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Bar-diagram-of-student-responses to the question, "If you were to find that you had a serious drug problem, and vaated to stop using drugs, what do you think is the best way to go about it? Check the ONE you would be most likely to use.

Mr. WOLFF. Without objection.

Mr. MINETA. The first graph demonstrates that in comparison to a number of other drugs, PCP represents a proportionately smaller problem than alcohol and marihuana-1.1 percent of the senior high students and 0.9 percent of the junior high students revealed that they were regular users of PCP. That means that 1,354 students currently attending San Jose schools fall into this group. As Project DARE pointed out to me, however, youngsters with chronic drug problems are not likely to even be in school.

The second graph reveals that both senior and junior high school students have observed a dramatic increase of PCP usage in the last year.

The third graph reveals the tremendous increase in PCP use by ethnic groups. The highest increase has been among black youths. The critical increase in the last year reveals graphically the escalation of the problem.

The last graph indicates responses to a question concerning the best way to stop using drugs if a serious problem exists. The high percentage of those responding that they should "just stop" indicates an unrealistic assumption that a person with a serious drug problem can just stop. Clearly, those using drugs must have more realistic information about what they are doing to themselves.

It is clear to me that PCP is a growing and serious problem and a problem that we must begin to address. Since PCP has no recognized human medical use, it should be reclassified among the most dangerous drugs, alongside heroin, in schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act.

Second, the penalty for the manufacture or sale of PCP should be increased. Third, PCP must be accorded priority attention by Federal law enforcement officials. Simultaneously, drug abuse treatment and prevention resources, including massive educational campaigns, should be redirected to deal with this most hazardous drug.

I understand that Senator Bentsen will be speaking to you here today about his bill, S. 2778, the PCP Control Act of 1978. His bill would increase the criminal sanctions for the unauthorized manufacture, distribution, or possession of PCP. The measure would also render the clandestine manufacture of PCP much more perilous by controlling the sale and transfer of the chemical piperidine, a necessary ingredient in PCP.

In addition to stating my support for this measure, I would like to emphasize the need for PCP treatment facilities, such as Project DARE. It is my belief that we need to treat both ends of the problem, the precursors and the users.

In many ways PCP represents the typical drug problem America will have to face in the 1980's and beyond. Instead of clandestine shipments of narcotics being smuggled across the Nation's borders, small laboratories, manufacturing illicit, easily produced, highly profitable, psychoactive chemicals, will be tucked away on inconspicuous city and suburban streets and in rural areas.

We have become a nation of people for whom "getting high," be it with drugs or alcohol, has become as common a recreation as Sunday picnics and the Fourth of July. The fact is that the great majority of Americans are currently drinking, smoking, sniffing, snorting, chewing, or eating something that has been classified as a drug.

The reasons behind our seemingly limitless tradition of drug consumption are simple. All of us enjoy feeling good, and with the current sophistication of chemical technology, our neighborhoods are being flooded with a bedazzling array of drugs that produce sensations that people like. And we are buying them by the ton. While adults subscribe to more traditional substances, alcohol, marihuana, cocaine, and a plethora of easily obtainable prescription drugs, a younger generation seems to have chosen a mysterious chemical called PCP as their drug of the seventies. In my view this substance merits all of the resistance we can offer.

[Mr. Mineta's prepared statement appears on p. 89.]

Mr. WOLFF. I want to thank the gentleman from California for a very well-thought-out statement. We are grateful to you for bringing your own area's experience to the committee.

To think that the young kids of this country have turned to an elephant tranquilizer is a great, great tragedy.

Are there any questions? Mr. Gilman.

Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Chairman, I wish to commend the gentleman from California for taking the time and expressing his concern about this very vital matter, underscoring the need for more education with regard to this problem as a result of his own experience in the city of San Jose.

I note that the gentleman suggests that we raise the classification of the drug to a class I substance. I hope the gentleman will join us in the legislation that we have before the House, and assist us in that connection.

Mr. MINETA. I would be pleased to join in that effort.

Mr. GILMAN. Again I want to commend the gentleman for his indepth review of the problem.

Mr. WOLFF. Mr. Rangel.

Mr. RANGEL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to congratulate my colleague, and to offer not only my assistance, but there are so many people in the House who have gone through these tragic experiences with other drugs and the rest of the Nation figured we were talking about our small constituency and did not really recognize the real threat that it has to our national security.

I do hope that as we talk about education, the President of the United States will be able to use the type of platform that he has to enunciate his moral concern for people all over the world to see whether or not we can let all of the agencies and departments of this great Government and all other people that work for the Federal Government realize how serious it is.

You have really put together a paper for your community which, as the chairman said, most other major cities face. The question is how can we bring these forces together to allow our youngsters to know they are really playing with death on the installment plan.

You are to be lauded for the professional way you presented this to the committee, and I look forward to working with you to see how collectively we can do something about it.

Mr. MINETA. Thank you, Mr. Rangel. I think really through the leadership of this committee, through the leadership of the chairman, that we will be able to get a national strategy developed in deal

ing with PCP. And to impress upon NIDA, DEA, all of the agencies involved, a national strategy for what I would consider the epidemic use and abuse of PCP. There is no question that it has to be a coordinated effort. From my having seen the work of Project DARE, it is one which requires an educational effort, dealing with the courts, probation officers, and the school system. It must involve the counseling of drug abusers, and working with companies to refer their own employees to counseling. That is what is involved in the Project DARE program.

There are a number of things that can be done. It seems to me that in Project DARE we see not a demonstration program, but actually a resource that is applying the various facilities as well as expertise available in the community to address itself to this one problem in our community.

It seems to me it could serve as a national model.

Mr. WOLFF. Mr. Guyer.

Mr. GUYER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I don't think you need any postscript. I want too to add my voice to commend my colleague, Mr. Mineta, who I think displays a great deal of dedication here, a man who was mayor of the same community and is following the same concern in Congress, and it underscores the magnitude and severity of the problem when a man points to his home community, rather than an outsider discovering it. It means a great deal to us, the candor with which you brought this testimony to the committee. Mr. WOLFF. Thank you. Mr. Mineta, would you like to join us here on the panel?

Mr. MINETA. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, I will.

Mr. WOLFF. We would like to call our first panel now, Lee Dogoloff, Associate Director, Domestic Policy Staff, the White House; Peter Bensinger, Administrator, Drug Enforcement Administration; and Dr. Dorynne Czechowicz, Special Assistant to the Director of the Division of Community Assistance and Chairman of the National Institute on Drug Abuse PCP Task Force.

May I ask you to be sworn, please?

[Panelists sworn.]

Having heard our colleague, we have in front of us three of the people who are most concerned with the regulation of this particular substance, PCP, which young people have called a mind-blowing substance. If there is anything that is really an apt name, it is that. But one thing that has impressed me is the fact that the young people of our country are not stupid, and when the campaign that was launched on speed was finally gotten across to the young people of the country, they realized that it was a dangerous substance, and the abuse of speed was curtailed.

I am wondering whether or not we are not remiss, those of us who are in this particular area of responsibility, in not having alerted the young people of this country to the severe dangers that exist with this particular substance. It is called angel dust, but that is the greatest misnomer I have ever heard. I would hope that from the testimony that you three are about to give, we will learn a little bit more about the interest and the type of program that we can anticipate from the Federal enforcement authorities and the people who are responsible for drug policy in this country.

[blocks in formation]

With that, Mr. Dogoloff, I would ask you to present your statement. You may summarize the statement, and we will include the full statement in the record.

TESTIMONY OF LEE I. DOGOLOFF, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, DOMESTIC POLICY STAFF, THE WHITE HOUSE

Mr. DOGOLOFF. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. It is indeed a pleasure to be here today to meet with you and the members of the Select Committee.

Bringing the issue of PCP to the attention of the American public is another example of the leadership both you and the committee have shown in many aspects of the drug abuse problem.

We look forward to working together with you on this, as we have with other issues. The information we acquire from the testimony that you take during these hearings can be incorporated into our thinking and help us to reassess how we can work together to deal with this very difficult problem.

There is a great deal of concern in the Federal Establishment regarding PCP. Increased marketing, increased use, and the fact that this could be a model for other synthetic drugs, have been of concern to us for some time.

We raised this over a year ago with our principal group and established a PCP Action Coordinating Commission to deal effectively among the agencies with this problem. This Commission is set up under the able chairmanship of the Drug Enforcement Administration with the cooperation of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and representatives from the Food and Drug Administration.

You will hear of a program today that has come into being, which is helpful in dealing with this particular issue.

As you know, PCP is an easily manufactured psychoactive drug, which can induce bizarre behavior, disorientation, persistent cognitive and memory problems, and psychoses with persistent use.

Some researchers believe that adverse consequences are inevitable with persistent use. PCP can cause death, both directly by overdose, and indirectly through violent behavior and accidents, particularly drowning.

We are also concerned because PCP-reported deaths have doubled in the last year. Use by the 12- to 17-year-old group has doubled, up to 5.8 percent.

Mr. WOLFF. Those are reported deaths?

Mr. DOGOLOFF. Yes; that is correct.

Mr. WOLFF. That does not include I understand we are going to have testimony today from Mr. Minyard, who will indicate there are a great number of deaths that are attributed to other causes that are really PCP deaths.

Mr. DOGOLOFF. Yes, this is an excellent point which needs to be borne in mind. I agree that these figures are not representative of the real facts. The bizarre behavior produced by PCP use can often lead to death which is not directly attributable to the drug, but rather to the behavior.

The use by the 18- to 25-year-old group is up by 50 percent in the last year, to 13.9 percent nationwide.

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