2000 Ron Paul 3:1 Mr. PAUL.
Mr. Speaker, today the Congress
will collectively move our nation yet another
step closer to a national police state by further
expanding a federal crime to include amongst
the list of controlled substances that of GHB,
a nutrient used for 25 years with beneficial effects
for those suffering from cataplexy, insomnia,
narcolepsy, depression, alcoholism,
opiate addiction and numerous other conditions.
Of course, it is much easier to ride the
current wave of federalizing every human misdeed
in the name of saving the world from
some evil than to uphold a Constitutional oath
which prescribes a procedural limitation by
which the nation is protected from what is perhaps
the worst evil, totalitarianism. Who, after
all, and especially in an election year, wants to
be amongst those members of Congress who
are portrayed as being soft on drugs or rape,
irrespective of the procedural transgressions
and individual or civil liberties one tramples in
their overzealous approach.
2000 Ron Paul 3:2 Our federal government is, constitutionally,
a government of limited powers. Article one,
Section eight, enumerates the legislative areas
for which the U.S. Congress is allowed to act
or enact legislation. For every other issue, the
federal government lacks any authority or consent
of the governed and only the state governments,
their designees, or the people in
their private market actions enjoy such rights
to governance. The tenth amendment is brutally
clear in stating
“The powers not delegated
to the United States by the Constitution,
nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved
to the States respectively, or to the people.”
2000 Ron Paul 3:3 In his first formal complaint to Congress on
behalf of the federal Judiciary, Chief Justice
William H. Rehnquist said
“the trend to federalize
crimes that have traditionally been handled
in state courts * * * threatens to change
entirely the nature of our federal system.”
Rehnquist further criticized Congress for yielding
to the political pressure to “appear responsive
to every highly publicized societal ill or
sensational crime.”
2000 Ron Paul 3:4 Even if GHB is as potentially dangerous as
the bill’s advocates suggest, punishing possession
of a useful substance because it potentially
could be used in a harmful manner is
as inconsistent with liberty as criminalizing the
possession of handguns and cars.
2000 Ron Paul 3:5 Moreover, this bill empowers Health and
Human Services to engage in a national propaganda
campaign on the dangers of GHB,
creates a special unit with the Drug Enforcement
Agency to assess abuse and trafficking
in GHB, and authorizes the Justice Department
to issue taxpayer-funded grants for the
development of police officer field-test equipment.
Aside from being further abuses of enumerated
powers doctrine, the substantive
questions raised by this legislation make these
usurpations of state government authority
even more reprehensible.
2000 Ron Paul 3:6 Additionally, this Act undermines the recently
enacted Dietary Supplement Health &
Education Act (DSHEA) at the expense of
thousands of consumers who have safely
used these natural metabolites of the amino
acid GABA. According to practicing physician
Ward Dean, West Point graduate and former
Delta Force flight surgeon, HR 2130 appears
to be a case of pharmaceutical-company-protectionism.
Because the substances restricted
under this act are natural, and hence, non-patentable,
the pharmaceutical concerns lose
market-share in areas for which GHB is a
safer and less expensive means of treating
numerous ailments. In a recent letter from Dr.
Dean, he states:
2000 Ron Paul 3:7
I have extensive experience in the clinical
use of gamma hyudroxy butyric acid (GHB)
. . . I have used these substances for over ten
years on hundreds of patients (and have advised
thousands through my books and articles
on the subject). I have not had one instance
reported to me of adverse effects in
my patients. GHB is the safest, most nontoxic
sleep inducing substance known. It has
a wide range of other therapeutic uses. The
therapeutic threshold for GHB is greater
than almost any known pharmaceutical substance
(the LD50 is 40100 times greater than
the sleep-inducing therapeutic dose of 36
grams!).
2000 Ron Paul 3:8 It is incongruous, to me, that a substance
with such a wide range of documented benefits
that is so overwhelmingly safe, can simultaneously
be both a Schedule I and a
Schedule III substance. GHB is a naturally
occurring substance, present in all mammalian
tissue as well as many foods. Consequently,
everyone is in “possession” of
this “controlled substance” — and every grocery
store that sells meat is in “possession
with intent to distribute.” These are not
frivolous statements. In states where GHB is
a Schedule I substance, there have been several
instances where the charges have been
dropped by the prosecution upon receipt of
documentation that GHB is in beef from the
state in question. I believe alleged violations
of this proposed federal law will be equally
difficult to successfully prosecute.
2000 Ron Paul 3:9 Although GHB has been claimed to have
been responsible for a small number of
deaths, many of these cases are questionable.
This is due to the fact that GHB is produced
in significant quantities by the body post
mortem, and is readily detectable in 96 out
of 100 deceased persons even when no GHB
has been consumed.
2000 Ron Paul 3:10
For each of the aforementioned procedural
and substantive reasons, I must again oppose
H.R. 2130, the Hillory J. Farias Date-Rape
Prevention Drug Act.
Note:
2000 Ron Paul 3:2
The tenth amendment probably
should be capitalized: The Tenth Amendment.
