Gingrich Proposes Executing Drug Dealers

ON CAPITOL HILL September 1996

House Speaker Newt Gingrich told a crowd of 3,000 people on August 17 that convicted drug dealers should be sentenced to death (Associated Press, "Gingrich wants drug dealers executed," San Francisco Examiner, August 18, 1996, p. A2).

Campaigning for Bob Dole after the Republican convention, Gingrich told a rally in Chicago, "It is time that we said to predators, 'We love our children enough to stop you.'" He also called for life sentences without parole for smugglers who cross the U.S. border with commercial quantities of illegal drugs. Gingrich said a bill will be put forward in September with the harsher penalties.

The Speaker of the House also recommended revisiting Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign and setting up a nationwide toll-free number to help drug addicts recover. [A national toll-free hotline is already available through the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment. CSAT's Drug Information Hotline is (800) 662-4357. --RCT]

Comments to the Speaker can be addressed to Speaker of the House, The Honorable Newt Gingrich, U.S. House of Representatives, 2428 Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515, Tel: (202) 225-4501.