Select Committee Holds Hearing

On September 12, 1985, the ranking members of the House Select Committee on Narcotics Abuse and Control in a hearing urged the Reagan Administration to give a higher priority to international narcotics problems.  Chairman Charles B. Rangel (D-NY), and ranking GOP Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman (R-NY) all asked Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics Matters, Jon Thomas, to urge the President to put a higher priority on diplomatic efforts to persuade the narcotics source countries to bring the illicit production and traficking of cocaine, heroin, and marajuana under control.  Several Congressmen, including Rangel, Ben Gilman, the ranking member of the Select Committee, Frank Guarini, Ed Towns, Larry Coughlin, Norman Lent, and Andy Ireland had just returned from a 17-day study mission to seven South American countries, and reported that there is a "shocking increase" in the growth of cocoa production.