Washington, D.C.--Congressman Eliot L. Engel (D-NY) Tuesday introduced bi-partisan legislation to create an independent commission to evaluate US policies and programs aimed at reducing illicit drug supply and demand.

Rep. Engel, Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, said, “America has spent billions upon billions of taxpayer dollars over the years to fight the drug war in Latin America and the Caribbean. Yet, since the early 1980s, the number of American lifetime drug users has steadily risen for marijuana, cocaine and heroin. Clearly, the time has come to reexamine our counternarcotics efforts here at home and throughout the Americas.”

The Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission, to be established by the legislation, will submit recommendations on future US drug policy to Congress, the Secretary of State, and the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) a year after its first meeting.

Rep. Engel – who is also a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health – added, “To tackle our nation’s horrific drug problem once and for all, we cannot simply look to solutions on the supply side. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said it best in Mexico City recently when she noted that ‘our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade.’ The Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission will assess all aspects of the drug war – including prevention and treatment.”

While the United States has approximately 5 percent of world population, an estimated 17.2 percent of the world’s users of illegal drugs were from the United States. 100 percent of the United States cocaine supply, and 90 percent of the United States heroin supply originates in South America. In addition, the countries of Central America, the Caribbean and Mexico are key transit countries for drugs entering the US.

Representatives Connie Mack (R-FL), Howard Berman (D-CA), Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), Robert Wexler (D-FL), Dan Burton (R-IN) and Pedro Pierluisi (D-PR) joined Congressman Engel as original co-sponsors of the Western Hemisphere Drug Policy Commission Act of 2009.