Back when I was campaigning for president, I said: “Let us be the generation that ends our addiction.” I remain committed today to ending our country’s terrible dependence on foreign heroin and other destructive drugs. But the world has changed in unexpected ways since the campaign. We now know that ending this terrible addiction will be harder than we imagined, and take more time. So today I want to update you on my plans for ending our national addiction, and to explain why it’s going to be harder and take longer than we thought.
We must be clear: our addiction extracts a terrible cost. Those who are most dependent on heroin suffer directly from its debilitating health effects. But the damage doesn’t stop there. Friends and neighbors and entire communities are hollowed out by its pernicious effects. Our insatiable demand for heroin undermines democracy in societies around the globe, as dictators pocket the profits from this multi-billion dollar trade, using the money to buy weapons and high-tech gadgets, many made in the U.S.A., to oppress their people.
Let there be no doubt: our addiction has terrible consequences, at home and abroad. We must work together with determination and patience to gradually wean ourselves off of heroin and other drugs.
But as you all know, our country faces a profound economic crisis, with sluggish growth and near record high unemployment. Now is not the time for brash and intemperate actions.
These problems are not of our making. When I took office in 2009 our economy was in a tailspin. We had to act quickly to bail out the banks and Wall Street tycoons who got us into the mess. The automobile companies, which had fought every attempt to reduce our heroin consumption, were also on the ropes. Some people thought I should have pushed to restructure these companies to make products that no longer require heroin.
Unfortunately, there just wasn't enough time, imagination or courage. It was a tough choice, but I decided to leave that difficult job for somebody else. I feel pretty sure that there will be other crises offering a similar opportunity in the future, and I hope that one of my successors will be better equipped than I was to seize the opportunity.
Meanwhile, we need to ensure a ready supply of the drug that keeps our wheels turning. Fortunately, we have found a new source of heroin that is much closer to home, produced by a democratic ally and neighbor rather than by corrupt dictatorships on the other side of the world. I am speaking, of course, of our Canadian friends to the north, who have found a way to extract heroin from the land that lies beneath their magnificent forests, providing us with a reliable, nearly inexhaustible supply.
There is a cost. Producing the heroin we so desperately need will require destroying vast tracts of Canadian forests. More than six-hundred square miles have already been denuded and an area the size of Florida has been set aside for future production. I am grateful that our Canadian friends are willing to do this, to help tide us over while we figure out how to end our addiction.
This new source of heroin will inject new life into the hard-hit economies of our heartland, creating at least several thousand temporary jobs building a vast new heroin pipeline, from Alberta to Texas, to bring the drug to those who so desperately crave it. You can be sure that Americans and people in other countries will be quick to buy Canadian heroin processed in Texas refineries. Pipeline construction creates dangerous and dirty jobs that will evaporate once the pipeline is in place, but what the hey, jobs are jobs, right? As for pipeline spills, I bet local people will by happy to sop up the mess and put it to use.
That’s why I have decided to approve the Keystone XL Heroin Pipeline, even as I redouble my efforts to make sure that ours is the generation that will finally begin the process of ending this terrible addiction. If you agree that this is the right way to approach this problem, I hope you will donate now to support my campaign.
Thank you.