The penalty structure in the 1970 Drug Act became effective on May 1 of this year. While it is too soon to assess its effect, I expect it to help enable us to deter or remove from our midst those who traffic in narcotics and other dangerous drugs.

To complement the new Federal drug law, a uniform State drug control law has been drafted and recommended to the States. Nineteen States have already adopted it and others have it under active consideration. Adoption of this uniform law will facilitate joint and effective action by all levels of government.

Although I do not presently anticipate a necessity for alteration of the purposes or principles of existing enforcement statutes, there is a clear need for some additional enforcement legislation.

To help expedite the prosecution of narcotic trafficking cases, we are asking the Congress to provide legislation which would permit the United States Government to utilize information obtained by foreign police, provided that such information was obtained in compliance with the laws of that country.

We are also asking that the Congress provide legislation which would permit a chemist to submit written findings of his analysis in drug cases. This would speed the process of criminal justice.

The problems of addict identification are equalled and surpassed by the problem of drug identification. To expedite work in this area of narcotics enforcement, I am asking the Congress to provide $2 million to be allotted to the research and development of equipment and techniques for the detection of illegal drugs and drug traffic.

I am asking the Congress to provide $2 million to the Department of Agriculture for research and development of herbicides which can be used to destroy growths of narcotics-producing plants without adverse ecological effects.

I am asking the Congress to authorize and fund 325 additional positions within the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs to increase their capacity for apprehending those engaged in narcotics trafficking here and abroad and to investigate domestic industrial producers of drugs.

Finally, I am asking the Congress to provide a supplemental appropriation of $25.6 million for the Treasury Department. This will increase funds available to this Department for drug abuse control to nearly $45 million. Of this sum, $18.1 million would be used to enable the Bureau of Customs to develop the technical capacity to deal with smuggling by air and sea, to increase the investigative staff charged with pursuit and apprehension of smugglers, and to increase inspection personnel who search persons, baggage, and cargo entering the country. The remaining $7.5 million would permit the Internal Revenue Service to intensify investigation of persons involved in large-scale narcotics trafficking.

These steps would strengthen our efforts to root out the cancerous growth of narcotics addiction in America. It is impossible to say that the enforcement legislation I have asked for here will be conclusive-that we will not need further legislation. We cannot fully know at this time what further steps will be necessary. As those steps define themselves, we will be prepared to seek further legislation to take any action and every action necessary to wipe out the menace of drug addiction in America. But domestic enforcement alone cannot do the job. If we are to stop the flow of narcotics into the lifeblood of this country, I believe we must stop it at the source.

INTERNATIONAL

There are several broad categories of drugs: those of the cannabis familysuch as marihuana and hashish; those which are used as sedatives, such as the barbiturates and certain tranquilizers: those which elevate mood and suppress appetite, such as the amphetamines; and, drugs such as LSD and mescaline, which are commonly called hallucinogens. Finally, there are the narcotic analgesics, including opium and its derivatives-morphine and codeine. Heroin is made from morphine.

Heroin addiction is the most difficult to control and the most socially destructive form of addiction in America today. Heroin is a fact of life and a cause of death among an increasing number of citizens in America, and it is heroin addiction that must command priority in the struggle against drugs.

To wage an effective war against heroin addiction, we must have international cooperation. In order to secure such cooperation, I am initiating a world

wide escalation in our existing programs for the control of narcotics traffic, and I am proposing a number of new steps for this purpose.

First, on Monday, June 14, I recalled the United States Ambassadors to Turkey, France, Mexico, Luxembourg, Thailand, the Republic of Vietnam, and the United Nations for consultations on how we can better cooperate with other nations in the effort to regulate the present substantial world opium output and narcotics trafficking. I sought to make it equally clear that I consider the heroin addiction of American citizens an international problem of grave concern to this Nation, and I instructed our Ambassadors to make this clear to their host governments. We want good relations with other countries, but we cannot buy good relations at the expense of temporizing on this problem.

Second, United States Ambassadors to all East Asian governments will meet in Bangkok, Thailand, tomorrow, June 18, to review the increasing problem in that area, with particular concern for the effects of this problem on American servicemen in Southeast Asia.

Third, it is clear that the only really effective way to end heroin production is to end opium production and the growing of poppies. I will propose that as an international goal. It is essential to recognize that opium is, at present, a legitimate source of income to many of those nations which produce it. Morphine and codeine both have legitimate medical applications.

It is the production of morphine and codeine for medical purposes which justifies the maintenance of opium production, and it is this production which in turn contributes to the world's heroin supply. The development of effective substitutes for these derivatives would eliminate any valid reason for opium production. While modern medicine has developed effective and broadly-used substitutes for morphine, it has yet to provide a fully acceptable substitute for codeine. Therefore, I am directing that Federal research efforts in the United States be intensified with the aim of developing at the earliest possible date synthetic substitutes for all opium derivatives. At the same time I am requesting the Director General of the World Health Organization to appoint a study panel of experts to make periodic technical assessments of any synthetics which might replace opiates with the aim of effecting substitutions as soon as possible.

Fourth, I am requesting $1 million to be used by the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs for training of foreign narcotics enforcement officers. Additional personnel within the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs would permit the strengthening of the investigative capacities of BNDD offices in the U.S., as well as their ability to assist host governments in the hiring, training, and deployment of personnel and the procurement of necessary equipment for drug abuse control.

Fifth, I am asking the Congress to amend and approve the International Security Assistance Act of 1971 and the International Development and Humanitarian Assistance Act of 1971 to permit assistance to presently proscribed nations in their efforts to end drug trafficking. The drug problem crosses ideological boundaries and surmounts national differences. If we are barred in any way in our effort to deal with this matter, our efforts will be crippled, and our will subject to question. I intend to leave no room for other nations to question our commitment to this matter.

Sixth, we must recognize that cooperation in control of dangerous drugs works both ways. While the sources of our chief narcotics problem are foreign, the United States is a source of illegal psychotropic drugs which afflict other nations. If we expect other governments to help stop the flow of heroin to our shores, we must act with equal vigor to prevent equally dangerous substances from going into their nations from our own. Accordingly, I am submitting to the Senate for its advice and consent the Convention on Psychotropic Substances which was recently signed by the United States and 22 other nations. In addition, I will submit to the Congress any legislation made necessary by the Convention including the complete licensing, inspection, and control of the manufacture, distribution, and trade in dangerous synthetic drugs.

Seventh, the United States has already pledged $2 million to a Special Fund created on April 1 of this year by the Secretary General of the United Nations and aimed at planning and executing a concerted UN effort against the world drug problem. We will continue our strong backing of UN drug-control efforts by encouraging other countries to contribute and by requesting the Congress to make additional contributions to this fund as their need is demonstrated.

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Finally, we have proposed, and we are strongly urging multilateral support for, amendments to the Single Convention on Narcotics which would enable the International Narcotics Control Board to:

require from signatories details about opium poppy cultivation and opium production-thus permitting the Board access to essential information about narcotics raw materials from which illicit diversion occurs;

base its decisions about the various nations' activities with narcotic drugs not only as at present on information officially submitted by the governments, but also on information which the Board obtains through public or private sources-thus enhancing data available to the Board in regard to illicit traffic;

carry out, with the consent of the nation concerned, on-the-spot inquiries on drug related activities;

modify signatories' annual estimates of intended poppy acreage and opium production with a view to reducing acreage or production; and

in extreme cases, require signatories to embargo the export and/or import of drugs to or from a particular country that has failed to meet its obligations under the Convention.

I believe the foregoing proposals establish a new and needed dimension in the international effort to halt drug production, drug traffic, and drug abuse. These proposals put the problems and the search for solutions in proper perspective, and will give this Nation its best opportunity to end the flow of drugs, and most particularly heroin, into America, by literally cutting it off root and branch at the source.

CONCLUSION

Narcotics addiction is a problem which afflicts both the body and the soul of America. It is a problem which baffles many Americans. In our history we have faced great difficulties again and again, wars and depressions and divisions among our people have tested our will as a people-and we have prevailed.

We have fought together in war, we have worked together in hard times, and we have reached out to each other in division-to close the gaps between our people and keep America whole.

The threat of narcotics among our people is one which properly frightens many Americans. It comes quietly into homes and destroys children, it moves into neighborhoods and breaks the fiber of community which makes neighbors. It is a problem which demands compassion, and not simply condemnation, for those who become the victims of narcotics and dangerous drugs. We must try to better understand the confusion and disillusion and despair that bring people, particularly young people, to the use of narcotics and dangerous drugs.

We are not without some understanding in this matter, however. And we are not without the will to deal with this matter. We have the moral resources to do the job. Now we need the authority and the funds to match our moral resources. I am confident that we will prevail in this struggle as we have in many others. But time is critical. Every day we lose compounds the tragedy which drugs inflict on individual Americans. The final issue is not whether we will conquer drug abuse, but how soon. Part of this answer lies with the Congress now and the speed with which it moves to support the struggle against drug abuse.

RICHARD NIXON.

Senator CRANSTON. In closing, I want to note that the scheduled HEW witnesses, Dr. Wilson and Dr. Brown, have requested to be excused from testifying today. I sympathize with their inability to coordinate their views in the few days available with Dr. Jerome H. Jaffee, head of the newly designated Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention, established by the President within his Executive Office. It has been agreed that Dr. Jaffee, supported by appropriate HEW officials, will be prepared to testify on July 1 before the Health and Hospitals Subcommittee of the Veterans' Affairs Committee regarding my bill, S. 2108, and other veteran addiction legislative proposals. Senator Hughes? Senator Hughes serves as cochairman of the joint hearing.

Senator HUGHES. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much.

It is a privilege for our subcommittee to participate once again in joint hearings with the Subcommittee on Health and Hospitals of the Veterans' Affairs Committee. Since he has been in the Senate, my distinguished colleague, Senator Cranston, has written chapters of achievement in his tireless and faithful advocacy of the rights and welfare of the American veteran.

I think it should be recognized at the outset that the problem we are considering in these hearings today is something that is basically new. Chemical addiction of epidemic proportions in our Armed Services and veteran population is not something that we commonly deal with. We have no precedent to which we can refer for real guidance. We do have moralistic hangups of attitude which hamper our examining the problem objectively in America, and if we had been dealing with a bacterial disease instead of a chemical one, we would have had it under control by this time.

Most of us, I believe, have not yet fully registered as to the enormity of the problem, the unimaginable complications of dealing with it effectively, and the tragic consequences we will face if we do not deal with it adequately.

President Nixon, in launching his new offensive against drug addiction, has wisely approached the problem in its totality-both civilian and military-and I think this is very important-instead of confining the emphasis to the military, where the most valid focus of public concern is at the moment.

But the fact that it is a problem of our total society in no way lets. any of us-the Congress, the Executive, the Department of Defense, HEW, or the VA-off the hook for responsibility in dealing with it. We all have immense responsibility. We dare not fail or waste time in passing the buck.

The President, in his drug message last week, pointed out that "The Veterans' Administration medical facilities are a great national resource which can be of immeasurable assistance in the effort against this grave national problem. Restrictive and exclusionary use of these facilities under present statutes." he stated clearly, "we cannot afford." He then went on to say: "Authority will be sought by the new Office to make the facilities of the Veterans' Administration available to all former servicemen in need of drug rehabilitation, regardless of the nature of their discharge from the service."

The offensive against drug addiction in the Armed Services cannot. be conceived of as a temporary or minor skirmish, in my opinion. It is a full-scale, long-term war in its own right-a new kind of war that requires new weapons, new attitudes, and total commitment.

We must put aside our old moralistic hangups and dig in to get the job done.

An immediate political solution to the crisis which would get addicted men patched up long enough to be returned to civilian life but still desperately sick would be the ultimate tragedy. It would haunt us for generations to come.

We are not dealing with a matter of logistics or political policy. We are dealing with the lives of human beings-a substantial percentage of our most valuable youth in America.

As I have said before, we must work with the President; we must work with the military; we must work with the professionals; we must

work with the VA and the veterans organizations; we must keep our balance, our patience, our determination and our independent objective judgment. We must support proposals that are workable and right; we must strive mightily to correct those that our experience tells us are wrong.

Above all, we cannot waste time in recrimination, buck-passing or looking back over our shoulders.

This is a war we have got to win for the future strength, security, and well-being of our country. I particularly want to welcome my fellow Iowan, Don Johnson, back again before the joint subcommittees hearing, and I appreciate the opportunity to participate with you.

Senator CRANSTON. Thank you very much, Harold. I appreciate your remarks and your strong statements.

Senator Hansen, do you have any remarks to make?

Senator HANSEN. I do not, Mr. Chairman. I will be very much interested in hearing the witnesses.

Senator CRANSTON. Mr. Administrator, I want to welcome you here and thank you and your General Counsel very much for making your statement available to us by Monday evening. I am delighted to have you with us. I wish you would introduce your colleagues and proceed. STATEMENT OF HON. DONALD E. JOHNSON, ADMINISTRATOR OF VETERANS' AFFAIRS, VETERANS' ADMINISTRATION; ACCOMPANIED BY DR. MARC J. MUSSER, CHIEF MEDICAL DIRECTOR; AND JOHN J. CORCORAN, GENERAL COUNSEL

Mr. JOHNSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee. First, if I may introduce those at the table with me. To my left is Dr. Marc J. Musser, the Chief Medical Director of the Veterans' Administration, and to my right is John J. Corcoran, general counsel of the Veterans Administration. We do have others present in the auditorium: Mr. Owen, the Chief Benefits Director; Mr. Eliot H. Wells, the Controller for the Department of Medicine and Surgery; Dr. Lyndon Lee, a pharmacologist in his own right; and Mr. A. T. Bronaugh, Associate General Counsel.

You are considering a problem of extremely serious proportions in our Nation today. I welcome this opportunity to review the past activities of the Veterans' Administration in connection with the drug abuse problem of veterans, to outline our present plans, and to discuss the contribution we can make to the future solution of this national problem.

Drug abuse in the military is, of course, one part of a national problem. This has been recognized by all who have more than superficial knowledge of the situation. The first finding of the Special Subcommittee of the House Committee on Armed Services-as a result of its recent inquiry into the matter of drug abuse among servicemen-was that there is a serious drug abuse problem in the military largely because there is a serious drug abuse problem in our civilian society. This fact holds true as concerns drug abuse among former servicemen, or veterans, now members of the civilian population.

Therefore, it is particularly appropriate that the subcommittees of both the Veterans' Affairs Committee and the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare are meeting in joint session to consider this problem.