SCOTT BURNS: Thank you, Governor. And thank you all for being here. I come on behalf of President Bush and John Walters, who's the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. We were talking this morning in an interview, also known as the "drug czar". Somebody wanted to know where the name "czar" came from and while he distains the title, the only thing I can tell you it was written into the law in 1988.

The one thing that I will not come to Alaska and do is tell you how to vote or tell you that anyone in Washington knows anything that you don't know. I am from a small town in southern Utah. This president wanted someone from rural America that was in the trenches for this job. I was a prosecutor for 16 years, trying speeding cases and DUI and capital murder and drug cases. And got a call from the White House to serve as the deputy to the drug czar, because as I said, they wanted someone from out in America.

I often tell the story, and I will get to the message that the governor brought me here to talk about, but three years ago I was trying cases. I got a call from the White House and asked if I would be interested in being the deputy of ONDCP and work in the White House. And I hung up on them because I assumed it was one of the deputies or the cops trying to be funny and I may have even profaned a little about how that's not very funny.

But they called back and I said well, is this a big deal? And they said well, it's a pretty big deal. And I said well, is it bigger than being the county attorney in southern Utah. Because that's a pretty -- they said no, it's a big deal and you need to come back to Washington. For what? Well, they have a hearing. What kind of hearing? Well, the president nominated you. You have to have a Senate confirmation hearing. And I said well, who's going to pay for that? Well, we'll find -- I mean you'll -- so I flew all the way back to Washington.

I had never been there. I was looking around, and I took my wife and daughter with me, and there was the Senate confirmation -- there's Senator Kennedy and there's Orin Hatch and all these -- Lisa Murkowski, all these people I see on C-Span. And I said this is a pretty big deal. I had no idea. They were asking me questions just like they do on television. And now I kind of got excited.

And I went back home after the hearing, was going to meet the boys at the coffee shop and tell them I was actually on C-Span 7 and it never aired. But I was there. And this is a big deal. And that morning the phone rang about 7:00 in the morning. I had court that day and had about seven preliminary hearings. And my daughter Carlee, age 11, said dad, you're wanted on the phone. And I said honey, I'm in the shower, tell them I'll call back. Who is it? She said it's Time magazine. I said oh, this is a big deal. Tell them to hold on, I'll be right there. I said this is huge.

So I got out of the shower and I got on the phone and my soon to be deputy Michael Douglas, movie Traffic, Catherine Zeta-Jones, drug czar of the United States voice I said this is Scott Burns. And the woman said Scott Burns, for $19 you can have 54 weeks of Time magazine. So then I knew it was not a big deal. And three years later I have found that it is an honor and a privilege to serve in the White House, to serve with John Walters, to serve at the direction and at the pleasure of President George W. Bush.

A couple of things they wanted me to talk about today are the international aspect of what's going on in the world and the effects upon the United States and the drug trade. And then I will also discuss a little bit about the marijuana issue nationally and here in Alaska.

As we know, about 28 international terrorists organizations identified by the State Department have links to illicit drugs. The Taliban regime in Afghanistan has provided safe haven to Osama Bin Laden and Al Quaeda, and used their revenues from opium and heroin to remain in power. We know that in 2000 Afghanistan was responsible for more than 70 percent of the world's opium trade. Think about that. Seventy percent of the opium which has resulted in significant income to the Taliban. Anybody that tells you that there is not a link between drugs and terror has not followed the issue.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia, or the FARC, receives about $300 million from drug sales annually. And the FUC, known as United Self Defense Forces of Columbia, relies on drug trade monies for about 40 to 70 percent of their income. So we know that there is a link between terrorism and drugs internationally.

At one point we used the media campaign that we have. I don't know if you saw some of the ads. It's the money -- it's about the money, sending the message to all Americans that the -- this is my body, I don't effect anyone else. If I want to use certain drugs I can. But the reality of living in a global world is you do effect other people and the violence associated with that.

I wanted to talk a little bit about three or four of the countries that are relevant to the drug trade. As I said, Columbia, good news there. We're seeing a 33 percent decline in coca production over the last two years. We have sprayed the coca plant over there in conjunction and cooperation with President Urebe (ph) at an unpredecented fashion. And I have to tell you it was an honor to meet someone like him. About 18 assassination attempts on his life since he became president. I hate to think about the pressures on his family, his children and his wife. They want to kill him and he wants to take his country back.

A very brave man and surrounded by brave people who have looked the gorillas and the terrorists in the eye and said we want Columbia back. It's a beautiful country. We don't want to be the drug haven and source capital for misery around the world. And he is doing that. He's provided 22,500 Columbia families with alternative development aid, and aided over a million internally displaced citizens. So we're not only trying to spray the coca and stop the production, but we're trying to help those who relied upon the coca trade and the cocaine trade for their livelihood.

Mexico, there is good news. When I speak with state and local law enforcement along the border, as well as the DEA and the FBI and others, for years and years we all rolled our eyes and said it will never get better with Mexico. They have integrity problems. There are problems working with and in conjunction with the traffickers is historic. But that is changing. There is now bilateral cooperation. You can follow it in the news, some of the AFO or the Ariano (ph) Felix (ph) Organization has been decimated. The law enforcement in Mexico at the federal level is working with us for the first time. And we find out that they're hiding out in a house. They don't get tipped off 24 hours in advance or 10 hours in advance. The bad guys are actually there and we are making significant gains.

In 2003 Mexican law enforcement agencies seized 219 metric tons of marijuana, 191 kilograms of opium, 289 kilograms of heroin, 20 metric tons of cocaine and 726 kilograms of methamphetamine. They are doing a better job. They used to rely on the border. If the United States has an unsatiable and unquenchable appetite for drugs that they want to snort it up their nose, shoot it, smoke it, swallow it, you know what, that is the problem of the rich and spoiled Americans, we're going to let it go, and you do what you can at the border and you treat the problem the way you will when it reaches your children.

What happened in talking to mothers and fathers along the border, in my opinion, I don't have any data to back it up, but after 9/11 the borders closed down in a fashion that has never before been seen. And the traffickers knew that it was more difficult to move the drugs across the border. And the drugs were stockpiled in Tijuana and Neuve Laredo and Nogales and Jarosia (ph) and all along the border. Juarez. They had to warehouse them.

They also had to keep financing and they had to pay their bills in Columbia and elsewhere, and they started selling it at reduced rates along the border. And more young people on the Mexican side became addicted than ever before. And all of a sudden they now had a problem with their children and in their families and in their communities, and they have now, as I said, in a fashion that we have never seen, reached across the border to try and help.

Afghanistan. Difficult challenges ahead. The opium trade perpetuates an underground economy. There's wide spread corruption. There's a disregard for central government in some cases and a disrespect for the law among those that would traffick in opium. But we are, as we have done in Columbia, trying to support that government in giving them a better way of life which isn't drugs.

Canada, it's not good. It is not good. And the one significant gain that they have made with pseudoephedrine. In the last three or four years, as we saw methamphetamine spread across at least the Lower 48, in a meeting with your law enforcement and treatment, people today here in Alaska, it's here. You have labs. I guess you had a fire yesterday. A man seriously burned and the last word I heard, God forbid, may not survive. The rest of the country is with you in dealing with methamphetamine.

The Canadians, in 2000, 2001, 2002, produced or imported enough pseudoephedrine that everyone in Canada could have a cold 10 times over year round. The numbers that we had could not justify or substantiate why so much pseudoephedrine was in Canada. Well, the obvious answer is they were poisoning their neighbors. They knew that it was going over the border, primarily to Central Valley California and super labs where they make 10 pounds per hour.

The definition of a super lab of methamphetamine is they can produce 10 pounds in a 24 hour period. The mom and pop labs that you have around here, and I think I heard this morning about 39 or 40 today, it would take 300 of those to equal the production of one super lab. So that's where the pseudoephedrine pills were going. It's a black market. The RCMP has been very helpful and we cracked down. We got some new regulations, thanks goodness, in Canada with respect to monitoring the flow. And that has been reduced dramatically.

But the traffickers are going to try and get it here any way they can. What they have done recently is now move by direct shipments of pseudoephedrine into Mexico. The methamphetamine is being produced there and then brought across the border in traditional smuggling routes same as marijuana and cocaine. The good news is if it is six pounds of sludge and gunk for every one pound of methamphetamine that is produced, it is their rivers and their streams and their forests they're polluting at a greater measure than here in the United States. But that is no solace for us and for our neighbors. And so we're working now real closely with Mexico.

Canada has taken a different direction on marijuana and on harms reduction. I was in eastern Vancouver. I call it the night of the living dead. If you ever get a chance to go to east Vancouver at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning you will see -- I saw at least 1500, 2000 young people walking the streets injecting heroin in plain view. And they now have a facility where you can go in and someone from the government will help your 17 year old daughter or son inject heroin in a safe manner. We've had discussions with them about the fact that that's not helpful in this country.

The debate is about harm's reduction. Some people say that if we treat this as a harm reduction manner, get rid of law enforcement, get rid of pushing back, quit sending the message that it's destructive of lives, it's a better way to deal with it. We did that in this country. We already had that experiment. If you want to know about harm's reduction, whether it works or not in America, go to Baltimore.

Baltimore, in the '90s, had a mayor named Kirk Schmolk (ph), a Harvard graduate, very bright guy, who said Canada has the right idea, the Netherlands have the right idea, notwithstanding drug use tripled from I think '84 to '86 in the Netherlands. We are going to treat and help and understand those people in Baltimore that use drugs. And in the '90s when the rest of the country flourished and the dot com babies were getting rich and stores were opening and people were readily employed, Baltimore went the other way. They saw no net gain in industry. They saw the high school drop out rate exceed 75 percent. Businesses were boarded up. People were leaving the city. And they saw in a city of 600,000, it was about five or six intravenous drug users, it became about 60,000. So 10 percent of Baltimore was now sticking a needle in their arm multiple times a day to get high.

It takes a balanced approach. We do need treatment. We do need to understand. But we also need prevention and education along with the treatment. Speaking intelligently to our children and others, and we also need law enforcement.

One of the things that the governor asked me to talk about also today was marijuana. And again, I'm not going to tell you what your issues are here in Alaska. You know that. You can talk to your law enforcement and your treatment officials as I have today. But I can give you a perspective nationwide. I have not been to a state where I received a statistic that 50 percent of all high school seniors have used or tried marijuana. That is phenomenal. That is extremely high.

I have not been to a state where law enforcement say that the marijuana problem is so far out of hand with our children that in some instances they're throwing their hands in the air. And I would assume that is one of the reasons that the Marijuana Policy Project is here in Alaska. There may be some in the room. I have run into them in Arizona and in Nevada and in Ohio and in Missouri. And they didn't come to Alaska by accident. They're smart people.

As the governor mentioned, George Sorros, who owns half of Argentina and Peter Sperling (ph) and John Lewis, who are of Progressive Insurance and the University of Phoenix money, put all their money together. It's called the Marijuana Policy Project, and then they target the states. And I'm told they have polling and anecdotal support, sometimes focus groups to try and determine where they can make a difference in legalizing drugs in their country. And to their credit they will tell you that is their ultimate goal. It's not about medical marijuana or marijuana, it's about legalizing drugs in the United States. And they're entitled to their opinion. In American we can all stand up and be heard.

This president and I and drug czar John Walters have a different view. We believe that if you push back the problem gets smaller. We believe that if parents and teachers, law enforcement, citizens, people who represent institutions, stand up, look people in the eye and say I'm not going to be conned. You cannot tell me that more drug use and more drug availability in this country is a good thing. And that's been happening for the last two years.

Here's the good news. If you leave here with anything today, now that nationwide there has been a reduction in drug use in the United States by 11 percent among eighth, 10th, and 12th graders in the last two years. That is remarkable. We are pushing back and we are seeing this go the other way. We haven't seen declines like that since the '80s when the cocaine market crashed.

But one of the things we are doing is, notwithstanding the roll guys, and this is reefer madness. And they pick different things in different states. I mean gee, who could have guessed they would come up with we live in Alaska, leave us alone, freedom. That would apply also to my state out west. It's a different angle in Oregon. It was a different angle in Maine. They tried to come up with something that's going to appeal to you.

But here's what they won't tell you. They won't tell you that of the 19.5 million people using illegal drugs in this country, 75 percent -- the real number is 77 percent, singularly or co-use marijuana. Seventy-seven percent of all people using illegal drugs in this country are using marijuana. About six million are using prescription drugs, which is another issue I've been dealing with.

I just got back from Maine and New Hampshire where Oxycontin overdose and heroin overdoses now exceed car crash death. They have a serious problem up there. In the south and the southeast 150 percent increase over the last five years. So we need to do better there. Three million crack and powder cocaine. About 1.5 million heroin. About 1.5 million methamphetamine.

So if we put it into perspective what the numbers are, we can either talk about marijuana or ignore about 77 percent of the problem. But here's where you need to get smart and here's where you need to not, here in Alaska, be conned. It was -- this initiative was passing in Arizona. It was passing in Nevada, it was passing in Missouri, it was passing in Ohio. When the voters got smart, when people in the community got smart they failed. They had a bad year last year.

What they won't tell you is this is not your father's Oldsmobile. This is not the dope of the '60s and the '70s. This is not one or two percent ditch weed that was around then. It averages nationwide about 10 percent -- I learned this morning that the indoor grows here in Alaska offend the Hawaiians, because they used to think their dope, Kona Gold, was the best. They are now importing Alaskan Bud into Hawaii because it has a higher THC level. It is as high or almost as high as the Canadian marijuana which is 30 percent. So we are talking now about a drug that is 30 times more powerful than was used and smoked in the '60s and the '70s. All right. Hold that for a minute.

The second part of the equation that makes it so, in my mind, scary, as the father of a 13 year old daughter, is this is no longer a rite of passage drug. You know that in the '60s and '70s when people went off to college or went off to work or became an adult, that's when they experimented. They sowed their wild oats. That's when those experiences occurred. I cannot talk in a treatment facility or to a law enforcement person or go into a school without hearing this is no longer a rite of passage drug, this is a rite of middle school drug. The initiation rates in the country are now 13 and 12 and 11 and 10. It is a pediatric onset disease.

And if we're going to talk about drug abuse in this country as a disease, which we do, people suffer from the disease of addiction, you get it when you're a child. Very few people wake up when they're 35 and shove a needle in their arm and say I think I'm going to slam some methamphetamine. It starts when they're nine and they're 10 and they're 11. And it is, in my opinion, irresponsible for those that talk about marijuana in the medical sense, notwithstanding the fact that the FDA and the American Medical Association, the American Glaucoma Association. Today, the Association representing Alaskan physicians came out and said you have to be kidding me. There is Marinol available and other alternative medicines that are safer, and they are better to treat maladies. But that not withstanding, we're now here in Alaska, we're beyond the medical aspect of it. We are here now to determine whether or not to legalize it.

They're in Oregon. In Oregon, once they got the medical marijuana passed, Oregon's initiative is six pounds. Six pounds of marijuana for personal use. And I was like you. I laughed. But they're dead serious. And it may pass. Six pounds, I'm told -- and I think there are 10 plants. You can also grow 10 plants -- is enough to smoke a joint per hour 24 hours a day 365 days a year. So if that passes in Oregon, you can smoke a joint every hour year round. And I don't dare even determine what the social consequences will be in that state. The governor talked about the military. And the governor talked about the economic efforts or the North Slope where jobs, where people here in this state trying to compete nationally and internationally with that type of policy in place. So I can tell you that your brothers and sisters across the country in the states that I have visited are dealing with the same issue.

The other side is well funded. As the governor said, George Sorros thinks that 500,000 will buy Alaska. And I will give them credit, their ads are better. I think they're using film now and they've got a better voice and it's about freedom. But it's really about our kids. No one can tell you that making more drugs available in a community or reducing the dangers of this drug in Alaska or Oregon or my home state, or anywhere across the country is a good thing for America. And right when we're starting to see progress. Right when we're starting to see it go the other way and drug use down among our children, it is something that is not helpful.

It's an honor to be here. This is a very beautiful place. And as the governor said, I've been asked to go on and make a few more stops today and tomorrow. I appreciate your being here and I'd be willing to answer any questions that you may have.