On the recordDecember 7, 2011
I appreciate the gentleman from Virginia for yielding the time. I rise in opposition to this particular bill. It's not that I am, indeed, in favor of any of the particular drugs that are here; but just like Mrs. Adams, my colleague from Florida mentioned, the State of Florida has already criminalized it, as many States have, and it's really a State issue. It seems interesting. When the subject du jour comes up, the item of the day, there is a rush to action and a rush to forget States' rights. There is a desire on gun bills to overlook the States and to have a Federal law on the interstate shipment of guns or on the interstate transportation of guns by people with permits. In this situation, drugs that should be criminalized are criminalized at the State level, but all of a sudden we're doing it more at the Federal level. This bill would place more than 40 chemical compounds on Schedule I, the most punitive and restrictive schedule, without any independent scientific evidence that doing so is necessary or warranted. It is a rush to legislate before we know all the facts. This bill essentially bans these substances without any study whatsoever. I've read the press reports of young people who have been harmed by these substances and by others, and I'm very sympathetic as that's certainly wrong; but we shouldn't legislate on the basis of anecdotal evidence.…
