- One of America's staunchest prohibitionists Dan Burton
(R-IN), shocked many on Capitol Hill when he came very close to calling
for looking at legalizing drugs. My friend Sanho Tree from the Instituteof
Policy Studies was at this hearing and said "So many jaws dropped
inthe room that you would have thought everyone was zonked on Thorazine.
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- The expressions on the drug warriors' faces was priceless
when they slowly realized their formerly staunch ally might go the way
of Gary Johnson.
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- The following is conservative Dan Burton speaking at
the House Government Reform Committee hearing in Congress on on "America's
Heroin Crisis, Colombian Heroin and How We Can Improve Plan Colombia."
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- December 12, 2002
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- Dan Burton: I want to tell you something. I have been
in probably a hundred or a hundred and fifty hearings like this at various
times in my political career,. And the story is always the same.
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- This goes back to the sixties. You know, thirty or thirty
five years ago. And every time I have a hearing, I hear that people who
get hooked on heroin and cocaine become addicted and they very rarely get
off of it. And the scourge expands and expands and expands.
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- And we have very fine law enforcement officers like you
go out and fight the fight. And you see it growing and growing, and you
see these horrible tragedies occur.
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- But there is no end to it.
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- And I see young guys driving around in tough areas of
Indianapolis in cars that I know they can't afford and I know where they
are getting their money.
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- I mean that there is no question. A kid can't be driving
a brand-new Corvette when he lives in the inner city of Indianapolis in
a ghetto.
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- You know that he has gotta be making that money in someway
that is probably not legal and probably involves drugs.
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- Over seventy percent of all crime is drug-related. And
you alluded to that today.
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- We saw on television recently Pablo Escobar gunned down
and everybody applauded and said "that's the end of the Medellín
cartel. But it wasn't the end. There is still a cartel down there. They
are still all over the place. When you kill one, there's ten or twenty
or fifty waiting to take his place. You know why? Its because of what
you just said a minute ago, Mr. Carr, Mr. Marcocci (sp).
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- And that is that there is so much money to be made in
it - there is always going to be another person in line to make that money.
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- And we go into drug eradication and we go into rehabilitation
and we go into education, and we do all of these things... And the drug
problem continues to increase. And it continues to cost us not billions,
but trillions of dollars. Trillions!
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- And we continue to build more and more prisons, and we
put more and more people in jail, and we know that the crimes - most of
the time - are related to drugs.
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- So I have one question I would like to ask all of you,
and I think this is a question that needs to be asked. I hate drugs.
I hate people who succumb to drug addiction, and I hate what it does to
our society. It has hit every one of us in our families or friends of
ours. But I have one question that nobody ever asks, and that is this
question:
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- What would happen if there was no profit in drugs?
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- If there was no profit in drugs, what would happen.
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- If they couldn't make any money out of selling drugs,
what would happen?
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- Carr: I would like to comment. If we made illegal...
what you are arguing then is complete legalization?
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- Dan Burton: No I am not arguing anything. I am asking
the question.
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- Because we have been fighting this fight for thirty to
forty years and the problem never goes way...
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- [After an inane response from Tom Carr]
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- ....Well I don't think that the people in Colombia would
be planting coca if they couldn't make any money, and I don't think they
would be refining coca and heroin in Colombia if they couldn't make any
money.
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- And I don't think that Al Capone would have been the
menace to society that he was if he couldn't sell alcohol on the black
market - and he did - and we had a horrible, horrible crime problem. Now
the people who are producing drugs in Southeast Asia and Southwest Asia
and Colombia and everyplace else.
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- They don't do it because they like to do it. They don't
fill those rooms full of money because they like to fill them full of money.
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- They do it because they are making money.
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- At some point we to have to look at the overall picture
and the overall picture - and I am not saying that there are not going
to be people who are addicted - they are going to have to be education
and rehabilitation and all of those things that you are talking about -
but one of the parts of the equation that has never been talked about
- because politicians are afraid to talk about it - this is my last committee
hearing as Chairman. Last time!
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- And I thought about this and thought about this, and
thought about this.
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- And one of the things that ought to be asked is "what
part of the equation are we leaving out?"
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- And "is it an important part of the equation?"
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- And that is - the profit in drugs.
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- Don't just talk about education. Don't just talk about
eradication. Don't just talk about killing people like Escobar, who is
going to be replaced by somebody else.
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- Let's talk about what would happen if we started addressing
how to get the profit out of drugs.
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- EVENT: House Government Reform Committee
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- AGENDA: Full committee hearing on "America's Heroin
Crisis, Colombian Heroin and How We Can Improve Plan Colombia."
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- WHO:
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- Felix Jimenez, former special agent in charge, New York
Field Division, Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)
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- Tony Marcocci, detective, District Attorney's Office,
Westmoreland County, PA
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- Scott Pelletier, detective sergeant, Portland Police
Department, ME
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- Matt - Undercover narcotics detective, Howard County
Police Department, MD
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- Tom Carr, director, Baltimore-Washington High Intensity
Drug Trafficking Area
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- Barry Crane, deputy director, Supply Reduction, Office
on National Drug Control Policy
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- Paul Simons, acting assistant secretary, International
Narcotics and Law Enforcement, State Department
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- Rogelio Guevara, chief of operations, DE
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- Adam Isacson, senior associate, Center for International
Policy
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- Watch this hearing at http://video.c-span.org:8080/ramgen/ldrive/e121202_heroin.rm
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- (advance to 1 hour and 18 minutes into the broadcast
for Burton's remarks -- this particular exchange is about ten minutes long).
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- Be sure to see Rep. Jan Schakowsky's followup remark
to Burton.
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- Denele Campbell, Executive Director Alliance for Reform
of Drug Policy in Arkansas, Inc. - ARDPArk, Inc. 1155 West Sixth Street
PMB A17 Fayetteville, AR 72701 479-839-2475 arkdruglawreform@mindspring.com
www.ardpark.org Sponsor of the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Campaign
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