FOR THE RECORD

From a statement by Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) at a June 30 hearing of the
criminal justice, drug policy and human resources subcommittee of the House
Government Reform Committee:

While Congress has poured substantial monies into the Southwest border
initiatives to combat heroin trafficking . . . the surge of high, pure and
cheap heroin is now threatening a growing number of people in the United
States, and . . . it's the young people of our country that are becoming
the victims.

The University of Michigan has reported that the use of heroin by 12- to
17-year-olds has doubled over the last seven years. That same study
indicated that 83,160 eighth-graders--eighth-graders, mind you--have tried
heroin. The most recent estimate of the domestic hard-core heroin addict
population in the U.S. is 980,000 people. And we have communities where we
conducted hearings, like Baltimore, that now have somewhere in the
neighborhood of 80,000 heroin and drug addicts, according to one of the
city council women there. The number is one in eight individuals in
Baltimore is a narcotics addict. . . .

[N]ew, highly potent forms of heroin from drug cartels in Colombia and
Mexico have been key to attracting new users. . . . [Y]oung people
typically prefer to sniff or smoke their drugs, rather than inject them.
Now, with the more potent heroin that's available, that's high purity and
deadly heroin, and it's available as a powder in bags or gel capsules, and
users can get high without injecting.