Political Quotes

“I look forward at the appropriate time to discuss the amendment of the Senator from Georgia because I agree with his premise that there is a relationship between tobacco smoking and the use of drugs. I have spent a great deal of my time in public office trying to increase our ability to deal with illicit use of drugs, both in terms of effective enforcement at all levels of government and those things that will reduce the likelihood of persons desiring to use drugs. Let me say the most fundamental relationship between the tobacco issue that we debate today and the amendment of the Senator from Georgia is that virtually no one starts with the use of illicit drugs. Tobacco is the gateway to the use of illicit drugs. So our ability, by effective legislation or otherwise, to substantially reduce the number of persons who commence the process of experimentation, use and then addiction to tobacco will make one of, if not the most, fundamental contributions to the reduction of the use of illicit hard drugs. That is an issue that we will have an opportunity to discuss in more detail later. My concern today is a series of ads that are being run, ads that are being run either under the specific sponsorship of the tobacco industry or by organizations which we know are supported by the tobacco industry.”