Charles Rangel: the front-line general in the war on drugs

Ebony, March, 1989 by Lynn Norment

By introducing a number of drugfighting bills, Rangel has done much more than just talk about the drug problem during his 18 years in Congress. As a freshman member of the House Crime Committee in 1971, just out of the U.S. Attorney's office in New York where he had tackled the famed French Connection hereoin case, Rangel remembers making an impassioned plea to President Richard Nixon.

"This disease that has hit my community should not be one that strikes the nation," he remembers telling the President during a rare meeting. While he credits Nixon with taking positive steps to deal with the problem at the time, he faults the federal government in general for not establishing policies to combat the drug epidemic that has expanded far beyond the heroin problem of the '70s.

"By ignoring the problem and believing that it was just something that affected the Black community and a sophisticated number of the wealthy," says Rangelk, "and by not really adopting any defense against the darn thing, we not only have let it get out of hand, but we let the suppliers know that they have free range for developing a market for this particular product."

The "product" includes the 150 tons of cocaine, 12 tons of heroin, 30,000 to 60,000 tons of marijuana, and 200 tons of hashish that entered the U.S. in 1986. A State Dept. report indicates that between 1986 and 1987, production increased in almost every major drug-producing country. In addition, black tar herion, a more potent form from Mexico, poses a new and deadly threat. Crack, a form of cocaine that can be smoked, continues to infiltrate our cities and suburbs. And the growing number of people seeking treatment for cocaine abuse reflects the pervasive crack infestation.

According to Rangel's Narcotics Committee, about 25 million people in the U.S. smoke marijuana regularly, and six to eight million use cocaine. There are 600,000 active heroin addicts, and an estimated seven million people abuse the various psychotropic drugs -- PCP, amphetamines, methamphetamines and LSD.

AIDS has further complicated the nation's drug problem. Intravenous drug abuse is associated with one-fourth of the more than 60,000 reported AIDS cases; it is the second most frequent means of transmitting the AIDS virus. Among women with AIDS, half are intravenous drug abusers, and IV drug use is the source of most perinatal AIDS cases.

In addition to the human suffering, estimates of the social and economic cost of drug-abuse prevention, treatment, related crime, violence, death, property destruction, lost productivity and drug enforcement come to $100 million.

Rangel is optimistic that the new Bush administration will take the lead in the nation's fight against drugs and coordinate efforts of the military, Justice Dept., State Dept., Dept. of Health and Human Services, and the Dept. of Education.

"The solution to the drug crisis is to hit it on all fronts," says Rangel. "It's like World War II, when we were in a war with the Japanese, the Germans and the Italians. We didn't just hit the Pacific; we hit them on all fronts."