Rob Portman: “I want to commend him for all the hard work he has done on this issue. He has really taken the lead on trying to curb…”

“I want to commend him for all the hard work he has done on this issue. He has really taken the lead on trying to curb the supply of drugs into this country which he has just said is so important. We have had a doubling of teenage drug use in the last 5 or 6 years. More and more kids are falling prey to this, ruining their lives and their dreams and even taking the lives of so many of our young people. What I am excited about in this final package we will vote on tomorrow is that we also have provisions to reduce the demand for drugs in this country. This problem I think ultimately has to be solved around the kitchen table in our homes and in our schools and in our streets. There are a number of provisions that I like. One is new provisions to get the drugs out of our schools, to use the drug-free school money better in the workplace, the Drug Free Workplace Act that the gentleman supported which essentially gives small businesses the opportunity to get up and running drug free workplace programs that will keep people away from drugs and in turn increase productivity. It requires the Drug Czar's office to tell us how to streamline the effort which is so important. We now have 54 agencies and departments involved in drug prevention in our Federal Government. We have got to do better and we can and we are requiring under this legislation that they do that. The revolving door with violent crime and drugs has got to be stopped.”