[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 933 Introduced in House (IH)]
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115th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. RES. 933
To acknowledge that the War on Drugs has been a failed policy in
achieving the goal of reducing drug use, and for the House of
Representatives to apologize to the individuals and communities that
were victimized by this policy.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
June 12, 2018
Mrs. Watson Coleman (for herself, Ms. Bass, Mrs. Beatty, Mr.
Blumenauer, Ms. Clarke of New York, Mr. Cleaver, Ms. Fudge, Ms.
Gabbard, Mr. Hastings, Ms. Jackson Lee, Ms. Jayapal, Mr. Jeffries, Ms.
Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, Ms. Kelly of Illinois, Mr. Khanna, Mrs.
Lawrence, Mr. Lawson of Florida, Ms. Lee, Mr. Lewis of Georgia, Mr. Ted
Lieu of California, Mr. McEachin, Ms. Moore, Ms. Norton, Mr. Payne, Mr.
Pocan, Mr. David Scott of Georgia, Mr. Serrano, and Mr. Thompson of
Mississippi) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to
the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee
on the Judiciary, for a period to be subsequently determined by the
Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall
within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
To acknowledge that the War on Drugs has been a failed policy in
achieving the goal of reducing drug use, and for the House of
Representatives to apologize to the individuals and communities that
were victimized by this policy.
Whereas, until the early 1900s, most of today's illegal substances were not
regulated by the Federal Government, and there was no ``War on Drugs'';
Whereas, in the 1930s, the first Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of
Narcotics, Harry J. Anslinger, who was a strong opponent to marijuana,
pushed a heavy propaganda campaign to demonize marijuana use, stating
that it caused people to be violent and criminals;
Whereas much of this propaganda was racially charged against the Mexican-
American community, for example as Commissioner Anslinger testified to
the 75th Congress in 1937 that, ``I wish I could show you what a small
marijuana cigarette can do to one of our degenerate Spanish speaking
residents. That's why our problem is so great; the greatest percentage
of our population is composed of Spanish-speaking persons, most of who
are low mentally, because of social and racial conditions'';
Whereas, in 1937, the 75th Congress passed the Marijuana Tax Act which
criminalized marijuana, and laws passed during the following years were
introduced to institute mandatory minimum sentences for those who
bought, sold, and used the drug;
Whereas over the course of the next few decades, studies conducted by scientists
did not find any connection between the use of marijuana and violent
behaviors, and in 1973 the Shafer Commission Report on Marijuana and
Drugs concluded that, ``The Commission believes that the contemporary
American drug problem has emerged in part from our institutional
response to drug use. . . . We have failed to weave policy into the
fabric of social institutions.'';
Whereas despite mounting evidence, the Federal Government's approach to the
abuse of drugs continued to be one of criminalizing drug abuse instead
of treatment;
Whereas, on June 18, 1971, President Richard Nixon declared the War on Drugs,
stating that drug abuse is ``public enemy number one'';
Whereas the Federal Government's attitude toward drug use as a criminal problem
only intensified with stricter drug laws, and the Government put little
to no focus on treating those impacted;
Whereas the War on Drugs was admitted to be a move by the Nixon administration
to attack his political opponents, and in 1994, President Richard
Nixon's aide John Ehrlichman admitted in an interview that the War on
Drugs was a tool to arrest and manipulate Blacks and liberals stating,
``We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or
black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana
and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could
disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their
homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the
evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we
did.'';
Whereas in 1986, the 99th Congress passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act establishing,
for the first time, mandatory minimum sentences for those convicted of
having specific amounts of cocaine;
Whereas, in 1989, drug czar William Bennett announced a $7,900,000,000 plan to
combat the drug epidemic, but 70 percent of that amount went to hiring
more law enforcement personnel and building prisons;
Whereas that money could have been better used to help provide treatment to the
victims of those on heroin, cocaine, and other drugs;
Whereas, in 1986, the 99th Congress increased the sentences for dealing and
possessing crack cocaine, and in a few years, enhanced law enforcement
presence loomed over and aggressively policed communities of color;
Whereas to this day, these laws greatly target communities of color,
dramatically increasing the incarceration rate of these communities and
imposing a stigma that people of color are the main users of drugs,
despite White Americans using at a similar if not greater rate;
Whereas Professor of Sociology at the University of California Santa Cruz, Craig
Reinarman, and Professor of Sociology at Queens College, Harry G.
Levine, studied the use of crack cocaine in the United States and later
published in their book, entitled ``Crack in America'', which stated
that, ``In the spring of 1986, American politicians and news media began
an extraordinary anti-drug frenzy that ran until 1992. Newspapers,
magazines and television networks regularly carried lurid stories about
a new `epidemic' or `plague' of drug use, especially of crack cocaine.
They said this `epidemic' was spreading rapidly from cities to the
suburbs and was destroying American society. It is certainly true that
the United States has real health and social problems that result from
illegal and legal drug use. But it is certainly also true that the
period from 1986 through 1992 was characterized by anti-drug
extremism.'';
Whereas the use of opiates such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, methadone, heroin,
and fentanyl has skyrocketed since the late 1990s and the amount of
prescription opioids legally sold nearly quadrupled from 1999 to 2010,
despite no change in the amount of pain that Americans reported;
Whereas the National Center for Health Statistics suggested that there were more
than 64,000 drug overdose deaths in 2016, and that a majority of these
deaths come from synthetic opioids like fentanyl;
Whereas these drug overdoses have become the leading cause of accidental death,
surpassing car accidents;
Whereas, on March 29, 2017, President Donald Trump signed an Executive order to
establish the President's Commission on Combating Drug Addiction and the
Opioid Crisis, and in a preliminary report the Commission has
recommended that the opioid crisis, among other things, should be
``declared a national emergency under either the Public Health Service
Act or the Stafford Act'';
Whereas many scholars, journalists, and civic leaders have addressed the strong
contrast to the urgency of helping those impacted by opioids compared to
those who were impacted by crack cocaine and other substances during the
War on Drugs;
Whereas the terminology used to describe those impacted by the opioid epidemic
is ``victims'', and the terminology used to describe those impacted by
the War on Drugs is ``criminals'';
Whereas if the concept of equity was considered, meaning that individuals fairly
receive what they need in order to create a level playing field, the
same funds and support going to help those impacted by opioids will also
go to help those impacted by heroin, cocaine, and the other drugs
classified in the War on Drugs;
Whereas as stated by Georgetown University Professor Michael Eric Dyson, ``White
brothers and sisters have been medicalized in terms of their trauma and
addiction. Black and brown people have been criminalized for their
trauma and addiction.'';
Whereas, on October 26, 2017, President Donald Trump declared the opioid
epidemic a public health emergency, which allows access to the Public
Health Emergency Fund at the Department of Health and Human Services,
which has only tens of thousands of dollars; and
Whereas there has been no formal action by the United States Government to treat
the epidemic of drug abuse and the War on Drugs as a health issue: Now,
therefore, be it
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives
that--
(1) the War on Drugs has failed to achieve its goal of
reducing drug use;
(2) the War on Drugs has created conditions in the United
States that has allowed the opioid epidemic to be as deadly as
it is;
(3) the War on Drugs is a racially charged policy that has
led to the mass incarceration of millions of Americans,
disproportionately affecting communities of color, stigmatized
these communities as the cause of the drug problem, and has
economically, politically, and socially crippled these
communities for decades;
(4) in order to help those impacted, drug use has to be
seen as a health issue and not a criminal issue;
(5) the House of Representatives should seek to hereby
reconsider all laws associated and consistent with the War on
Drugs, and prioritizes effective, evidence-based health policy
solutions for individuals and communities suffering from
addiction;
(6) the House of Representatives should enact civil
remedies and restorative justice for any individual who has
been incarcerated or otherwise punished through the Federal
criminal justice system due to laws associated and consistent
with the War on Drugs;
(7) Congress affirms that all individuals suffering from
the disease of addiction be treated humanely, with equity and
respect as all people struggling with any other health matter;
and
(8) the House of Representatives hereby apologizes to the
individuals and communities harmed through the War on Drugs and
acknowledges that actions by this body have demonized and
criminalized addiction for more than 80 years instead of
accurately treating it as a health concern.
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