SEP 25 '88 16:48 (ALE PUBLIC INFO DF Musto, MD -8 Testimony 29 Sept. 1988 P.3 The problems we have had regarding cocaine and illicit profits certainly arise from cocaine's illegality in a period of tolerance toward the drug. Many saw no real evil in providing that which they considered harmless in moderation. If we had maintained the earlier antagonism toward cocaine through the 1960s, based on a vivid knowledge about its actual effects, one wonders whether we would have had such a serious problem a second time. This brings me, in this brief opening statement, to the near and more distant futures. The immediate task is to suppport families and communities beseiged by drug dealing and crime, and coordinate social institutions opposing drug use. If we once again reduce drug use to a much lower level in the United States, we must not again revert to extreme punishments, silence or exaggeration. Finally, we must recognize that the decline phase contains the potential for serious public policy errors. The reduction in drug use earlier this century did not proceed smoothly but rather was tarnished with prejudice and overkill. For example, although both Blacks and Whites used cocaine around the turn of the century, the drug became, in the popular mind, closely linked with Black hostility to Whites in the South. Since that period coincided with the peak of lynching and the removal of voting rights from Blacks, cocaine served as a chemical excuse for SEP 25 '88 16:49 (ALE PUBLIC INFO DF Musto, MD -9 Testimony 29 Sept. 1988 P.10% repression. The fear of drugs can be so extreme, perhaps intensified by the frustrating slowness of decline, that drug use becomes a reason for almost any negative social activity. Drug use can also be ascribed to a whole group, like Southern Blacks before World War One, with little appreciation of how unfair or how inaccurate such labelling might be. We cannot foget that even if drugs were eliminated from the inner-cities, the landscape of poor education and lack of opportunity would remain. With this in mind, we should be concerned that as middleclass drug use declines and antagonism to drugs grows, which apparently is happening, the inner cities of our nation are not written off as a collection of drug users unworthy of support and investment by more abstinent Americans. The middle-class are the earliest to turn against drugs when drugs interfere with homelife or employment. The reasons for this gradual antagonism toward drugs, though, rests in large part on the goals of work, home and education. To the extent this is absent among the inner city residents while drug-dealing remains an available employment opportunity, we cannot be optimistic that drug use will decline there at the same rate as in middle America. We must understand that in many ways, the best attack on drug abuse is to provide a community in which drug use is irrelevant, a handicap in the path toward satisfying personal goals. SEP 25 '88 16:50 YALE PUBLIC INFO DF Musto, MD -10 Testimony 29 Sept. 1988 P.11 A second concern is that our anti-drug attitude will lead to excessive and ill-informed drug testing in our search for drug users. When the vast majority of Americans are anti-drug, our judgment may be skewed so that we engage in overkill, causing problems rather than resolving them. A third concern is that basic research into drugs will lose steady funding in a trend toward law enforcement and a conviction that the only important goal is separating people from drugs, There is an enormous amount we do not understand about drug and bodily reactions. We should provide reasonable research support that is steady over the years and not subject to the swings of funding which have characterized past years. Finally, another reaction to a blanket opposition to drugs is the phenomenon of patients refusing pain-killing medication because they have come to see druga like morphine as too dangerous to accept even in a medical setting. This has been an unpleasant surprise to the staff at such prestigious institutions as the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. SEP 25 '88 16:51 YALE PUBLIC INFO DF Musto, MD -11 Testimony 29 Sept. 1988 P.12 In this brief statement I have been able to touch on only some of the great issues confronting our nation and its drug problem. Although I can empathize with those who out of frustration wish to legalize drugs, I believe the history of America's battles with drugs gives us hope that we can overcome the present difficulties. The fundamental change of attitude toward drugs which undergirds a reduction in demand is currently underway. We must be careful to not let our antagonism get out of hand. We can overcome drugs and achieve a more cohesive, productive nation. David F. Musto, MD Yale School of Medicine 333 Cedar Street New Haven CT 06510 (203) 785-4258 95-568 - 89 - 5 Statement by Congressman Robert Garcia Before the Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control September 30, 1988 The most controversial issue in our debate on a national drug policy is the issue of legalization. Mr. Chairman, I wanted to be here today to express my concerns about legalization because I believe that decriminalization poses dangerous repercussions for this country repercussions we simply cannot risk and cannot sustain. I oppose this idea and urge my colleagues to carefully weigh the consequences. This proposal has also come at a time when public opinion towards drug abuse has taken a positive turn and when the House has just passed a major anti-drug abuse bill, improving existing legislation passed in 1986. I believe we should put our energies and resources into these measures, confident that we can win the fight against drugs. Even with respect to less controversial drug usage such as tobacco and alcohol, we as a nation are still coming to terms with the tragic social and health risks that these substances present to our nation. I believe that the risks of legalization are just too great. I applaud Chairman Rangel for holding these hearings. It is very important to fully explore all alternative solutions to the drug problem. I urge, however, special caution concerning such a potentially dangerous public policy initiative. |