[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 747 Introduced in House (IH)]
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116th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 747
Acknowledging 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
December 6, 2019
Mrs. Watson Coleman (for herself, Mr. Takano, Ms. Lee of California,
Ms. Norton, Mr. Lewis, Ms. Schakowsky, Ms. Moore, Ms. Pressley, Ms.
Wilson of Florida, Mr. Thompson of Mississippi, Mr. Payne, Mr.
Horsford, Ms. Johnson of Texas, Ms. Fudge, Ms. Bass, Mr. Brown of
Maryland, Ms. Adams, Ms. Clarke of New York, Mr. Cleaver, Mr. Danny K.
Davis of Illinois, and Mr. Pocan) 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
Acknowledging 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 become 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
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 drugs 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 70,200 drug overdose deaths in 2017, 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 after almost 50 years, the War on Drugs has yet to achieve its goal; and
Whereas there has been no formal action by the United States Government to treat
the epidemic of overall drug abuse and to treat 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 have 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, has
stigmatized these communities as the cause of the drug problem,
and has economically, politically, and socially crippled these
communities for decades;
(4) the House of Representatives condemns the actions and
role Harry J. Anslinger played in creating the War on Drugs;
(5) in order to help those impacted, drug use has to be
seen as a health issue and not a criminal issue;
(6) the House of Representatives should immediately halt
any and all actions that would allow the War on Drugs to
continue;
(7) the House of Representatives encourages the creation of
a select committee that would be tasked in reviewing all laws
associated and consistent with the War on Drugs and
prioritizing effective, evidence-based health policy solutions
for individuals and communities suffering from addiction;
(8) the House of Representatives should pass legislation
that would provide 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;
(9) the House of Representatives affirms that all
individuals suffering from the disease of addiction be treated
humanely, and with the same respect as all people struggling
with any other health matter; and
(10) 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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