in identifying to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) where we are finding so much abuse in the white middle-class suburban area. I remember, over 35 years ago, I was trying to convince people in America that drugs would not be confined to the inner city, that we cannot just identify a minority group because they are poor and hopeless and think that the profiteer people would not enlarge their market. For those who want to say that this Nation has not done enough to deal with this devastating problem, which I think is a threat to our national security, I am certainly prepared to join hands with those Republicans and Democrats to do just that. We cannot go into this next century having a million and a half people locked up in jail where 80 percent are there because it is a drug-related crime. I think I share in the sentiments of most people to believe that we have to resort to the distribution of sterile needles to deal with a health crisis that we have in this country. The gentleman from New York (Mr. Solomon) and I may agree that we are not tackling this problem the way that we should, but just saying no, just saying no is not even looking for a solution to this problem.”