Kendra S. Horn: “When one looks at the cost here of $150 billion a year in drug-related criminal and medical costs in 1997 alone, and…”

“When one looks at the cost here of $150 billion a year in drug-related criminal and medical costs in 1997 alone, and that is more than we spent on education, transportation, agriculture, energy, space, and foreign aid combined; and when one thinks that we could fill a stadium on a Saturday afternoon for a football team, that number of people would be wiped out by drunk drivers. This treatment is possible. We see the wonderful work that Alcoholics Anonymous does and the other treatment programs. It is so important. We need to discuss it in people's homes. We need to discuss it in the villages, the towns, the cities, because this is the type of thing that needs the human touch, where people say we care about you and something should be done to help you. Generally that works, but often they fall off the wagon, as the saying goes, and then thousands of people are injured, hurt, die as a result of these victims. The saddest, of course, is when one sees young people at their high school prom or something and then a fellow student rams into them and they never have a chance to graduate and they never have a chance to go and provide the opportunities for themselves in this world.”