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5 DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION
6 NATIONAL HEROIN CONFERENCE
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10 Keynote Address by
11 Attorney General Janet Reno
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15 Wednesday, February 5, 1997
16 12:30 p.m.
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1 P R O C E E D I N G S
2 MR. CONSTANTINO: The Attorney
3 General has adjusted her schedule in that the
4 difficulty yesterday in the office, they lost
5 one of their employees, which was a fairly
6 young woman who had a heart attack and was
7 close to the Attorney, which, I think, has
8 obviously placed a strain on the schedule in
9 dealing with the families and wakes and all
10 that. It's always dangerous, I think, to
11 introduce your own boss.
12 (Laughter)
13 MR. CONSTANTINO: If you don't do it
14 right you will feel uncomfortable. If you're
15 too flattering, it looks like a self-serving
16 introduction.
17 (Laughter)
18 MR. CONSTANTINO: Given the two
19 choices I allot for the latter.
20 (Laughter)
21 MR. CONSTANTINO: But what I say
22 comes from the heart, I've said it before. If
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1 there's a person with class and integrity and
2 character that I know of, it is the Attorney
3 General of the United States.
4 I've watched her again and again in
5 very difficult circumstances where it will be
6 easy for her to say something that wouldn't be
7 correct or warrant decision-making. And in
8 each and every one of those occasions I have
9 been impressed by her courage, and always
10 wondered whether or not, if I was placed in the
11 same circumstances, I would have had the same
12 reaction which she's had the strength to have.
13 For those of you who work in law
14 enforcement, it's really -- especially the
15 state and local government -- you should know
16 that virtually every two weeks both myself and
17 a senior member of my staff meet with the
18 Attorney General as does the record (inaudible)
19 and alternating case.
20 At probably, at least 80 percent of
21 those meetings, an issue is arrived at whereas
22 the Attorney General has been off in the United
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1 States and has seen something that she is
2 impressed with or concerned about and wants to
3 find some way that she can bring a reaction on
4 the part of the Justice Department and, in our
5 case, specifically the DEA.
6 The other thing I'll tell you that we
7 couldn't do any of these things, hold any of
8 these conferences or run any of the enforcement
9 programs if it wasn't for budget support. And
10 all of you know that, who work in law
11 enforcement. She has been a tiger in fighting
12 for all of the budget enhancements that have
13 been essential to DEA.
14 So we're really beyond the
15 (inaudible) to just carry out a lot of those
16 philosophical, practical judgments that are set
17 for us. And with that I hope I have found the
18 right balance between the two, and, Attorney
19 General, it's now up to you.
20 (Applause)
21 ATTORNEY GENERAL RENO: Thank you,
22 Tom.
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1 I just appreciate what you do day in
2 and day out. And what all of you do. I have
3 just -- as I came I recognized faces that I
4 have gotten to know and others that I've known
5 for a long time, and I just appreciate your
6 efforts on behalf of the American people. And
7 I want you to know that.
8 For this conference Tom has brought
9 together representatives of federal, state and
10 local law enforcement, prosecutorial demand
11 reduction agencies and members of
12 nongovernmental organizations, to respond with
13 a threat facing our communities by the growing
14 supply and consumption of heroin.
15 Prosecutors aren't going to win this
16 battle by themselves. DEA isn't going to win
17 the battle by itself. The local police
18 department is not going to win. The only way
19 you're going to do this is by coming together,
20 not just in conferences such as this, but in
21 our daily operations, unconcerned about perks,
22 unconcerned about credit, but one common goal
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1 that is, the best way to stem the growth of
2 this problem in this country. And I want to do
3 everything I can to be a partner with you in
4 that effort.
5 Recent trends in heroin's
6 availability, purity and price clearly indicate
7 that this is one of the most critical problems
8 we face in fighting narcotics in this country
9 today.
10 Worldwide production of heroin has
11 increased drastically. It is more plentiful on
12 our streets. It's, on average, five to six
13 times more pure than a decade ago. And it's
14 less expensive.
15 A formula that has increased heroin
16 addiction for our country by 20 percent and
17 brought about the usual parade of terrible
18 results: Violence, theft, despair, neglect and
19 abuse of our children. And now, more
20 frequently then ever before, death.
21 Now is the time to act, to develop a
22 comprehensive plan to this nation. It is time
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1 to develop enforcement and prevention
2 strategies together before we have this demon
3 totally out of control.
4 Historically, heroin use and abuse
5 has been consigned to the margins of our
6 society. Even in the 1960's, when large parts
7 of mainstream America experimented with drugs,
8 heroin was generally feared and refused to
9 carry the stigma which set it apart from other
10 drugs.
11 Since then a stable addict population
12 of about half a million people grew older, and
13 through few new recruits, heroin consumption
14 remained relatively constant throughout the 70s
15 and the 80s because of lower availability,
16 poorer quality and higher street prices, caused
17 in large part by law enforcement pressure and
18 then by the emergence of crack and cocaine.
19 The predominate trend in America
20 since the excesses of the 60's and the 70's has
21 been an overall decrease in drug use. Today an
22 estimated six percent of Americans have used
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1 illicit drugs within the last month. Less than
2 half of the 14 percent in 1979.
3 But heroin has not followed that
4 trend. It is now being supplied in greater
5 quantity, higher purity; it's being purchased
6 by a growing number of users and addicts.
7 Within the last few years the number of addicts
8 has increased from 500,000 people in the 1970's
9 and 1980's to approximately 600,000 heroin
10 addicts today.
11 For more and more drug users it is
12 replacing crack and cocaine as the drug of
13 choice. And for others it is being used in
14 conjunction with those drugs to enhance their
15 highs and to relieve their aftereffects.
16 The expanding number of users in the
17 United States has been propelled in large part
18 by an increase in the purity of heroin sold on
19 our streets. A trend which not only reflects
20 heroin's increased availability, but it has
21 broadened its allure and potential users.
22 Expanded availability of heroin
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1 worldwide and the competition for greater
2 market share among producers and distributors
3 has reduced the need for heroin dealers to
4 dilute their product to satisfy the market
5 demand.
6 Ten years ago heroin street level
7 purity averaged 7 percent. But since 1988 it
8 has increased more than five-fold to an average
9 purity of between 35 and 40 percent.
10 Higher purity heroin has enabled
11 users to administer the drug through
12 alternatives to injection, like inhaling or
13 snorting, which are less efficient methods and
14 capable of producing substantial euphoric
15 effects at lower purity levels.
16 The availability of snorting has
17 attracted many new users, especially in the
18 Northeast, where street purities regularly top
19 50 percent are highly conducive to this method.
20 Snorting not only circumvents the
21 stigma traditionally associated with needles,
22 and eliminates the direct risk of contracting
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1 AIDS and other communicable diseases in
2 contaminated syringes, but it also fosters the
3 mistaken view held by some that it is less
4 addicting than injection.
5 Indeed, snorting heroin is as
6 addicting as injection, and may just as likely
7 result in that fatal overdose.
8 Snorting heroin is also unlikely to
9 the lesson the drugs practiced consequences.
10 Many addicts will continue to contract AIDS
11 from prostitution, which the history of the
12 crack epidemic teaches us, is a common method
13 to finance a drug habit.
14 And many users will more likely
15 return to more efficient methods, like an
16 injection, to boost their drug-induced stupors.
17 As a result of increased street-level purities
18 and the rising popularity of snorting, heroin
19 consumption has become more widespread in
20 mainstream society.
21 More and more of middle class and
22 working class teenagers, young adults in
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1 suburban residences with otherwise bright
2 futures, are joining the older, long-term users
3 who have more recently (inaudible) the addict
4 population.
5 Unless we do something now, we can
6 expect this trend and it's consequences to
7 continue and to become one of the most critical
8 crises we face in the area of narcotics
9 enforcement.
10 If we do not counteract the heroin
11 threat now, we risk repeating the terrible
12 consequences of the 1980's cocaine and crack
13 epidemic.
14 I remember as it started to become
15 epidemic, I just wish that in those days in the
16 80's we had the opportunity to come together to
17 find out what was happening in communities
18 across the nation, to share intelligence and to
19 develop a comprehensive plan, that together, we
20 can spend this time before it becomes
21 ingrained.
22 Heroin and other illegal drugs exact
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1 a tremendous toll on society, both financially
2 and morally. The economic costs alone are
3 absolutely staggering. We spend billions of
4 dollars annually to combat drug-related crime,
5 to cure the illnesses related to drug abuse and
6 to compensate for productivity losses in our
7 workplace.
8 But the other costs, the ones that
9 stir our sense of true moral outrage, are the
10 human costs. Childhood essence lost in
11 drive-by shootings. Infants who are addicted
12 to drugs. School children of course place a
13 higher premium on survival then on education,
14 and their decadence and their misery are
15 engulfing larger and larger segments of our
16 population.
17 The increase in heroin use and purity
18 has also spawned a substantial increase in the
19 number of users seen in hospital emergency
20 rooms. The Drug Abuse Warning Network, which
21 helps people treated for drug-related problems
22 and hospital emergency departments, estimates
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1 that 76,000 people sought emergency treatment
2 for heroin-related problems in 1995, more than
3 double the estimated 34,000 in 1990. Heroin
4 overdoses bring a tragic end to nearly 4,000
5 lives each year.
6 AIDS, the prevalent disease among the
7 injection users and drug addicts who finance
8 their habit through prostitution, has become a
9 common and especially anguishing cause of death
10 among heroin addicts and users.
11 At times it seems that society's
12 awareness of these costs and the dangers of
13 illicit drug use has decreased. A disturbing
14 number of heroin-related deaths and arrests
15 have occurred among the prominent entertainers,
16 underscoring an image problem among those who
17 young people often seek to emulate.
18 I congratulate those members in the
19 entertainment industry who are addressing these
20 problems, and I commend their efforts to fight
21 drugs and violence in this country.
22 Unfortunately, heroin's allure has
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1 broadened at the same time that the drug's
2 presence in cult culture has risen. Many of
3 those who are best positioned in our society to
4 influence young people's attitudes have been
5 sending the wrong message, or no message at
6 all.
7 The recent rash of talented young
8 lives snuffed by heroin, and prominent people
9 arrested for heroin use, suggest the drug may
10 have acquired a dangerous new cache in some
11 entertainment circles.
12 A tacit acceptance of heroin is
13 reflected not only by the prominent users'
14 actions and the pervasiveness of drug entry in
15 film, fashion and music, but by the apparent
16 willingness of some of the entertainment
17 industry to condone rather than to condemn its
18 use.
19 Those from the industry who have
20 joined us this week are representative of so
21 many in the field who know that substantial
22 progress in curtailing America's drug problem
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1 will not come about unless people under 20, who
2 are more likely than any other age group to
3 begin using drugs and are more susceptible to
4 messages in the meaning from the celebrities,
5 receive a clear and unequivocal message from
6 all corners that heroin usage is dangerous and
7 it is wrong.
8 The recent spate of deaths and
9 arrests undermines this message, making it
10 harder for children to say no when so many
11 influential role models say yes.
12 An unequivocal message from
13 Government and private industry on the perils
14 of the illegal drugs is especially important
15 now that heroin is in the position to become
16 our next major epidemic.
17 Demand reduction through education
18 and treatment is crucial to keeping people off
19 drugs in the first place, and to breaking the
20 cycle of crime and addiction among drug users.
21 But such a limited strategy, without
22 strong law enforcement, will not deter the
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1 hardcore users and the traffickers who stand
2 ready to exploit any demand, especially now
3 that the enormous global heroin supply has the
4 potential to overwhelm current treatment and
5 prevention efforts.
6 In this respect, a strong law
7 enforcement establishment encompassing federal,
8 state and local jurisdictions, and a link to an
9 efficient, effective intelligence-gathering
10 apparatus is essential.
11 The recent trend in heroin's
12 availability, purity and consumption point to
13 the urgency of our tasks. Without an effective
14 nationwide enforcement strategy, we will be
15 overcome by trafficking organizations that are
16 more sophisticated and more elusive than ever
17 before. They are poised to exploit every crack
18 and fissure in our enforcement system, and we
19 must be prepared to respond.
20 The effect of such a strategy must
21 take into account several features of the
22 heroin crave that presents unique obstacles to
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1 law enforcement. Unlike cocaine and other use
2 of drugs, the bulk of the world's heroin supply
3 is produced in countries that are particularly
4 immune to the United States' influence,
5 particularly Burma and Afghanistan, making
6 cooperation to source countries difficult.
7 Moreover, since a relatively small
8 percentage of the total worldwide heroin supply
9 is actually consumed in the United States,
10 large seizures in this country are likely to
11 have a relatively smaller effect on the
12 worldwide heroin market then a similar seizure
13 of cocaine would have on the cocaine market.
14 Heroin's price structure also tends
15 to favor traffickers over law enforcement by
16 allowing drug trafficking organizations to
17 profit from the relatively -- from the
18 smuggling of relatively small quantities.
19 Although heroin and cocaine prices
20 are comfortable, on the street level, heroin
21 offers a substantially larger profit margin on
22 the wholesale level. Heroin is best being
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1 moved in much smaller quantities than cocaine,
2 but still realizes the same financial windfall,
3 making it easier to conceal and ensuring that
4 seizures and arrests large enough to disrupt
5 the overall heroin market will be in treatment.
6 Perhaps as a result of heroin's price
7 advantage, many South American cocaine
8 trafficking organizations are now distributing
9 heroin. In the last three years, South
10 American heroin has accounted for a
11 progressively larger proportion of the
12 substance seized in this country.
13 And South American organizations,
14 with their very aggressive marketing tactics,
15 have begun to cultivate extensive heroin
16 clientele. These organizations are attracting
17 new addicts by offering reduced prices and
18 increased periods, thereby ensuring themselves
19 a significant long-term market share.
20 The upsurge in South American heroin
21 reaching our shores represents an especially
22 serious threat because of the proximity and
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1 production potential of South American producer
2 countries and the extensive trafficking
3 resources controlled by South American
4 organizations.
5 Mexican organizations which also
6 control substantial trafficking resources
7 continue to supply large amounts of black tar
8 and brown heroin in the rest of the United
9 States.
10 In the law enforcement arena we are
11 building effective federal, state and local
12 partnerships, and multi-agency task forces, as
13 well as working to secure the cooperation of
14 source-country governments.
15 I cannot stress to you how important
16 it is that the federal agencies that I
17 represent do everything they can to be a
18 partner with those of you who are out on the
19 front line in state and local law enforcement.
20 Many of you know my background as
21 that other state prosecutor. It is so
22 important for me that you let me know about any
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1 occasion that I can do anything that promotes,
2 that enhances, that encourages that cooperation
3 and that partnership. A two-way exchange of
4 information, not just one-way.
5 A recognition that, in some
6 instances, the case is better prosecuted in
7 state court and some instances it's better
8 prosecuted in federal court.
9 We need to do things not based on who
10 get's the credit, but who can take the most
11 effective step in stemming this surge of
12 heroin.
13 So, my telephone number is 514-2002.
14 (Laughter)
15 If there are problems, let me know.
16 Somebody said, "Well, you're too busy." I
17 think most people in this room will know that
18 I'm not too busy to get back to you to
19 follow-up to make sure that we're doing
20 everything we can to be a partner.
21 We give higher priority and more
22 resources to heroin investigations. Especially
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1 in gateway cities like New York and Miami,
2 where a significant amount of heroin enters our
3 country.
4 We must also develop effective
5 prosecution strategies that ensure heroin
6 traffickers receive stiff penalties, that their
7 money launderers are identified and prosecuted,
8 and that they are denied the benefit of their
9 ill-gotten gains.
10 We want to reach out to other federal
11 agencies to make sure that there are no turf
12 battles. And in money laundering
13 investigations we want to be a partner, work
14 together, ensure the exchange of information,
15 follow patterns and trends that lead us to the
16 sources where we can truly take effective
17 action without regard of who gets the credit,
18 but with regard with who get's the money
19 launderer.
20 The heroin market has the
21 vulnerability to be exploited. It is the
22 exceptionally high-level superiority which has
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1 been largely responsible, as I noted
2 previously, for the upsurge in use.
3 The last 10 years have demonstrated
4 that heroin purity is closely related to its
5 availability. As I have noted, the rise in
6 street-level purities has enabled users to
7 administer the drug through less efficient but
8 more popular alternatives.
9 And effective enforcement strategy
10 that reduces the amount of heroin reaching our
11 shores could, by forcing lower purities, have
12 the simultaneous effect of reducing both supply
13 and demand.
14 At the same time that we disrupt the
15 heroin retail enterprises, we must also devote
16 resources to education and treatment to provide
17 users and addicts the capacity and the
18 incentive to overcome their drug problem.
19 Current treatment programs can become
20 even more effective if we link them more
21 closely to the criminal justice system's unique
22 ability to coerce participation. I call it the
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1 good old fashioned carrot-and-stick approach.
2 It makes sense and it works if we back up what
3 we've said.
4 Although our nation's drug abuse
5 problem is not as severe as it was in the
6 1970's, and during the height of the cocaine
7 and crack epidemic in the 80's, the problem is
8 still a very serious one for this nation.
9 The challenge before us is to reduce
10 the distribution and consumption of illegal
11 drugs, and to not be lured into the complacency
12 by the gains we have made in the previous
13 decades.
14 It is this latter problem,
15 complacency, that I would like to close with.
16 Despite rising budgets for counterdrug
17 agencies, our national attention seems to have
18 become diverted from the problem at hand.
19 There has been a large decrease in
20 the number of public service announcements
21 available in the last years that have dealt
22 with the dangers of illicit drugs.
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1 Our children's disapproval of drugs
2 and knowledge of their dangerous consequences
3 have decreased through the 1990's. Indeed,
4 young people exhibit an increased fascination
5 for drug use.
6 Many people now see drug use less as
7 an abhorrent behavior than as a prominent and
8 moral part of the times. As a result, our
9 children have begun to use illegal drugs,
10 alcohol and tobacco in greater numbers in the
11 last six years.
12 We can reduce the distribution and
13 the consumption of heroin and other illicit
14 drugs if we maintain and resolve and allocate
15 our limited resources very carefully, and in a
16 comprehensive effort combining all aspects of
17 law enforcement.
18 We are a great nation with a
19 tremendous capacity for resolute action and
20 creative problem-solving. It has been so
21 impressive for me to have a chance to travel
22 across this nation and see what police
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1 departments and sheriff's offices are doing,
2 what federal agencies are doing in working in
3 partnership with them.
4 The focus on involvement. The focus
5 on the major organization to take it out and to
6 keep it out. Law enforcement in these last
7 five years has proved we can be effective if we
8 give them the tools to do the job.
9 But law enforcement has also shown
10 that, to be effective, we must not only have
11 the tools to do the law enforcement part of it,
12 we must have the tools to do the education,
13 prevention and treatment part of it as well.
14 We cannot afford to be complacent.
15 If we let the genie out of the bottle by
16 scaling back our efforts or by ignoring the
17 problem, our country will pay an enormous
18 economic and moral cost. And it is neither a
19 benevolent genie nor an easy one to squeeze
20 back into the bottle.
21 The decline in drug abuse in the last
22 20 years demonstrates that effective
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1 enforcement, treatment and prevention can and
2 does reduce our drug problem.
3 We will succeed here this week and in
4 the weeks and months and years to come if we
5 can raise some measure of national
6 consciousness as to the current threat posed by
7 heroin.
8 We also note that this conference
9 will contribute to the develop of a national
10 heroin strategy that can truly be effective in
11 combatting this blooming problem.
12 I am confident, based on what Tom has
13 told me of the progress of this meeting today
14 that, with your experience, your professional
15 excellence and your dedication during the
16 remainder of this conference, and as we work
17 together in the weeks and months to come, that
18 we can articulate and implement an effective
19 solution diverting in this nation our heroin
20 crisis.
21 Just let me tell once again how much
22 I admire you: The federal agencies represented
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1 here, state and local officials, treatment
2 professionals; those who understand how
3 important it is to come together and look at
4 the problem in a common sense way and then do
5 something about it.
6 On behalf of all the people in this
7 nation I thank you so much for all that you do.
8 (Applause)
9 (End of Address)
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