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Positions and Views on Other Issues where Information is Available: |
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| Illegal Drugs & Marijuana |
Positions and Views |
| Illegal Drugs, a General Statement |
Biden: As Co-Chairman of the International Narcotics Control Caucus, Sen. Biden has a long record of accomplishment in passing bills to combat drug use and help drug addicts kick their habit. He wrote the 1988 law creating the nation's "Drug Czar," who oversees and coordinates national drug control policy. Today, Senator Biden continues to work to stop the spread of new drugs such as Ecstacy, Rohypnol, and Methamphetamines.
Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr. is a leader in Congress on combating drug use and stemming the flow of drugs into our country. Each year illegal drug use and violence from drug trafficking costs our country billions of dollars and thousands of lives. Using the bully pulpit of the Drug Caucus, Senator Biden has chaired hearings, solicited expert testimony, authored legislation, and released reports on domestic and international narcotic trafficking. Senator Biden’s comprehensive legislative solutions reflect his understanding that drugs in America are a multi-billion dollar international criminal enterprise, a major cause of crime and gang activity, and a tragic addiction that tears apart families and neighborhoods.
Source: biden.senate.gov/issues Date: 04/22/2008 |
| Marijuana, a General Statement |
Biden: No Response |
| War on Drugs |
Biden: Senator Biden is well known for his work to curb drug use in America. He created the Drug Czar’s office in the White House to coordinate federal programs in the war against drugs; he wrote the Biden Drug Free Schools Zone law, imposing special penalties for dealing drugs within 1,000 feet of a school, and enabling schools to provide drug education and prevention programs, like DARE; and he was instrumental in classifying steroids a drug and funding programs to deter its use by students.
Under George Bush’s watch, Afghanistan has gone from producing about 10% of the world’s opium to producing 93%. The Taliban were able to bring drug production nearly to a halt by the end of their reign—there’s no excuse for a superpower failing so markedly in the same effort.
The Administration’s preferred strategy is guaranteed to make things even worse. For years, the White House has been trying to force the Afghan government to accept aerial spraying of crops—a policy rejected by the Afghans, by our NATO allies, and by the U.S. military. For good reason: such a plan would alienate the populace, conjure up memories of Soviet-era air strikes, and provide the Taliban with a flood of new recruits.
Instead, we should be providing Afghan farmers with alternate livelihoods. We should helping create a judicial system capable of taking down the drug barons. We should be trying to root out the corruption in the Afghan government that lets the druglords operate with complete impunity. We should be taking out refining plants where the narco-barons turn the opium into raw heroin.
The Administration wants to target dollar-a-day Afghan farmers. That’s dead-wrong: We should be going after the other end of the food chain. There may be a place for aerial eradication in the future—but first we should be targeting the multimillionaire drug kingpins who are helping fund the Taliban.
Source: biden.senate.gov/issues Date: 04/21/2008 |
| Drug Prevention |
Biden: No Response |
| Drug Rehabilitation |
Biden: No Response |
| Interstate Drug Trafficking |
Biden: No Response |
| Medical Use of Marijuana |
Biden: No Response |
| Legalization of Marijuana |
Biden: No Response |
| Doping in Sports |
Biden: Biden’s Anabolic Steroid Control Act adds 18 substances to the list of banned anabolic steroids, including androstenedione (also known as "andro") and tetrahydrogestrinone (THG). Biden’s measure also provides $15 million for education programs to teach kids about the dangers of steroids. It also calls for criminal penalties for those caught making, selling, or possessing these substances.
"Steroid use by young people is a serious health issue. A lot of kids don't know harmful this stuff really is," said Biden, Co-Chairman of the Senate Drug Caucus. "This new law sends a strong message about andro and other steroid precursors – we are calling them what they really are: drugs, performance enhancing drugs. They should be labeled as such, they should be treated as such, and now, thanks to this new law, they will be controlled in the same manner as other anabolic steroids."
“It’s not only a health issue but also a values issue,” Biden continued. “If kids think that all of the best athletes are ‘on the juice,’ what does that teach them? I think it teaches them that they should use steroids or steroid precursors to get ahead and win the game; that cheating is OK. This offends me to my core. The United States is the ultimate meritocracy and it is absolutely un-American to take a performance-enhancing drug to get an unfair competitive advantage.”
Steroid precursors, or "pro-steroids," are chemically related to the substances scheduled in the 1990 Controlled Substances Act that made trafficking in steroids illegal. When ingested, these substances metabolize into testosterone or other illicit steroids. The United States Anti-Doping Agency, the group in charge of testing Olympic athletes for performance enhancing drugs, has called these products "the functional equivalent of steroids." Many physicians, parents and coaches have called for action against these dangerous products.
Source: Candidate Website Date: 01/19/2008 |
| Punishments for Drug Crimes |
Biden: In 1986, Congress established a draconian sentencing scheme that punished the crack form of cocaine far more severely than the powder form. Currently, mere possession of 5 grams of crack triggers a five-year mandatory minimum sentence, while it takes distribution or manufacture of 500 grams of powder cocaine to trigger that same sentence. The assumptions that led Congress to establish this disparity – that crack is inherently more dangerous and addictive than powder, that crack would devastate communities, and that prenatal exposure to crack was far more damaging than exposure to powder – have proved unfounded. Senator Biden has proposed legislation to implement the US Sentencing Commission’s recommendation to eliminates the 100:1 disparity between the two forms of the drug. He also supports increasing funding for prison- and jail-based drug treatment programs.
Source: biden.senate.gov/issues Date: 04/21/2008 |
| Metamphetamines |
Biden: "Meth abuse is a serious public health issue," said Biden, the Co-Chairman of the Senate Drug Caucus. "Our local communities need federal help dealing with the meth problem exploding in their towns. They need money for law enforcement, prevention programs, treatment resources. This caucus will help us focus on those needs and devote more resources to reducing methamphetamine use."
Senator Biden has been at the forefront of national policy on methamphetamine for nearly 15 years, issuing reports in the early 1990s warning that meth would make its way across the country and negatively impact rural America; writing major meth legislation in 1996 and 2000; and cosponsoring legislation this year to regulate cold medicines containing pseudoephedrine, the active ingredient in methamphetamine.
Today meth use and production is growing at an unacceptable level: the number of people entering drug treatment for meth addiction has increased almost sixfold in the last decade; Drug Enforcement Administration seizures of meth increased more than fivefold in that time frame; and more than 300,000 people began using meth last year, joining more than 11 million other Americans who have tried meth.
"Meth abuse is creating chaos in small town America. We are witnessing large-scale proliferation of small meth labs in homes, trailers, and garages where about $100 worth of materials from the local drug store can be cooked into about $1,000 worth of meth," said Biden. "These labs present an incredible danger to law enforcement who raid them, they are an environmental nightmare, and most importantly, they present an unbelievable hazard to kids.”
Biden noted that between a third and a quarter of all of these drug labs are in homes with children. As many as 80% of the children found in these labs test positive for meth after living in the lab and breathing in the dangerous fumes produced in the process of cooking the drug.
Source: Candidate Website Date: 01/19/2008 |