leadership has to be used to mobilize at each of these levels, I do not think we will ever adequately address the problem.

Mr. Speaker, the community anti-drug coalition initiative that we have started here in the Congress, that has been spreading around the country for the last few years, is one attempt to bring sustained national leadership where we will have the most impact.

Alex de Tocqueville , when he visited this country over a century ago, he tried to describe America to people in Europe. One thing he said was, `All of the efforts and resources of the citizens', the citizens of America, `are turned to the eternal well-being of the community.'

I think that is a pretty good observation. I think it continues to be true today, the recognition that people's energies are often devoted primarily at their neighborhoods and at their communities, where they feel they can have the most direct impact. I think that tells us a lot where we as Members of Congress ought to be devoting some of our energies, at the community level.

Drugs are a serious concern among all Americans. If you look at the most recent Gallup Poll results, or you look at the most recent Wall Street Journal NBC Poll, it is clear drugs and crimes are the number one issue most Americans believe we must address. It is also interesting when you ask parents what the most serious problem is facing our youth, they say drug abuse.

As interesting, when you ask kids themselves, when you ask our young people, what is the most serious concern you face, and this is teenagers, they do not say it is getting a job, they do not say it is their education. What do they say? Drugs. So kids themselves and their parents have recognized that. Frankly, I think they are far out in front of their elected leaders.

Just how big is this problem? to try to put it in some perspective, I will say that in just over a generation, the use of illegal drugs in this country has increased 40-fold, 40-fold. It is a huge problem. As I said earlier, it is not just about drug abuse, because drug abuse affects so many other things in this country.

Let me give the Members just a few examples on this chart. Crime and violence; over half of the violent crime committed in America today is directly related to illegal drug use. School dropouts; kids that use drugs are 2 to 5 times more likely to drop out of school. Health care costs; fully a quarter of our trillion dollar health care cost in this country is directly related to substance abuse. More than half of the new HIV cases are illegal drug related. Spousal and child abuse; again, data will show us that about half of the family abuse in this country is directly related to substance abuse.

Finally, productivity. Yes, it affects American businesses. Because of absenteeism, increased medical claims, businesses in America take a $60 billion hit every year, $60 billion, just because of illegal drugs. If you add alcohol abuse to that, it is another $80 billion a year.

[Page: H10652]

[TIME: 1545]

This is an issue that affects all of us.

This next chart I want to show is actually a hopeful one because it shows that we are not powerless to solve this problem. In fact, from 1979 until 1992, we saw a substantial decrease in the use of drugs. This chart will show that, among teenagers, we saw over a 70-percent decrease during that period.

Folks love to ridicule the Just Say No campaign. This is when it was in its heyday. It works. It works in concert with a lot of other things. A clear and consistent message from the White House on down is effective in reducing drug abuse.

The chart also shows, of course, that since 1992, there has been a sharp increase. Unfortunately, everything we know leads us to believe that that line, if anything, is increasing even more sharply. The tragedy is that it is among our younger and younger kids, too.

We have found, particularly with regard to marijuana use, the most dramatic increases are among our young people. Look at this. Among 8th graders, we see a 167-percent increase from 1991 to 1995. That means in a typical 8th grade class in America, 25 kids, 5 of them in the 8th grade have used marijuana.