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Supporting the Goals and Ideals of the Vigil for Lost Promise Day

Date: June 6, 2006
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Drugs


SUPPORTING THE GOALS AND IDEALS OF THE VIGIL FOR LOST PROMISE DAY -- (House of Representatives - June 06, 2006)

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Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I might consume.

Mr. Speaker, many people view drug abuse and addiction strictly as a social problem. Parents, teens, older adults and other members of the community tend to characterize people who take drugs as morally weak or as having criminal tendencies. They believe that drug abusers and addicts should be able to stop taking drugs if they simply are willing to change their behavior. These myths have stereotyped those with drug-related problems, their families, their communities and the health care professionals who work with them. Drug abuse and addiction comprise a public health problem that affects many people and has wide-ranging social consequences.

A Vigil for Lost Promise Day will help replace the myths and long-held mistaken beliefs about drug abuse and addiction with scientific evidence that addiction is a chronic, relapsing, and treatable disease. Addiction does begin when an individual makes a conscious choice to abuse drugs, but addiction is not just using a lot of drugs.

Recent scientific research provides overwhelming evidence that drugs do more than interfere with normal brain functioning by creating powerful feelings of pleasure. They also have long-term effects on brain metabolism and activity. Changes occur in the brain that can turn drug abuse into drug addiction, a chronic and relapsing illness. Those who are addicted to drugs suffer from compulsive drug cravings and usage that they cannot quit alone. Treatment is necessary to end the compulsive behavior.

Drugs crush the hopes, dreams and potential of drug users, and they shatter the lives of the users' families and friends. I support Vigil for Lost Promise Day because it will draw attention to the impact drugs have, not only on users, but to their loved ones and the community at large.

I look forward, Mr. Speaker, to the day when our country will treat this illness the way it should be treated and that we will have available to individuals treatment on demand, that is, individuals when they know that they are ready and are willing to seek treatment ought to have resources and places to go.

So I commend the sponsors of this legislation and urge its support.

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