Narcotics research, rehabilitation, and treatment. Hearings, Ninety ...

63cept, thereafter called Operation Cooperation, we pinned downthe doctors and said all right, what is the harm? Obviously, harmyou compare with the harm regarding heroin, because an estimated15 percent of heroin is grown illegally and produced—from thepoppies—in Mexico and converted to morphine and heroin and smuggledin. But the other operation of Intercept was regarding marihuana.What is the medical testimony? The medical evidence? We crossexaminedthem and pushed them as this committee is pushing, andrightly so, and they came back with the comment that there is noknown good for marihuana, it can lead to serious mental health problems,and taken in conjunction with other drugs it can have a moreserious effect. So we had to base it on the medical evidence and wentaccordingly. Research since then has tended to confirm the problemof marihuana.Getting back to the specific point, that has to be up to the doctors,but I concur, in listening to the testimony and the chairman's questionsand Mr. Steiger's questions,; that the medical profession hasclearly ^ot to move ahead and rapidly. There is no simple answer tothe heroin problem. It requires a multidimensional approach.I think the President has recognized this from the outset. Thiscommittee has, and it is moving ahead on many fronts in educationand enforcement, for example. If I had a dollar to spend—well, Iwould have spent, before these recent hearings, 90 percent on education,maybe a little less on education, a little more on research, butenforcement is just one of the elements in the effort.I am convinced that the youth have acquired great concern aboutheroin and some of the other dangerous drugs. They are not nearlyas convinced about marihuana yet, but every little bit helps andevery little bit of pressure helps, and particularly from the Congress.Chairman Pepper. Mr. Secretarv, you heard the testimony of Dr.Eddy, and I believe Dr. Brill. Both said that heroin addiction in thiscountry is growing. We have had testimony from the Bureau ofCustoms and the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs that withall of the splendid efforts they are putting forth and the millions ofdollars of money that Congress has made available to you, thehundreds of new agents that you have been able to put on the job, yetthe problem is so colossal that you are able to seize only about 20percent of the heroin coming into this country.Now, here at home we have thousands of dedicated law enforcementofficers trying to stop the distribution of heroin in this country.There is no foreseeable date, it seems to me, when by law enforcementalone we are going to be able to stop heroin from getting into thehands and the veins of the addicts of this country.Do you generally agree to that ?Mr. RossmES. The last statement I agree to—the last part of yourstatement, Mr. Chairman—that law enforcement alone cannot do thejob. That is an absolute principle as far as I am concerned. I cannotagree with certain of the other comments regarding statistics. No onefully knows. Statistics in this crime area are not quite that reliablebecause we don't have a scientific way of gathering them.The heroin area and crime is one of the most unusual, because youdo not have a victim in the criminal sense as you do when there is a