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Drug Strategy [OA 4423] [1]
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Records of the White House Office of Speechwriting (George H. W. Bush Administration)
Mary Kate Grant Subject Files
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Originally Processed With FOIA(s):
FOIA Number:
S
FOIA
MARKER
This is not a textual record. This is used as an
administrative marker by the George Bush Presidential
Library Staff.
Record Group/Collection:
George H.W. Bush Presidential Records
Collection/Office of Origin:
Speechwriting, White House Office of
Series:
Grant, Mary Kate, Files
Subseries:
Subject File, 1988-1991
OA/ID Number:
13879
Folder ID Number:
13879-012
Folder Title:
Drug Strategy [1]
Stack:
Row:
Section:
Shelf:
Position:
G
19
2
7
4
CABINET PARTICIPATION IN ANNOUNCEMENT AND PROMOTION OF
THE NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL STRATEGY
SATELLITE INTERVIEWS
Each Cabinet Member is asked to be available from 6 - 7 p.m.
on Wednesday, September 6 for interviews in selected markets.
Interviews will be either live or pre-taped, according to time
zones. Office of Media Relations will serve as Cabinet contact.
Director Bennett - CONUS Broadcasting
WCVB - Boston
KHJ - Los Angeles
KPRC - Houston
WTVJ - Miami
KCNC - Denver
WVUE - New Orleans
Attorney General - NEWSFEED Network
WLS - Chicago
KTVI - St. Louis
WFAA - Dallas
KYW - Philadelphia
WDIV - Detroit
WPIX - New York
Sec. Cavazos
-
NEWSLINK Network
WFLA - Tampa
WUAB - Cleveland
KGTV - San Diego
KOB - Albuquerque
WDAF - Kansas City
WWOR - Secaucus, NJ
Sec. Sullivan
-
GILLETT Group
WMAR - Baltimore
WITI - Milwaukee
WAGA - Atlanta
WOKR - Rochester
WSMV - Nashville
Secretary Skinner - IN WASHINGTON/ANB
KATV - Little Rock
KMTU - Omaha
WKYT - Lexington
KGAN - Cedar Rapids
WPTA - Fort Wayne
Secretary Kemp -
POTOMAC Communications
KXLY - Spokane
WVH - Hartford
KCRA - Sacramento
WTAE - Pittsburgh
KTVH - Phoenix
WLWT - Cincinnati
Secretary Brady -
COX Broadcasting
KTVU - San Francisco
WSOC - Charlotte
WHIO - Dayton
KDNL - St. Louis
WFTV - Orlando
NETWORK TALK SHOWS
Each Cabinet Member is asked to be available for network
guest appearances during the week of the announcement. The White
House press office will coordinate the bookings; if specific
Cabinet members are unavailable for these appearances, please
contact us immediately.
Tuesday, September 5th
LIVE NETWORK NEWS INTERVIEWS (post-speech) - Director Bennett and
three additional Cabinet Members
MACNEIL/LEHRER NEWS HOUR - Cabinet Member
CNN NEWSMAKERS - Cabinet Member
NIGHTLINE - Judge Walton
CBS NIGHTWATCH - Cabinet Member
Wednesday, September 6th
GOOD MORNING AMERICA - Director Bennett or Cabinet Member
TODAY - Bennett or Cabinet Member
CBS MORNING SHOW - Cabinet Member
US CHAMBER OF COMMERCE/BIZNET - Cabinet Member
MACNEIL/LEHRER NEWS HOUR - Director Bennett
LIVE NETWORK NEWS INTERVIEW - TBD, Cabinet Member
CNN NEWSMAKERS - Cabinet Member
WORLDNET/USIA - Secretary Baker
LARRY KING LIVE - Cabinet Member
Thursday, September 7th
GOOD MORNING AMERICA OR TODAY - Cabinet Member
MACNEIL/LEHRER NEWS HOUR - Cabinet Member
LIVE NETWORK NEWS INTERVIEW - TBD, Cabinet Member
CNN NEWSMAKERS - Cabinet Members
Friday, September 8th
GOOD MORNING AMERICA OR TODAY - Cabinet Member
MACNEIL/LEHRER NEWS HOUR - Cabinet Member
LIVE NETWORK NEWS INTERVIEW - TBD, Cabinet Member
CNN NEWSMAKERS - Cabinet Member
Saturday, September 9th
CNN NEWSMAKERS - Director Bennett
CNN EVANS AND NOVAK - Director Bennett
Sunday, September 10th
THIS WEEK WITH DAVID BRINKLEY - Director Bennett
FACE THE NATION - Cabinet Member, or Governor Sununu
MEET THE PRESS - V.P., Cabinet Member or Governor Sununu
OP-ED STRATEGY
Each Cabinet Member will write one op-ed for the assigned
newspaper, with a brief overview of the drug strategy and
attention to the Cabinet agency's angle. These op-eds will be
placed by the agency public affairs directors and run the week of
Sept. 5.
AUTHOR
NEWSPAPER
POTUS
College Newspapers
VP
Chicago Trib
Bennett
N.Y. Times
Thornburgh
L.A. Times
Baker
Miami Herald
Brady
Houston Post
Kemp
Detroit News
Sullivan
Washington Post
Cavazos
Dallas Times Herald
Skinner
Boston Globe
E. Dole
Boston Herald
Mosbacher
Seattle Post
Sen. Dole
Kansas City Star
Sen. Simpson
Denver Post
Gov. Sununu
USA Today
Judge Walton
Atlanta Constitution
Herbert Kleeber
Wall Street Journal
R. Porter
Washington Times
MAGAZINE STRATEGY
Below are suggested magazine articles on the drug plan, to
be placed by Cabinet agencies over a period of several months for
reinforcement value.
MAGAZINE
AUTHOR/SUBJECT
CIRCULATION
Modern Maturity
POTUS/overall
19.5 million/bimonth
Readers Digest
POTUS by-line
Bennett/strategy
16.25 million/month
American Health
Sullivan/rehab
1 million/month
Ebony
Sullivan/prevention
1.7 million/month
Foreign Affairs
Baker/global interdiction 95,000/month
Parenting
Mrs. Bush/values
200,000/month
ABA Journal
AG/enforcement
397,000/month
Chron Higher Ed
Cavazos/education
82,000/week
Education Week
Cavazos/education
67,000/week
Ladies Home Journ.
Mrs. Bush/values
5.2 million/month
Guideposts
VP/values
4.3 million/month
Prevention
Surgeon General
2.85 million/month
Sports Illustrated
Kemp/his sports program
2.875 million/month
Law & Order
Brady/enforcement
26,000/month
Police
Skinner/enforcement
48,000/month
Hispanic Business
Cavazos/workplace
101,000/month
Forbes
Mosbacher/workplace
785,000/month
Boys Life
TBA/Boy scouts
1.3 million/month
###
Mk grant
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
August 16, 1989
MEMORANDUM TO INTERESTED PARTIES
FROM: DAVID DEMAREST
DX
SUBJECT: COMMUNICATIONS PLAN FOR DRUG CONTROL STRATEGY
ACTIVITIES FOR THE MONTHS OF AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER
Thursday, August 10
Final Domestic Policy Council meeting without the President
(Bates/Jackson)
* Final discussions between the President and NSC on
international interdiction
Sunday, August 13
Face the Nation -- Bennett (ONDCP)
Monday, August 14
* Listening session with Criminal Justice group: 9:30 - 10:45
a.m. (Wead/Sanchez)
Stakeouts (Tron)
Press conference by Bennett on Gallup Polls 11:00 a.m. (ONDCP)
Tuesday, August 15
* Two listening sessions with prevention and treatment groups:
9:00 - 10:15 a.m. and 12:30 - 1:45 p.m. (Wead/Sanchez)
Stakeouts (Tron)
* Domestic Policy Council presents Drug Control strategy draft to
the President (Bates/Jackson)
Meeting with the Ad Council (Winston/Williamson)
Wednesday, August 16
*
The President departs for Maine
Tom Brokaw special on L.A. drugs and crime; Bennett interview
(ONDCP)
Cabinet Public Affairs briefing 1:30 p.m. (Winston/Williamson)
Monday, August 21
Letter from White House encouraging media/travel participation
and support from Cabinet Members (Bates)
Wednesday, August 23
Print deadline for Drug Control Strategy (ONDCP)
Sunday, August 27
USA Today Sunday Magazine -- profile Bennett (ONDCP)
Tuesday, August 29
Crossfire -- Bennett (ONDCP)
ABC special on Blacks in America
Thursday, August 31
"City Under Siege" -- Bennett interview (ONDCP)
Labor Day weekend
Newsday Sunday Magazine -- profile Bennett (ONDCP)
Tuesday, September 5 (Release Date)
* Major Presidential address (Demarest)
Constituency group briefings -- including possible drop-bys by
the President (Demarest)
Cabinet Public Affairs briefing (Winston/Williamson)
Intergovernmental briefings for governors, mayors, and state
legislators (Anderson)
Press briefing by Bennett and/or other Cabinet Members
(Fitzwater)
Columnist backgrounders (Fitzwater)
Stakeouts (Tron)
Radio actualities (Tron)
Distribution of materials **
NBC special on Blacks in America (with Bryant Gumbel)
Wednesday, September 6
Morning TV shows and other television/satellite interviews for
Bennett and Cabinet Members (Demarest/Fitzwater): -- see attached
plan
Regional media briefing (Demarest/Tron)
National Press Club speech by Bennett
Op-eds by Bennett and Cabinet Members begin running
Thursday, September 7
* American Legion speech
Hearings on the Hill
Friday, September 8
* Southern Baptist speech
Hearings on the Hill
Evans and Novak -- Bennett
Saturday and Sunday, September 9 & 10
Weekend news shows -- see attached plan
Monday, September 11
The White House Wire distributed (Winston)
Wednesday, September 13
*
DARE event (tentative)
* Color event
Thursday, September 14
CBS 3-hour special: "48 Hours on Crack Street"
ABC 2-hour special: "Making the Grade"; a report card on
America's youth (drugs, illiteracy)
*
Presidential Participation
Materials: **
Fact Sheet/Executive Summary (DPC)
Talking Points (Winston)
Generic speech insert (Winston)
Op-eds (Winston)
Magazine pieces (Winston)
Books (ONDCP)
Editorial packages (Winston)
Press releases from the Departments (Bates/Winston)
The White House Wire (Winston)
Long Range:
Series of targeted articles in magazines
Ad Council campaign to coordinate agency anti-drug efforts
# # #
CABINET PARTICIPATION IN ANNOUNCEMENT AND PROMOTION OF
THE NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL STRATEGY
SATELLITE INTERVIEWS
Each Cabinet Member is asked to be available from 6 - 7 p.m.
on Wednesday, September 6 for interviews in selected markets.
Interviews will be either live or pre-taped, according to time
zones. Office of Media Relations will be contact for satellites.
Director Bennett - CONUS Broadcasting
WCVB - Boston
KHJ - Los Angeles
KPRC - Houston
WTVJ - Miami
KCNC - Denver
WVUE - New Orleans
Attorney General - NEWSFEED Network
WLS - Chicago
KTVI - St. Louis
WFAA - Dallas
KYW - Philadelphia
WDIV - Detroit
WPIX - New York
Sec. Cavazos
-
NEWSLINK Network
WFLA - Tampa
WUAB - Cleveland
KGTV - San Diego
KOB - Albuquerque
WDAF - Kansas City
WWOR - Secaucus, NJ
Sec. Sullivan
-
GILLETT Group
WMAR - Baltimore
WITI - Milwaukee
WAGA - Atlanta
WOKR - Rochester
WSMV - Nashville
Secretary Skinner - IN WASHINGTON/ANB
KATV - Little Rock
KMTU - Omaha
WKYT - Lexington
KGAN - Cedar Rapids
WPTA - Fort Wayne
Secretary Kemp -
POTOMAC Communications
KXLY - Spokane
WVH - Hartford
KCRA - Sacramento
WTAE - Pittsburgh
KTVH - Phoenix
WLWT - Cincinnati
Secretary Brady -
COX Broadcasting
KTVU - San Francisco
WSOC - Charlotte
WHIO - Dayton
KDNL - St. Louis
WFTV - Orlando
NETWORK TALK SHOWS
Each Cabinet Member is asked to be available for network
guest appearances during the week of the announcement. The White
House Press Office will coordinate the bookings; if specific
Cabinet members are unavailable for these appearances, please
contact Public Affairs immediately.
Tuesday, September 5th
LIVE NETWORK NEWS INTERVIEWS (post-speech) - Director Bennett and
three additional Cabinet Members
MACNELL/LEHRER NEWS HOUR - Cabinet Member
CNN NEWSMAKERS - Cabinet Member
NIGHTLINE - Judge Walton
CBS NIGHTWATCH - Cabinet Member
Wednesday, September 6th
GOOD MORNING AMERICA - Director Bennett or Cabinet Member
TODAY - Bennett or Cabinet Member
CBS MORNING SHOW - Cabinet Member
US CHAMBER OF COMMERCE/BIZNET - Cabinet Member
MACNEIL/LEHRER NEWS HOUR - Director Bennett
LIVE NETWORK NEWS INTERVIEW - TBD, Cabinet Member
CNN NEWSMAKERS - Cabinet Member
WORLDNET/USIA - Secretary Baker
LARRY KING LIVE - Cabinet Member
Thursday, September 7th
GOOD MORNING AMERICA OR TODAY - Cabinet Member
MACNEIL/LEHRER NEWS HOUR - Cabinet Member
LIVE NETWORK NEWS INTERVIEW - TBD, Cabinet Member
CNN NEWSMAKERS - Cabinet Members
Friday, September 8th
GOOD MORNING AMERICA OR TODAY - Cabinet Member
MACNEIL/LEHRER NEWS HOUR - Cabinet Member
LIVE NETWORK NEWS INTERVIEW - TBD, Cabinet Member
CNN NEWSMAKERS - Cabinet Member
Saturday, September 9th
CNN EVANS AND NOVAK - Director Bennett
Sunday, September 10th
THIS WEEK WITH DAVID BRINKLEY - Director Bennett
FACE THE NATION - Cabinet Member, or Governor Sununu
MEET THE PRESS - Cabinet Member or Governor Sununu
OP-ED STRATEGY
Each Cabinet Member will write one op-ed for the assigned
newspaper, with a brief overview of the drug strategy and
attention to the Cabinet agency's angle. These op-eds will be
placed by the agency public affairs directors and run the week of
Sept. 5.
AUTHOR
NEWSPAPER
POTUS
College Newspapers
VP
Chicago Trib
Bennett
N.Y. Times
Thornburgh
L.A. Times
Baker
Miami Herald
Brady
Houston Post
Kemp
Detroit News
Sullivan
Washington Post
Cavazos
Dallas Times Herald
Skinner
Boston Globe
E. Dole
Boston Herald
Mosbacher
Seattle Post
Sen. Dole
Kansas City Star
Sen. Simpson
Denver Post
Gov. Sununu
USA Today
Judge Walton
Atlanta Constitution
Herbert Kleeber
Wall Street Journal
R. Porter
Washington Times
MAGAZINE STRATEGY
Below are suggested magazine articles on the drug plan, to
be placed by Cabinet agencies over a period of several months for
reinforcement value.
MAGAZINE
AUTHOR/SUBJECT
CIRCULATION
Modern Maturity
POTUS/overall
19.5 million/bimonth
Readers Digest
POTUS by-line
Bennett/strategy
16.25 million/month
American Health
Sullivan/rehab
1 million/month
Ebony
Sullivan/prevention
1.7 million/month
Foreign Affairs
Baker/global interdiction 95,000/month
Parenting
Mrs. Bush/values
200,000/month
ABA Journal
AG/enforcement
397,000/month
Chron Higher Ed
Cavazos/education
82,000/week
Education Week
Cavazos/education
67,000/week
Ladies Home Journ.
Mrs. Bush/values
5.2 million/month
Guideposts
VP/values
4.3 million/month
Prevention
Surgeon General
2.85 million/month
Sports Illustrated
Kemp/his sports program
2.875 million/month
Law & Order
Brady/enforcement
26,000/month
Police
Skinner/enforcement
48,000/month
Hispanic Business
Cavazos/workplace
101,000/month
Forbes
Mosbacher/workplace
785,000/month
Boys Life
TBA/Boy scouts
1.3 million/month
###
EDITORIALS/COLUMNISTS
ANTI-DRUG STRATEGY
Unite To Gain Stength -- "Comparisons of the early stages of President
Bush's drug war and Vietnam may be instructive. The Republican staff of
the Senate Governmental Affairs investigations subcommittee says that the
drug war's 'order of battle' is as muddled as the Pentagon's assessment of
the Viet Cong when President Kennedy sent the first U.S. advisors to
Vietnam
Unfortunately -- to give one example cited in the committee's
report -- part of the President's allocation of anti-drug resources appears
to disregard the nature of the enemy. Most of the $65 million in military
equipment given to Colombia cannot be used by the national police
The assistance is better suited to a conventional army than to a specialized
police force
The report notes that bureaucratic gridlock and rivalries
hinder drug 'czar' William Bennett's attempts to coordinate the strategy
If the drug war's commanders are in disarray, it does not matter what
'battlefields' they choose to wage the war -- demand, treatment,
interdiction, crop substitution, or incarceration. Without unity against
them, the cartels could win in time -- just as the North Vietnamese did."
(Miami Herald, 9/20)
Toward A Drug-Plan Compromise -- "President Bush's decision to negotiate
with Congressional Democrats could lead to a stronger drug-fighting
program
Mr. Byrd would pay for the extra anti-drug spending by
making an across-the-bcard one-half of 1 percent cut in all other
programs in the budget. That isn't the way to make budget decisions.
For example, Mr. Bush seems to object to taking any more away from the
military budget. But Congress and the White House could steer clear of
fights over new taxes or about spending priorities -- fights that might
cripple the anti-drug effort -- if they agreed to an across-the-board cut
this year to pay for extra spending to fight drugs
Both sides seem to
realize that the drug problem is too severe for time to be lost in partisan
bickering. If the administration and congressional Democrats dig in and
refuse to budge from their respective positions, the public will soon come
to see that fighting the drug problem is not Washington's highest
priority."
(Hartford Courant, 9/17)
Bush Priorities Askew -- "Despite his many words, Mr. Bush has offered
little more than the well-meaning but simplistic Reagan message: 'Just say
no.' He would like to think that he has mobilized the nation. Sadly, the
fighting force he has assembled poses as much of a threat to international
drug trafficking as a peewee football team would be to the Miami Dolphins
-- even this season
Mr. Bush said, "Those who judge our strategy
only by its price tag simply don't understand the problem.' True, drug
abuse must be fought with more than money. But numbers do make for
interesting comparisons. And they do show that Mr. Bush has his
priorities. To struggling families, he offered a $1,000 child-care tax
credit for children under 4. To the nation's drug fighters, he proposed
giving $8 billion. And the savings and loans that were in trouble because
of their own bad judgements got $150 billion. Thanks to Mr. Bush's
priorities, the sick thrifts will get better and the drug dealers will stay
healthy. Which may be appropriate. Now that they're back in business,
those savings and loans will be looking for new business."
(Palm Beach Post, 9/16)
-more-
Thursday, September 21, 1989 -- C-2
Just Say 'No' To Troops -- "A lot of us held our breaths when President
George Bush announced a couple of weeks ago that he was sending military
advisors to Colombia to help with the drug war. 'That's how we got
involved in Vietnam and Nicaragua,' we said. But no, we thought,
President Bush is too smart to fall into that trap again
Then last
weekend
someone leaked a secret White House memo in which the
president authorized the use of U.S. Special Forces to accompany drug
agents on narcotics sweeps in Colombia, Bolivia, and especially in Peru's
Huallaga Valley
Several hundred of these elite troops are to be sent
to base camps to direct the fight against the dangerous Sendero Luminoso,
or Shining Path guerrillas
That is a political war as well as a drug
war, and while the Peruvian government might be pleased to see our
troops do its fighting, other Latin American observers, including many in
democratic Colombia, are worried about the increasing U.S. involvement.
They are also beginning to say what they really think about President
Bush's assistance program, which is that economic aid would be more
effective
But much of it, especially the fast jet airplanes and heavy
weapons, is ill-suited for use against narcotics traffickers. Governments
in the drug region need money to wean their people from economic
dependence on the drug industry, and they need light police weapons and
communications equipment to deal with traffickers."
(Palm Beach Post, 9/14)
Shut Off The Drug Lords' Money Spigot -- "Presenting his strategy in the
war on drugs, President George Bush barely touched upon what might well
be the most important part. Money
What he should -- and could --
have said was that the United States was redoubling its efforts to crush
the entire business by taking the profit out of narcotics
What is
needed is a seamless compact -- harmonizing the laws of many different
nations, defining their obligations, and speeding cooperation. Such an
agreement exists today. Last December, at a United Nations conference in
Vienna, 43 nations signed a Convention Against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic
Drugs and Psychotropic Substances
The covenant is not yet in effect,
however
Still, the effort deserves a full-court press. Perhaps Mr.
Bush will give it the emphasis it merits when he addresses the UN General
Assembly on Sept. 25
The time is ripe for coordinated international
action on many fronts.
(Richard C. Hottelet, Christian Science Monitor, 9/19)
The Hole In Bush Drug Plan -- "Considering the many sides of America's
drug problem, the Bush plan probably will do more to reduce drug use
among the middle class than among the poor
But while a decrease in
casual users could make the Bush Administration's numbers look good a
few years from now, it will barely touch the drug problem's most tragic
horror stories: the cocaine-addicted babies, the mother who 'rents' her
daughter to a crack dealer, the addict who strangles senior citizens to
support his or her habit, and so on. That's the big hole in the Bush
plan. It shows so little faith in the magic of the market -- a remarkable
development in a plan produced by conservatives. Supply rises to meet
demand, not the other way around. As long as demand remains high,
there will always be someone -- whether a poor Peruvian farmer or a
shoeless kid in a U.S. ghetto -- who will be willing to meet it, by
whatever means necessary. (Clarence Page, Dallas Morning News, 9/15)
-more-
Thursday, September 21, 1989 -- C-3
President's Drug Offensive Fails In 3 Ways -- "President Bush should be
commended for finally giving the drug crisis the recognition it deserves at
the highest levels of government
The Bush plan is a step in the right
direction, but it fails in three major ways. First, it does not mobilize
communities -- the most effective anti-drug force we have -- to drive out
drug traffickers, make the streets safe, treat the addicted or educate our
children. Indeed, the president's plan is more focused on Bogota,
Columbia
than it is on the District of Columbia, the capital of drug
killing, or the other drug capitals at home. This is so despite the fact
that drug czar William Bennett promised in April that there would be a
comprehensive 'emergency action plan' to attack the drug crisis in the
nation's capital
There has not been a single meeting with the District
of Columbia leadership to plan this battle in the war on drugs
The
second problem with the president's plan is that it greatly underestimates
the arsenals and viciousness of the drug lords and the pushers
The
president's plan relegates the Defense Department interdiction effort to a
secondary status, thus destroying any real hope at all of stopping the flow
of drugs
The administration plan also falls short in meeting the need
for treatment programs by proposing only $685 million for this purpose
The plan offers no strategy to catch the corporate money launderers, the
banks washing the money, or all the elite groups profiting from the drug
trade. The plan furnishes no health strategy for turning America away
from the lethal continuum of abused substances, among which crack is the
most rabid, though not the largest, killer
Finally, the administration
plan does not wage war on material poverty and spiritual poverty, which
are the preconditions for the drug crisis
In the final analysis, we
need political leadership to transform the miserable social conditions that
give rise to the drug culture in the ghetto and moral leadership to give
the nation a higher sense of purpose."
(Jesse Jackson, Dallas Morning News, 9/18)
If The War Against Drugs Fizzles, Legalization Might Be The Answer --
"Let's hope we have more luck in the war on drugs than we did in the war
on poverty. If we don't, it may be time to consider a last resort
alternative: legalization
Would we become a nation of druggies,
fiddling in a stupor as Rome burns around us? I'd like to believe not,
but I think legalization activists dismiss this possibility too cavalierly.
Education and treatment funded by the substantial tax revenues drug sales
could yield may or may not forestall this fate. On the other hand, alcohol
is legal and we haven't become a nation of drunks
Perhaps the
problems associated with legalized drug use could also be managed
It
remains to be seen whether our society will effectively join the battle. If
the war isn't going well a few years from now, the legalization alternative
will still be there.
(Mike Rosen, Denver Post, 9/15)
President Going After Results, Not Causes -- "The much-anticipated
philosophical strategizing by federal drug policy director William Bennett
has apparently led Bush essentially down the same path as that pursued
by former administrations and national lawmakers all the way back to the
1960s. Namely: interdict and enforce. Then, treat and educate with
what's left over in resources. Strike out at the short-term, immediate
problems, and address endemic, long-term social ills later
What's
surprising is that after two decades of this spreading blight, we are still
trying to interdict and enforce rather than address the causes of addictive
behavior in society.¹ (Mary Ann Dolan, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 9/12)
-End of News Summary-
PRESIDENT THE OF VIS OF UNUM STATES THE STATE UNITED
The White House
Office of Public Affairs
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
September 11, 1989
MEMORANDUM TO AGENCY PUBLIC AFFAIRS DIRECTORS
FROM: CHRISS WINSTON
DEPUTY ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR COMMUNICATIONS
SUBJECT: WEEKLY PACKAGE
Enclosed in this week's package, you will find additional
Presidential addresses on the drug strategy, as well as other
materials relating to the strategy. Also enclosed is the
President's address to the American Success Awards ceremony and
the 71st American Legion convention, and a highlight of upcoming
activities at the White House and Agencies.
If you have any questions, please contact our Interagency
Liaison, Holly Williamson at 456-2245.
- 4 -
I pointed out last night there is some good news, and I
mentioned specifically the decline in casual cocaine use. And I
mentioned specifically the courageous stand being taken by one of our
friends south of our border, and others as well down there. So it
isn't a message of despair. What I'd rather phrase it is a message
of hope. And I need your help to get the job done.
So thank you all very much for coming. I'm confident
that we will have the support of the American people on this issue.
Your presence here assures me that I can count on you. But I'm
grateful. With Judge Walton sitting here, I want to say how grateful
I am to Bill Bennett and to him for formulating for the first time a
national strategy that offers hope to those little kids we saw today.
Thank you very, very much. (Applause.)
If I would say to those non-ambassadors in the room --
and please do not assume that this is a discriminatory policy -- but
I am one who is very much indebted for the foreign -- the cooperation
we're getting from abroad -- if I could ask the ambassadors from
other nations just to come and maybe have a handshake here, I would
then at least have the feeling that I have made you feel the special
warmth that I feel towards you for coming and to your countries for
being interested in cooperating on this strategy.
END
1:43 P.M. EDT
AT THE WHITE HOUSE
Monday, September 11
President Bush will meet with British Foreign Secretary John
Major. Secretary Baker will attend the meeting.
The President will participate in the Vocational Education Awards
ceremony in the Rose Garden. Secretary Cavazos will accompany
the President.
The President will attend the Bicentennial ceremony for the
Treasury Department. Secretary Brady will accompany the
President.
Tuesday, September 12
President Bush will meet with the Congressional Leadership.
The President will address school children across the nation
regarding drugs. The address will begin at 12:15 E.D.T. airing
on ABC, CBS, NBC, and CNN.
President Bush will meet with Jordanian Crown Prince Hassan.
President Bush and Vice President Quayle will meet with the
astronauts of the Space Shuttle Columbia.
The President will address the Republican National Hispanic
Assembly dinner to recognize the many valuable contributions made
by the RNHA.
Wednesday, September 13
The President will participate in a DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance
Education) event at the White House.
President Bush will meet with Leaders of Key National Education
Associations.
Thursday, September 14
The President will address the SES Presidential Rank Award
winners.
Friday, September 15
President Bush will host a luncheon for regional media from
midwest and border states. The drug strategy, agriculture,
education and trade are issues expected at the follow-up
questions and answer period.
The President will sign the Hispanic Heritage Month Proclamation
at a White House ceremony.
- 4 -
I pointed out last night there is some good news, and I
mentioned specifically the decline in casual cocaine use. And I
mentioned specifically the courageous stand being taken by one of our
friends south of our border, and others as well down there. So it
isn't a message of despair. What I'd rather phrase it is a message
of hope. And I need your help to get the job done.
So thank you all very much for coming. I'm confident
that we will have the support of the American people on this issue.
Your presence here assures me that I can count on you. But I'm
grateful. With Judge Walton sitting here, I want to say how grateful
I am to Bill Bennett and to him for formulating for the first time a
national strategy that offers hope to those little kids we saw today.
Thank you very, very much. (Applause.)
If I would say to those non-ambassadors in the room --
and please do not assume that this is a discriminatory policy -- but
I am one who is very much indebted for the foreign -- the cooperation
we're getting from abroad -- if I could ask the ambassadors from
other nations just to come and maybe have a handshake here, I would
then at least have the feeling that I have made you feel the special
warmth that I feel towards you for coming and to your countries for
being interested in cooperating on this strategy.
END
1:43 P.M. EDT
On September 13, Secretary Lujan will address the Congressional
Hispanic Caucus Institute's fundraising dinner about priorities
for young Hispanics.
On September 13, Secretary Dole will address the Job Corps 25th
Anniversary Festival. Dole will also address the
Northeast/Midwest Leadership Council Conference, a group of
Senators, industry CEOs, labor leaders, and academics about
various labor issues.
On September 13, Secretary Kemp will address the Education
Department's conference on Historically Black Colleges and
Universities. Kemp also will travel to Mississippi to
participate in a debate on economic competitiveness sponsored by
William F. Buckley's "Firing Line." He will also tour housing
projects with Senator Trent Lott.
On September 13, Secretary Cavazos will deliver a speech at the
American Association of School Administrators "I Care" Conference
on the President's Educational Excellence Act.
On September 13, Secretary Sullivan will give an update on the
President's Medicaid initiatives at a conference on "Access and
Health Care Financing Alternatives for Minority Populations."
On September 13, Attorney General Thornburgh will participate in
signing a Mutual Assistance Treaty between the United States and
Nigeria. Prince Bola Ajibola, Attorney General of Nigeria, will
be in Washington to sign the treaty, the first such treaty signed
with a Black African State.
On September 14, Secretary Cavazos will visit two local schools,
Woodson Junior High School and Cardozo High School. He will
speak to the students about drugs and about general education
topics.
On September 15, Secretary Derwinski will meet with the
Congressional Black Caucus.
On September 15, Secretary Kemp will travel to Chicago, Illinois
to tour the Rockwell Gardens public housing complex, which has
been reclaimed from drug dealers.
On September 15, Secretary Cheney will attend National POW/MIA
Day ceremonies.
On September 15, Secretary Lujan will sign the Salt River Pima
Maricopa Indian water rights settlement in Phoenix, Arizona.
On September 15, Secretary Dole will address the National
Conference of Editorial Writers in St. Paul, Minnesota about
Poland and labor issues.
Enclosure 2
Summary of Budget Amendment Increases
$300 million for the Department of Health and Human
Service's Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health
to augment its efforts in anti-drug abuse treatment and
prevention.
$194 million for the Department of Justice's State and
Local Drug Grant Program to assist in street-level drug
law enforcement and to make drug users more accountable
for their behavior.
$20 million for the Department of Justice's Immigration
and Naturalization Service to increase anti-drug Border
Patrol activities along the Southwest Border and to
bring new equipment on line more quickly.
$15 million for the Department of the Treasury's Customs
Service to upgrade its program to combat drug money
laundering.
$50 million for the Department of Housing and Urban
Development's Public Housing Modernization Program to
rid public housing of drug dealers and to increase
security.
$5 million for the Department of Justice's Drug
Enforcement Administration to assist with the Andean
initiative described below.
$132 million for the Department of Defense (DOD) to fund
a major portion of the initiative to disrupt and diminish
the flow of cocaine from the Andean region of South
America. This would increase DOD counter-narcotics
funding from $318 million to $450 million. Language is
provided to allow $125 million of these funds to be used
by the State Department in support of this initiative.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
September 11, 1989
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AT AMERICAN SUCCESS AWARDS CEREMONY
The Rose Garden
11:07 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all. I'm serious. Take off
your coats if you want to. I kind of look a little more formal here,
but -- thank you, Larry -- Secretary Cavazos, our able Secretary of
Education. It's a great pleasure to see you here, and I certainly
want to welcome Senator Kassebaum. I don't know what happened to
Orrin -- Senator Orrin Hatch, but I expect he'll make the dramatic
entrance any minute now. (Laughter.) But thank you so much for
coming.
My thanks to Michael Farley, Chairman of the National
Council on Vocational Education for all his hard work. And there's
an old saying: The more things change, the more things stay the
same. Well, today I'm going to talk about our rapidly-changing work
force and the simple, proven ways America is preparing for the
future.
You know, during the administration of Abraham Lincoln,
the government made a strong commitment to what most people now
consider a current idea: vocational-technical education. And by
etablishing the land-grant colleges -- the agricultural and
mechanical, or "A&M" schools -- Lincoln ensured that American workers
were on the cutting edge of the new technologies. Well, that sounds
familiar. And since the days of Lincoln, America has been concerned
with competitiveness in the world marketplace of technology.
Lately, there's a bad rumor going around that the work
ethic is dead. And I don't believe that's true -- not when so many
of the best new jobs in the nation are going to Americans educated in
vocational-technical schools. It sounds to me like the work ethic is
alive and well.
And it's going to stay that way. Eighteen of the 20
fastest-growing occupations within the next decade require
vocational-technical education and jobs for technicians will grow 38
percent by the year 2000 -- the fastest of any major occupational
group.
You know, there are dramatic changes in the nation's work
force -- changes that point to a brighter future for our young
people. Take, for example, the fact that our population is growing
much more slowly now that the baby boom is over -- the same time that
we're creating a record number of new jobs. The bottom line in the
year 2000 -- and this is a statistic that really is staggering -- in
the year 2000, every person who wants a job will have one if they
have the skills. And that's where you all come in.
All across America, some 26,000 vocational-technical
education institutions provide 16 million Americans with marketable
skills in over 150 occupations.
These students will be the high-tech computer programmers
and operators, equipment assemblers and communications specialists
who stand at the cutting edge of our economy. As we rely more and
more on automation in our industries, employers will be looking for
smart workers who can communicate and solve problems, from monitoring
MORE
Enclosure 2
Summary of Budget Amendment Increases
$300 million for the Department of Health and Human
Service's Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health
to augment its efforts in anti-drug abuse treatment and
prevention.
$194 million for the Department of Justice's State and
Local Drug Grant Program to assist in street-level drug
law enforcement and to make drug users more accountable
for their behavior.
$20 million for the Department of Justice's Immigration
and Naturalization Service to increase anti-drug Border
Patrol activities along the Southwest Border and to
bring new equipment on line more quickly.
$15 million for the Department of the Treasury's Customs
Service laundering. to upgrade its program to combat drug money
$50 million for the Department of Housing and Urban
Development's Public Housing Modernization Program to
rid public housing of drug dealers and to increase
security.
$5 million for the Department of Justice's Drug
Enforcement Administration to assist with the Andean
initiative described below.
$132 million for the Department of Defense (DOD) to fund
a major portion of the initiative to disrupt and diminish
the flow of cocaine from the Andean region of South
America. This would increase DOD counter-narcotics
funding from $318 million to $450 million. Language is
provided to allow $125 million of these funds to be used
by the State Department in support of this initiative.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(New Orleans, Louisiana)
For Immediate Release
September 8, 1989
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO HISPANIC CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
The Fairmont Hotel
New Orleans, Louisiana
11:57 A.M. CDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, President Abel Quintela. Two
Odessa boys on the same platform. (Laughter.)
I'm delighted to be here -- glad to know from your
President that this has been a highly successful meeting of the
Chamber. I'm proud to salute Abel for the job he has done, and then
to pay my respects to Loupe Garcia, who's the incoming President.
Texas seems to have a lock on this organization for a -- (applause)
-- and I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that fact that I'm very
pleased our Secretary of the Interior, our friend and yours
certainly, Manuel Lujan is with us today. (Applause.) You see --
where is he?
And I'm proud to say that, along with Larry Cavazos, we
have two Hispanic Americans in the Cabinet of the President of the
United States, and that's a very good thing for our country.
(Applause.)
I want to thank the Governor of the State of Louisiana,
Buddy Roemer, my friend of longstanding, for being with us here
today. (Applause.) We have two congressmen from out and about,
Congressman Holloway and Congressman Tauzin, who are with us over
here. I'd like to ask them to stand up. (Applause.)
And right close in, Congresswoman Lindy Boggs over here.
(Applause.) And then, a man with whom I work very closely in the
Congress and for whom I have great respect, also, from the
Metropolitan New Orleans area, Bob Livingston, a member of Congress
here. (Applause.)
And also, Abel was telling me about the fact that this
really is a hands-across-the-border meeting, and I should salute Dr.
Ugarte from Mexico, the Under Secretary of Commerce who is with us
today, and also Jose Maria Alverde, the President of the largest
chamber of commerce in the world, I believe -- he's head of the
Mexican Chamber of Commerce from Mexico City, and we are honored to
have them with us here today. (Applause.)
So we do meet as vecinos - "neighbors". And as
businessmen and businesswomen, as well. But mostly, perhaps, as
citizens who understand how Hispanics have helped America create a
greater land for all of us.
You know, nine years ago, America began what has been
called The Decade of the Hispanic. And now, at the decade's end,
Hispanics are one of America's fastest-growing minorities, enriching
our country socially, academically, economically, spiritually. And
living, more than ever, the American Dream. (Applause.)
I've been to many such meetings of the Chamber. And
every time I come here, I realize that what I just said is true --
MORE
- 2 -
you will see the measurable objectives are in the language of drug
use -- or at least many of them. That's what we mean to get at.
What does that mean specifically? It means efforts
across the board, from source country to user accountability. Some
of you have heard -- maybe even some of you have said -- that in the
strategy there will be less of one thing and more than another.
There will be less of nothing in this strategy. There will not be
less emphasis on interdiction. There will not be less emphasis on
treatment. There will be a good deal more of some things -- some
things will be held fairly steady, but there will be a good deal more
of some things.
Two things in particular: an offshore initiative, an
Andean strategy where we will seek to help President Barco, for
example, in his efforts, and help other governments as they make
efforts against the drug dealers. And a second very important
feature is the emphasis on user accountability. As we were told
countless times by the experts, by people in the field, where this
country got off the track in the late '60s and '70s was believing the
only people worthy of attention were the major traffickers and the
kingpins and not the individual user. We call for sanctions at every
point in the system, at every link in the chain. We think there
ought to be more sanctions on the leaders of the cartel and we think
there ought to be more efforts of kingpin pursuit and money
laundering and middle managers and also the user.
Immediately in talking about the user, people have said,
"Where are you going to -- how are you going to have sanctions
against the user when your jails and prisons are already filled up?"
Two points. One, you can exercise sanctions without putting people
in jail. You can take away their drivers' licenses, you can fine
them, you can take away their automobiles if they're using their
automobiles to buy drugs or to store drugs, you can inform employers
and employers can fire them, and you can do a whole lot of other
things.
Institutions that receive money from the federal
government will understand what we mean by user accountability. From
now on, schools and colleges must not only have policies, they must
act on those policies. They must have clear policies of no use of
illegal drugs and they must act on those policies. We'll be setting
up legislation about that where they will lose federal funds -- not
just federal education funds, all federal funds. So that indicates
our seriousness on that issue.
We talk about testing in the workplace and we're calling
immediately for the implementation of the federal order on testing of
government employees.
Two other things not to be forgotten: We're adding an
additional $20 million for money laundering. We think that money
laundering, a very complicated business, is the lifeblood of the
operations here and we need to make a much better effort than we have
in the past.
Second is the effort in public housing. We think that,
as Secretary Kemp has pointed out, there's no point of redecorating
and improving public housing for drug dealers. Let's clean out
public housing, let's make it habitable for people who want to live
their lives drug free and then make the improvements.
So we proceed on the four major fronts: Prevention and
education; the international aspect now -- a new effort -- the Andean
initiative; law enforcement continues to be a high priority, as you
saw with the President's crime package; we will recommend to the
limit of authorization, $350 million, to state and local law
enforcement to help people in law enforcement get the job done.
Now one of,the first priorities in terms of time is to
MORE
- 3 -
innovative strategy for the reinvigoration of the Minority Business
Development Agency. Every linkage between corporate America and a
minority vendor and educational institution in the minority
population brings us one step closer to assuring the equal
participation of all Americans in our free enterprise system.
These partnerships will aid the shop owner in Los Angeles
or the small developer in Des Moines. And so will one final project
that I'd like to mention here -- the 1990 census. You might say why?
Look, there are 19.5 million Hispanic Americans, approximately --
19. million. And I urge you to do your best to make them count.
Tell your friends and neighbors to cooperate with Census officials.
Don't let the Decade of the Hispanic go unreflected in this very
important national survey. So remember, the more accurate the Census
is, the greater Hispanics' influence and ability to help people help
themselves. (Applause.)
I've talked of the prosperity which can better the lives
of every American. And in that context, let me just say a word about
our relationship with Mexico.
The first head of state that I met after the election,
after I was elected, indeed, after his, was President Salinas. And
two months ago, I was pleased to renew what I can tell you is.a
genuine friendship now, at that economic summit in Paris. Mexico, by
restructuring her economy, reducing trade barriers and then with our
help, reaching agreement with her commercial bank creditors has
opened the gateway of increased trade with America. We welcome this
commerce, for Mexico is -- and most Americans don't know this -- our
third-largest trading partner. I salute President Salinas for his
leadership on this Mexican debt problem it's a tough problem and
he made some very difficult decisions -- he led the way. He was out
front. Mexico was the first country to achieve agreement on these
major debt problems that are lingering out there. And I think that
his way -- his leadership -- has paved the way for other countries.
And so, I salute him here today, with many of his friends and
colleagues in this audience. I look forward to next month's state
visit and we will give him the honors that a good friend, Mexico,
merits and honors -- we will give him those honors on the White House
lawn. And together, we can build a gateway to the 1990s that will
provide both Mexico and America with economic opportunity and
stability. We must never take our friends for granted. (Applause.)
Now, I would be remiss if I didn't take a couple of
minutes more -- I know you're starving out there. I can tell --
(laughter) -- the look on the faces -- but if I didn't take a couple
of minutes more to talk about another kind of trade. You know what
it is -- a more destructive kind of trade that slams shut the
gateways of opportunity. And, of course, I'm talking about the drug
trade.
Consider these statistics. Last year, the government
estimated that 23 million Americans used illegal drugs on a "current"
basis -- that is, at least once in the preceding 30 days. Last year,
more than eight million people used cocaine. And almost one million
used it once a week or more. Last year, hundreds of thousands of
babies were born to mothers who use drugs -- babies born desperately
sick, weeks or months premature. A nation with those numbers cannot
long preserve its very soul.
And that's why, three nights ago, I announced America's
first national comprehensive and coordinated strategy to wage
unconditional war against the scourge of drugs. And we've got four
major elements in this plan.
First, enforcement, using our laws and criminal justice
system. For America must take back its streets. We need more jails
and prisons and courts and prosecutors. And, indeed, in my view,
tougher sentences. Drug dealers deserve a gateway, but that gateway
is one where they go to prison. And I still feel in my heart, for
MORE
- 2 -
you will see the measurable objectives are in the language of drug
use -- or at least many of them. That's what we mean to get at.
What does that mean specifically? It means efforts
across the board, from source country to user accountability. Some
of you have heard -- maybe even some of you have said -- that in the
strategy there will be less of one thing and more than another.
There will be less of nothing in this strategy. There will not be
less emphasis on interdiction. There will not be less emphasis on
treatment. There will be a good deal more of some things -- some
things will be held fairly steady, but there will be a good deal more
of some things.
Two things in particular: an offshore initiative, an
Andean strategy where we will seek to help President Barco, for
example, in his efforts, and help other governments as they make
efforts against the drug dealers. And a second very important
feature is the emphasis on user accountability. As we were told
countless times by the experts, by people in the field, where this
country got off the track in the late '60s and '70s was believing the
only people worthy of attention were the major traffickers and the
kingpins and not the individual user. We call for sanctions at every
point in the system, at every link in the chain. We think there
ought to be more sanctions on the leaders of the cartel and we think
there ought to be more efforts of kingpin pursuit and money
laundering and middle managers and also the user.
Immediately in talking about the user, people have said,
"Where are you going to -- how are you going to have sanctions
against the user when your jails and prisons are already filled up?"
Two points. One, you can exercise sanctions without putting people
in jail. You can take away their drivers' licenses, you can fine
them, you can take away their automobiles if they're using their
automobiles to buy drugs or to store drugs, you can inform employers
things. and employers can fire them, and you can do a whole lot of other
Institutions that receive money from the federal
government will understand what we mean by user accountability. From
now on, schools and colleges must not only have policies, they must
act on those policies. They must have clear policies of no use of
illegal drugs and they must act on those policies. We'll be setting
up legislation about that where they will lose federal funds -- not
just federal education funds, all federal funds. So that indicates
our seriousness on that issue.
We talk about testing in the workplace and we're calling
immediately for the implementation of the federal order on testing of
government employees.
Two other things not to be forgotten: We're adding an
additional $20 million for money laundering. We think that money
laundering, a very complicated business, is the lifeblood of the
operations here and we need to make a much better effort than we have
in the past.
Second is the effort in public housing. We think that,
as Secretary Kemp has pointed out, there's no point of redecorating
and improving public housing for drug dealers. Let's clean out
public housing, let's make it habitable for people who want to live
their lives drug free and then make the improvements.
So we proceed on the four major fronts: Prevention and
education; the international aspect now -- a new effort -- the Andean
initiative; law enforcement continues to be a high priority, as you
saw with the President's crime package; we will recommend to the
limit of authorization, $350 million, to state and local law
enforcement to help people in law enforcement get the job done.
Now one of,the first priorities in terms of time is to
MORE
- 5
national problem. And we're all in it together -- cops to teachers,
parents to clergymen. And we'll have to fight together to crush the
drug menace at every turn, fighting in the barrios and the
boardrooms, cities and in the towns, winning it kid by kid, human
life by human life, house by house, neighborhood by neighborhood.
Putting the emphasis where the problem is -- locally, in the
community.
Fellow parents and businessmen -- fellow Americans --
that's where you come in. For drug use isn't merely statistics.
It's the young kid tormented by cocaine addiction. Or the pregnant
mothers whose use of crack impairs her child, perhaps for life. At
stake is the very future of every community, and the Hispanic
community is no different. At stake is the future of the Hispanic
community. And I'm referring to our kids, of course.
And so let me challenge you -- get involved. There are
so many who need your help. Join the grass roots groups like the
Miami Coalition of leaders from business, education, government and
law enforcement to stop drug use. Take the time to really know your
neighborhood at home and at work. Help your church and antidrug
parents' groups. Support drug programs in your children's schools.
Look at New Orleans for an example -- drug-free zone
concept. It is working and can work anywhere in the country.
(Applause.)
And then, I talk about a thousand points of light.
People have finally gotten the message. It isn't a thousand pints of
light I am talking about. (Laughter.) It is a thousand points of
light, and I talked about that just a year ago here in the Superdome,
and I feel strongly about it. I feel more strongly about one
neighbor helping another, the need for you to be involved in the life
of another -- constructive involvement in the lives of others.
So do this with your business. Us it as a storefront
against drugs. Put the banners up and the brochures. Don't let the
cynics disturb you -- those that think everything has to come out of
Washington. Employ volunteer counselors. Be a symbol in the
community and especially for its kids. And join the ranks of caring
and committed and help us win this crusade.
So I guess my question is, will you enlist? I believe
you will. I believe -- and I'll tell you why I feel so strongly
about it in this audience -- because I know of your values of family,
religion and, above all, your commitment to freedom that has brought
many of you to this country. That's going to compel you to get
involved. (Applause.)
I think I understand Hispanic America. I've got lots to
learn, but I think I understand. And the roots run deep and the
aspirations run high, and its people ask not the promise of success
-- only the opportunity to succeed.
And Hispanic America is at her best when the challenge is
the toughest. So together, let's open those gateways to prosperity
and stability, build for our children a better tomorrow. The kids --
they're the trustees of America's future. So let their horizons
touch the sky.
I appreciate your kindness. You have this wonderful way
of making me feel at home. I appreciate the chance to share this
occasion. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.
Thank you very, very much. (Applause.)
END
12:20 P.M. CDT
- 6 -
cooperatively and constructively, consistent with the first principle
which is that this is secondary, and the most important thing is to
get the substance of the strategy right.
Q
What's the current congressional mark on drugs --
DIRECTOR DARMAN: Six.
Q
The current appropriations bill is a six?
DIRECTOR DARMAN: Yes, but that's a -- it's roughly six,
but you have to remember, the House has acted and the Senate hasn't
fully acted, and the House hasn't yet completed all of its action and
so on. So it's apples and oranges. But it's roughly $1.8 billion or
$1.9 billion below what the President is proposing in terms of the
current congressional appropriations mark.
Q
Mr. Darman, according to the table attached to the
letter to Whitten of today -- I just want to check to see if I
understand this correctly - your February 9th budget proposals
combined with the $1.2 billion crime initiative announced in May,
brought you to a total proposed of $7.1, roughly, billion dollars?
DIRECTOR DARMAN: For drugs --
Q
For drugs, I understand.
DIRECTOR DARMAN: -- counting only $800 million of the
$1.2 billion as drug-related.
Q
Right, now --
DIRECTOR DARMAN: There's another $400 million that's not
drug related.
OR
Exactly. Now, what you're adding today amounts to
an additional expenditure of approximately $700 million to bring you
to a total of $7.8 billion.
DIRECTOR DARMAN: Roughly $720 million --
0
-- $720 million -- thank you.
DIRECTOR DARMAN: -- to bring you to roughly $7.9
billion.
Q
So what's new -- that's what consists of new
substance added in today's plan, or the plan announced today?
DIRECTOR DARMAN: No, that's what's new budget amendments
in today's plan. There's a very large amount of substance that
doesn't involve appropriations, in terms of the types of carrots and
sticks involved in --
Q
I didn't mean to imply that it was only money.
Q
May I ask you about the Andean strategy -- the $2
billion? How is that to be distributed, what is its purpose, what is
it supposed to do?
DIRECTOR DARMAN: Well, I don't know if I should -- let
me say this subject to the Czar, supplementing what I would have to
say. With respect to the Andean strategy, I think it's important to
differentiate Fiscal Year '90 and the remaining years. For Fiscal
Year '90 we have an extremely specific plan for Colombia, Bolivia and
Peru. We'd be more than happy if you really would wish to break out
the numbers country by country and purpose by purpose there -- for
Fiscal Year '90. That's all fully developed here and it totals
$261.2 million for Fiscal Year '90 for those three countries.
MORE
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(New Orleans, Louisiana)
For Immediate Release
September 8, 1989
REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT
TO NATIONAL BAPTIST CONVENTION USA, INC.
New Orleans Convention Center
New Orleans, Louisiana
2:39 P.M. CDT
THE PRESIDENT: Now, what do you think of a man like
Reverend Jemison, who would make you come on after that beautiful
music by Earl Taylor? (Laughter.) Not only were his remarks deeply
appreciated, but, Earl, wherever you've gone to -- here he is over
here -- what magnificent joy, what magnificent music. Thank you very
much. (Applause.)
To Reverend Jemison and Reverend Clark and Reverend
Richardson, my friend, Dr. Ben Hooks, behind me here, and the Board
of Directors, I feel honored to be here. And I brought some reserve
troops with me. I brought three members of the United States
Congress. And to be sure that the Reverend knows this is not a
partisan gathering -- (laughter) -- they are Democrats and
Republicans, and I want you to meet them. (Applause.) Reverend
Tauzin, Reverend Livingston, and Reverend Boggs -- three of the great
congressmen with us here today. (Applause.) And also a member of
the President's Cabinet, the Secretary of the Interior Manual Lujan,
over here. (Applause.)
What a joyous meeting --- so many Baptists in New Orleans,
I expected, particularly at a crowd like this, to hear "When the
Saints Came Marching In." (Laughter.) And I expect Reverend Jemison
and Franklin Richardson have learned their lesson, because they were
at the White House not so long ago and they -- we finished a meeting
there. Dr. Hooks was there and several other leaders here today,
celebrating a 25th anniversary so important to our country. But
afterward, Reverend Richardson came out -- Franklin -- and he said,
"Listen, hold up a minute." We elbowed the Secret Service away, and
I said, "What's on your mind?" He said, "Reverend Jemison and I want
to extend you an invitation to come to our great convention." And
before they could change their mind I said, "It's a deal, I'll be
there." And here I am, and I'm very grateful to you. (Applause.)
You'll excuse me if I reminisce -- the last time I was
here was August 18th, a year ago, and I was running for president and
I addressed thousands of Republicans. And now I'm addressing many
thousand Baptists. But the feeling, speaking before such a large
audience, is about the same. Barbara, the Silver Fox, my wife --
(applause) -- is not with me today. But she said, "George, look,
just pretend that you're standing in front of another Sunday school
class." (Laughter.) Well, I did teach Sunday school, but I never
had one quite this big. (Laughter.) And I never taught in one where
the music was quite this magnificent. Thank you all very, very much.
(Applause.)
And I'm proud to speak before, address a convention that,
as Psalm 84 says, goes from strength to strength. It is important to
our nation that this convention and what it represents goes from
strength to strength.
You know, I've come to New Orleans to tell you something,
and it really is summed up by that motto of your convention -- your
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- 6 -
cooperatively and constructively, consistent with the first principle
which is that this is secondary, and the most important thing is to
get the substance of the strategy right.
Q
What's the current congressional mark on drugs --
DIRECTOR DARMAN: Six.
0
The current appropriations bill is a six?
DIRECTOR DARMAN: Yes, but that's a -- it's roughly six,
but you have to remember, the House has acted and the Senate hasn't
fully acted, and the House hasn't yet completed all of its action and
so on. So it's apples and oranges. But it's roughly $1.8 billion or
$1.9 billion below what the President is proposing in terms of the
current congressional appropriations mark.
Q
Mr. Darman, according to the table attached to the
letter to Whitten of today -- I just want to check to see if I
understand this correctly -- your February 9th budget proposals
combined with the $1.2 billion crime initiative announced in May,
brought you to a total proposed of $7.1, roughly, billion dollars?
DIRECTOR DARMAN: For drugs --
Q
For drugs, I understand.
DIRECTOR DARMAN: -- counting only $800 million of the
$1.2 billion as drug-related.
or
Right, now --
DIRECTOR DARMAN: There's another $400 million that's not
drug related.
Q
Exactly. Now, what you're adding today amounts to
an additional expenditure of approximately $700 million to bring you
to a total of $7.8 billion.
DIRECTOR DARMAN: Roughly $720 million --
Q
-- $720 million thank you.
DIRECTOR DARMAN: -- to bring you to roughly $7.9
billion.
Q
So what's new -- that's what consists of new
substance added in today's plan, or the plan announced today?
DIRECTOR DARMAN: No, that's what's new budget amendments
in today's plan. There's a very large amount of substance that
doesn't involve appropriations, in terms of the types of carrots and
sticks involved in --
Q
I didn't mean to imply that it was only money.
Q
May I ask you about the Andean strategy -- the $2
billion? How is that to be distributed, what is its purpose, what is
it supposed to do?
DIRECTOR DARMAN: Well, I don't know if I should -- let
me say this subject to the Czar, supplementing what I would have to
say. With respect to the Andean strategy, I think it's important to
differentiate Fiscal Year '90 and the remaining years. For Fiscal
Year '90 we have an extremely specific plan for Colombia, Bolivia and
Peru. We'd be more than happy if you really would wish to break out
the numbers country by country and purpose by purpose there -- for
Fiscal Year '90. That's all fully developed here and it totals
$261.2 million for Fiscal Year '90 for those three countries.
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- 3 -
streets. And so to save the American family also means providing
support for those parents who are struggling against tough odds.
And nor can we ignore the difficulties of poor couples
with children. The challenge of strengthening these families
requires both public and private efforts. And church leadership is
meeting the challenge in ministries like that of E.V. Hill of Los
Angeles -- I'm going to get in trouble here starting any names, but
I've known Mr. Hill where hungry families find sustenance; in
ministries where Baptists are providing families with everything from
high chairs to a hand up.
You know that no matter how close-knit your family may
be, the decline of the American family is not just someone else's
problem. It is everyone's problem. (Applause.) Where's Jerry
Moore? There's Jerry. When I was in D.C. General Hospital the other
day I speak to him and the other reverends from Washington -- I
went there and there was a ward there -- they called them "boarder
babies" that were in there. Babies were born, mothers left them
there.
And who's looking after them? It's not the government of
D.C. It's not the federal government. It's a group of black ladies
who have gotten together and they said, we're going to do this. We
are going to see that these kids have a chance for love. And it's
coming out of their own pockets. (Applause.) And we are all in this
together.
You know, no matter how close-knit your family may be, I
guess the bottom line is, the decline of the American family is not
someone else's problem, it's everyone's. And when one generation is
raised without values, it starts this chain of misery that weighs
down future generations. About half of all black families with
children are headed by one parent, and many of these are simply
overwhelmed. And because they're overwhelmed, more than four out of
10 black kids live in poverty. And because of this, it's becoming
harder for your churches, no matter how hard you try, to reach so
many promising young men and women.
And how can you teach respect for a hard-earned dollar,
when that easy drug money flourishes out there on the street?
(Applause.)
And how can you teach that achievement is found in quiet
moments and subtle rewards, when a murderous materialism glitters --
the promise of gold chains, fast cars, and fashion clothes?
And how can you persuade young men and women to have
faith in themselves if their mother and dad have lost all faith?
In short, without strong families, how can values triumph
over vice? And the answers can only come from right here -- right
from the heart heart of every parent. And the answers can come
from you, from the people of faith the people of our churches --
indeed, from all people of faith, whatever their religion.
And so I came to New Orleans today to pledge my support
as best I can, but to recognize your heroic efforts, your ministries,
your efforts as parents or as church members. First, we can work
together in many ways to strengthen the family -- greater choice in
child care is one that I feel strongly about also education by
replacing the crippling fear of crime with the promise of
opportunity.
Let me talk about child care just one minute. Often,
while parents work, love and care come from extended family --
grandparents, aunts, uncles. And in many ways, the church community
is the greatest extended family of all. And I've seen that spirit of
family and love permeate the day-care center at Shiloh Baptist Church
in Washington, which I went to see not so many months ago. And your
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- 10 -
DIRECTOR BENNETT: Sorry?
Q
Is there more or less money?
DIRECTOR BENNETT: More. Despite reports to the
contrary, there is slightly more money for the drug interdiction
program. There is not less money.
0
Director Bennett, the drug strategy anticipates a
lot more demand for treatment as a result of user sanctions and other
efforts. There are already waiting lines for treatment, and no
treatment in some communities. Do you really believe that the money
you've dedicated to increase treatment will handle the problem as you
now see it?
DIRECTOR BENNETT: The treatment pattern is -- it's
heterologous. It doesn't make any sense. There's not much logic to
the treatment system.
Q
Could you spell that, please?
Q
Put it on the lower shelf.
DIRECTOR BENNETT: It doesn't make much sense. It's
incoherent. (Laughter.) Heterologous: other logic.
You do have waiting lines in some places, and in other
places you have vacancies. This is the non-logic of the system. You
go to New York and look at that system, look at the Newsday series on
the treatment system in New York, and you find some places where
people are dying to get in and very eager to get in and can't get in.
And there are other places with open beds; they can't attract people.
There's one hospital with a reputation for a long waiting line, and
we were told by addicts that the reason everybody wants to go there
is because they can go there and get their methadone, no requirement
of counseling, no requirement you straighten out your life, you just
get your methadone and leave. This is the terrible inconsistency.
We need some consistency, some rationality.
I want to answer your question. If -- Bruce, correct me
if I'm wrong here -- but if, when we put forward our funds, if state
and local governments come up in the same proportions that they have
in the past relative to federal funds, we will have $700,000 --
MR. CARNES: Six-hundred-fifty to 700,000.
DIRECTOR BENNETT: Six hundred-fifty to 700,000 treatment
slots. If we are talking, as most clinicians are talking, about 1.5
million to two million people who are in serious need of treatment,
you can handle that number of people over the course of a year,
because you don't need to use the facility for the whole year for
many people; you can figure two or three people to a slot, since most
of it is outpatient. So that's a significant increase in the
numbers. We're going from 287,000 slots -- isn't that -- wasn't that
it --
MR. CARNES: Three hundred and twenty-four --
DIRECTOR BENNETT: -- 324,000 slots now to something --
MR. CARNES: About 650,000 to 700,000.
DIRECTOR BENNETT: -- to something like 650,000 to
700,000. So that's getting us very close. The clinicians -- if you
want ballpark figures here, the clinicians we've talked to estimate
the problem in the following way: You've got something like four
million people out there who are using illegal drugs more than 200
times a year, and have a real problem. of those, the clinicians say,
about a million, probably with the help of husband or wife or
employer or priest or neighbor or kids, could get off it by
MORE
- 5 -
question of whether there's a job for everyone -- the question's
going to be demographically, is there somebody qualified to take the
existing job? It's changing that ^ast. (Applause.) And so, the
market will not settle for anything less than an aptitude for full
literacy and an aptitude for skilled labor. And those who are
incapable -- and they are great in number -- will fall, unless we're
careful, further and further behind.
So, what's the answer? I see you pointing the way. For
a century and a half, these churches demonstrated the liberating
power of learning. No one better exemplifies this tradition than the
Reverend Henry Rose. Born into slavery, liberated at age 21, he
walked all the way from Texas to Virginia, worked on the railroad
until a Baptist society sponsored him at a little seminary school.
Reverend Rose was so poor that when he graduated he had to wear a
boot on one foot and a shoe on the other. But Henry Rose had
something better than a matching pair of shoes. He had knowledge.
He had pride. He had faith in God. And as a Baptist minister, he
founded five churches and two schools, establishing institutions with
great traditions of service that live on to this day.
And there is a lesson for us in this remarkable man's
life. If he could beat the overwhelming odds of slavery, oppression
and blatant prejudice to lead a community, then any obstacle can be
overcome, and we must not forget it. (Applause.)
Yes, I know we have a responsibility in improving
education, and I hope the proposals I've sent to the Congress will do
that. We've got to give parents and students greater choice. And
when you choose one school and leave a bad one behind, that bad one's
going to change. There are examples of that in many of the cities in
America where choice has been put into effect. I'm talking magnet
schools. And this means public and private partnerships like "Say
Yes To Education," which sends impoverished minority students to
college, and this means increased support, which I'm proud to do my
best on for Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
(Applause.)
Education is more than schooling. It is nothing less
than the communication of values. And once again, my respects for
leading the way. Just look right here in New Orleans, where the
Greater Liberty Baptist Church is preparing many young men for
adulthood through its Black Manhood Training Program. That's a
church thing. Government's not doing that; the church. Men and
women of that church got together and decided this is what we're
going to do. I call it a thousand points of light, and people in
this country are beginning to understand now what I mean when I say
we must be involved in the lives of others.
To get to school, to get to work, to get to a child care
center, families must also be free to walk the streets without fear.
And today, freedom from fear -- no, you know it as well as I do -- it
means freedom from drugs. And that is why Tuesday night, I announced
our nation's first comprehensive, coordinated all-out assault -- a
national strategy, a way to attack the drug menace on every front.
I believe that the Congress wants to work with me on
this. Yes, I understand nobody's going to do it exactly my way. I
would be very closed-minded if I said you can't have this change or
another, or we can't make this part of it better -- another. But
this is no time for partisan carping. We have come out with the
first national strategy, and I want the support of every member of
Congress -- Democrat, Republican alike. (Applause.)
There's a lot of times we can play partisan politics and
I'll get in there with the best of them. Don't like it too much, but
-- now that I'm President -- but, I kind of wish they'd do it my way.
But I will -- I recognize that there's differences here, but not on
this one. Not as our country tries to fight -- come up with a
national strategy and then fight the narcotics that are ripping off
MORE
- 10 -
DIRECTOR BENNETT: Sorry?
Q
Is there more or less money?
DIRECTOR BENNETT: More. Despite reports to the
contrary, there is slightly more money for the drug interdiction
program. There is not less money.
0
Director Bennett, the drug strategy anticipates a
lot more demand for treatment as a result of user sanctions and other
efforts. There are already waiting lines for treatment, and no
treatment in some communities. Do you really believe that the money
you've dedicated to increase treatment will handle the problem as you
now see it?
DIRECTOR BENNETT: The treatment pattern is -- it's
heterologous. It doesn't make any sense. There's not much logic to
the treatment system.
Q
Could you spell that, please?
0
Put it on the lower shelf.
DIRECTOR BENNETT: It doesn't make much sense. It's
incoherent. (Laughter.) Heterologous: other logic.
You do have waiting lines in some places, and in other
places you have vacancies. This is the non-logic of the system. You
go to New York and look at that system, look at the Newsday series on
the treatment system in New York, and you find some places where
people are dying to get in and very eager to get in and can't get in.
And there are other places with open beds; they can't attract people.
There's one hospital with a reputation for a long waiting line, and
we were told by addicts that the reason everybody wants to go there
is because they can go there and get their methadone, no requirement
of counseling, no requirement you straighten out your life, you just
get your methadone and leave. This is the terrible inconsistency.
We need some consistency, some rationality.
I want to answer your question. If -- Bruce, correct me
if I'm wrong here -- but if, when we put forward our funds, if state
and local governments come up in the same proportions that they have
in the past relative to federal funds, we will have $700,000 --
MR. CARNES: Six-hundred-fifty to 700,000.
DIRECTOR BENNETT: Six hundred-fifty to 700,000 treatment
slots. If we are talking, as most clinicians are talking, about 1.5
million to two million people who are in serious need of treatment,
you can handle that number of people over the course of a year,
because you don't need to use the facility for the whole year for
many people; you can figure two or three people to a slot, since most
of it is outpatient. So that's a significant increase in the
numbers. We're going from 287,000 slots -- isn't that -- wasn't that
it --
MR. CARNES: Three hundred and twenty-four --
DIRECTOR BENNETT: -- 324,000 slots now to something --
MR. CARNES: About 650,000 to 700,000.
DIRECTOR BENNETT: -- to something like 650,000 to
700,000. So that's getting us very close. The clinicians -- if you
want ballpark figures here, the clinicians we've talked to estimate
the problem in the following way: You've got something like four
million people out there who are using illegal drugs more than 200
times a year, and have a real problem. of those, the clinicians say,
about a million, probably with the help of husband or wife or
employer or priest or neighbor or kids, could get off it by
MORE
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Baltimore, Maryland)
For Immediate Release
September 7, 1989
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO
71ST AMERICAN LEGION CONVENTION
Baltimore Convention Center
Baltimore, Maryland
10:05 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Justice Gierke -- Sparky to me -- as a
fellow Legionaire, let me first salute the first Vietnam veteran to
be selected National Commander, and all of you who represent our
nation's largest and fastest-growing veterans organization, more than
three million members strong -- thank you for that warm welcome.
(Applause.)
I am proud to have been accompanied here by a great
friend of the veterans, Congressman Sonny Montgomery, of Mississippi
-- (applause.) I see we have a few Mississippians back there. And,
of course, to have been greeted by Maryland's outstanding
Congresswoman, my great friend, Helen Bentley, a great friend of the
veteran. (Applause.) And am pleased, because I hadn't been told
they were going to be here, to see our outstanding Commandant of the
Coast Guard Admiral Yost, who's doing a superb job; and General
Rowny, a old friend of mine, a great leader -- great friend of the
veterans and a great leader in the whole field of arms control and a
strong defense.
So I feel among friends. And as always, it's a great
privilege to join you and a deep personal pleasure for me to renew
old ties, greet new friends.
Today, surprisingly, is September 7th -- (laughter) --
and I -- (applause.) Can you believe it? And I'm determined not to
repeat the mistake I made exactly one year ago when I referred to
this as Pearl Harbor Day. (Laughter.) I can still remember the gasp
-- it was on this side of the room. I don't know whether the seating
has changed, but as long as I live I'll remember the gasps from the
audience. (Laughter.)
Not surprisingly, anniversaries were on my mind then as I
traveled here from Washington. Events like this 71st National
Convention of the American Legion, or the 200th birthday of the Coast
Guard, or the very first anniversary of the Veterans Affairs
:
Department, led by its able Secretary and our good friend, Ed
Derwinski -- a department intent on serving you as you have served
your country.
Well, as you can imagine, these birthdays in turn got me
thinking about another anniversary -- the 175th this year of the Star
Spangled Banner -- (applause) -- and how your convention lies so near
its famous birthplace. Tuesday you did something that would have
pleased Francis Scott Key and for which I thank you. For by
supporting a constitutional amendment making it illegal to desecrate
the American flag you joined the crusade to protect that unique
symbol of America's honor. Our flag is too sacred to be abused.
(Applause.)
The flag, like our great country, America, represents
many things. It represents self-expression and opportunity,
MORE
- 3 -
treatment, to help addicts who want to get clean, with special
emphasis on expectant mothers.
And finally, we're going to work with other governments
to help crack the international drug rings. Yesterday's extradition
of a major drug dealer sends a strong signal of the courage and
determination of President Barco and the Colombian government to deal
with the scourge which drugs are inflicting on all of us.
(Applause.) And as veterans you know how battles are often fought --
house by house, block by block. Well, we'll win this battle the same
way. But we're going to win it kid by kid, neighborhood by
neighborhood.
For years now, drugs have written a sad chapter in the
American story. And this morning I ask you to help write an ending
all of us can be proud of. These cops out here on the street -- they
can't do it alone. The teachers -- God bless our teachers, those
teachers in our schools -- they can't do it alone. The addict really
trying to get clean can't do it alone, can't -- weary of abuse, can't
do it alone. They all need your help. And I know they'll get it.
Just as you've helped handicapped kids, donated blood,
added -- aided helped always that National League of Families, and
spurred good government through programs like Boys State and Girls
State. Today, for instance, Post #65 in Rosemont, Minnesota, runs
the program, Drug Talk. And in Russellville, Arkansas, I especially
like Post #20's giveaway of thousands of rulers, and their message
says it all -- "You really measure up when you say no to drugs."
You know as I do that we are in this together. So let us
fight on any front and every front. Supply and demand. Education
and rehabilitation. Interdiction and enforcement. In the cities and
the towns. Walter Lippmann once wrote of a "nation at the mercy of
violence." America must never surrender to the violence of drugs and
crime. The future of our children depends on it.
This morning, I've talked about our mission to secure
freedom from fear at home, but now let me shift. We also have
another mission, a global mission -- to free America from the fear of
war. Wouldn't it be wonderful if our kids or grandkids could grow up
in a world where they never had to give one single thought to the
horror of a nuclear war.
Half a century ago, Ike and Nimitz and Jimmy Doolittle
and millions of unsung heroes -- many sitting right here today --
fought to end a war. You fought at Guadalcanal and Monte Cassino, at
Bastogne and Bataan. You fought to rid the world of totalitarianism
and tyranny. Our challenge may be less dramatic, but just as vital
-- to secure freedom in a world at peace. Today, ours remains a
global stage and America remains its leading player. And we must use
our strength to maintain peace and freedom. For this, we do know
from World War II, the best way to protect that freedom and ensure
real peace is for America to be militarily strong. (Applause.)
Thankfully, today, America is strong. And our strength
has helped democracy's tide run in, even as tyranny's tide runs out.
The new breeze of freedom, which I've spoken of before, is blowing in
Poland, in Hungary, in countries East and West. And yet with even
hopeful changes comes uncertainty. And with uncertainty comes the
need for vigilance. This is no time to declare freedom's victory
before the fact. And that is why we need a national defense that
ensures a strong and secure America; and why I'm pleased that the
Senate largely agrees.
This week our Defense Authorization bill moves to
House-Senate Conference Committee. And there's just one problem --
the House version is totally unacceptable to the Commander-in-Chief
of. the United States Armed Forces. It is unacceptable. (Applause.)
It continues unneeded programs costing nearly $20 billion from 1990
to 1994, holding our defense budget hostage to projects that will
MORE
- 5 -
Thank you all very, very much. Remember Pearl Harbor.
We'll see you. (Applause.)
END
10:26 A.M. EDT
- 2 -
production rates to repairing robots, and people who are skilled on
the production line and who know how to get things done -- and
craftsmen such as computer programers and electrical engineers, and
practical nurses who keep our economy going strong.
Let's look at some of the benefits of vo-tech education
-- marketable graduates and lower unemployment. For example, one
study found that graduates of Ohio vocational education programs earn
21 percent more money four years after graduation than high school
graduates without this training. And unemployment is lower for
vo-tech graduates than for those in the general work force who are
the same age and have the same number of years of schooling. But
even beyond the numbers -- when vo-tech education can help young
Americans get a better start in life, then the whole country
benefits.
And here's another benefit -- improved learning skills.
Job training and academics are not contradictory. Actually, many
people learn academic subjects better in the context of how to use
them on a job. Students in a vo-tech school taking a "Principles of
Technology" course will learn about thermal resistance -- not from a
lab experience with beakers and test tubes, but from working the
insulation in a house. Vo-tech schools are leading the way in
educational improvement and applied academics.
The partnerships that community colleges and vo-tech
institutes have formed with businesses to provide retraining and
skills for employees are essential. There are now 23 million adults
who receive retraining through vo-tech programs which allow them to
get new or better jobs. The reality of life-long learning has
arrived.
We call it "career ladder opportunities" -- the kind of
education that builds bridges between vocational education and higher
education. It's the kind of education that puts more and more
Americans on the ladder to success.
Building a world-class work force, then, must be a
national priority. Improving America's capacity to educate and train
workers is critical to the future of this country. And that's why
today we're presenting to you -- not all of you, some of you -- the
American Success Awards. You have become American success stories
through your involvement in vocational-technical education. And
you're building a better America every day.
Each of you has lived the American dream, and each one c:
you deserves our congratulations and thanks for your work in
vocational-technical education. God bless you all and thank you all
for coming today.
And now, Mike, let's present these American Success
Awards. (Applause.)
END
11:12 A.M. EL:
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
September 6, 1989
PRESS CONFERENCE BY THE PRESIDENT
TO DRUG AND CRIME REPORTERS
Room 450
old Executive Office Building
11:37 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Hello, everybody. Please sit. Well, I'm
delighted that Dr. Sullivan and Bill Bennett are with me -- brought
the first team in to respond to questions, too. I'm pleased with the
-- our announcement on drugs.
There has been -- as I've listened carefully, there has
been little, if any, substantive criticism about this national
strategy. And listen to the critics, if you will, but recognize that
you don't hear much substance. What you're hearing the debate about
is how one pays for it or whether it needs to be more in one category
or another. I say that because I think that is a tribute to the work
of Bill Bennett and the others who helped formulate this
first-in-a-lifetime national strategy.
Now, you're familiar with the strategy, but let me just
touch a couple of points and then respond to your questions. It's a
fully integrated approach. We address all the elements necessary to
an effective strategy -- school and drug prevention programs,
treatment, laws and criminal justice system, and foreign policy.
On the laws and criminal justice system, we sent a
prisons and matters of that nature. And some of our critics fail to
package up to the Congress several months ago on anticrime, including
understand that that is already up there as a very separate program,
but one that ties in, as I tried to point out last night, to our
national strategy.
I'm determined that there will be no turf problems. I
think, as I look back over my shoulder -- and I had some role in the
interdiction as head of a task force. We had some problems with --
turf problems. I think with Bill's -- Bill Bennett's leadership and
he and I working shoulder to shoulder, that we can eliminate any of
those that might still be lingering. But we've got to work together.
And it's not just federal. It's got to be state and local, as well.
There's a bipartisan consensus in this country. I don't
think there's any disagreement about the gravity of the threat. And
the Congress to give us bipartisan support in the implementation of
that's important if you want to get something done. I'm challenging
this strategy. And I'm looking to the grass roots support of
America's communities in the fight against drugs.
The evidence -- I tried to point it out last night, SO I
won't repeat it -- the good news being the decline in casual drug
use. And that's a significant point. If we can continue that trend,
it will make a big impact on the drug market and on the lives of
individuals. The bad news, of course, being the persistence of
crack. cocaine, the hard users and, of course, the insidious effects of
funding to states and localities for street-level law enforcement.
The criminal justice system -- we're increasing federal
We're providing federal funding to states for planning, developing
and implementing alternative sentencing programs for nonviolent drug
MORE
- 2 -
production rates to repairing robots, and people who are skilled on
the production line and who know how to get things done -- and
craftsmen such as computer programers and electrical engineers, and
practical nurses who keep our economy going strong.
Let's look at some of the benefits of vo-tech education
-- marketable graduates and lower unemployment. For example, one
study found that graduates of Ohio vocational education programs earn
21 percent more money four years after graduation than high school
graduates without this training. And unemployment is lower for
vo-tech graduates than for those in the general work force who are
the same age and have the same number of years of schooling. But
even beyond the numbers -- when vo-tech education can help young
Americans get a better start in life, then the whole country
benefits.
And here's another benefit -- improved learning skills.
Job training and academics are not contradictory. Actually, many
people learn academic subjects better in the context of how to use
them on a job. Students in a vo-tech school taking a "Principles of
Technology" course will learn about thermal resistance -- not from a
lab experience with beakers and test tubes, but from working the
insulation in a house. Vo-tech schools are leading the way in
educational improvement and applied academics.
The partnerships that community colleges and vo-tech
institutes have formed with businesses to provide retraining and
skills for employees are essential. There are now 23 million adults
who receive retraining through vo-tech programs which allow them to
get new or better jobs. The reality of life-long learning has
arrived.
We call it "career ladder opportunities" -- the kind of
education that builds bridges between vocational education and higher
education. It's the kind of education that puts more and more
Americans on the ladder to success.
Building a world-class work force, then, must be a
national priority. Improving America's capacity to educate and train
workers is critical to the future of this country. And that's why
today we're presenting to you -- not all of you, some of you -- the
American Success Awards. You have become American success stories
through your involvement in vocational-technical education. And
you're building a better America every day.
Each of you has lived the American dream, and each one c:
you deserves our congratulations and thanks for your work in
vocational-technical education. God bless you all and thank you all
for coming today.
And now, Mike, let's present these American Success
Awards. (Applause.)
END
11:12 A.M. EL:
- 3 -
crack-infested neighborhoods will very soon be able to walk out of
their homes again and feel safe?
THE PRESIDENT: If we get the proper support for this
program, they'll have a much better chance to do that. And I can't
suggest to you that fully funding this program exactly the way we've
suggested it is going to bring instant relief to that -- instant
solution to that problem. It should bring instant relief.
And I know how heavily impacted South Florida is
particularly, but I would not, recognizing the fact that we have
regional press corps here, suggest that you could convince the people a
from Chicago or New York or some rural communities that they are less
impacted. So it is a national problem. But, yes, I hope that this
will be of some relief to an overburdened South Florida.
Q
One of the reasons that we're so concerned about
drugs here in the District of Columbia is that there have been more
than 300 murders this year. While most of them involve drugs, a
higher proportion of them are with guns -- handguns.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
0
Besides the ban on importing some types of automatic
weapons, which we heard about earlier this year, does your plan
handguns out of drug dealers' hands, off the street?
address -- or what can we do about the tremendous problem of keeping
THE PRESIDENT: We do support local law enforcement, and
as you're familiar with, there are very strong laws in the books on
registrations, domestically -- I mean in D.C. itself -- not
nationally -- D.C. And part of our backing up law enforcement is so
that they can enforce local laws, and this is one. And there are
plenty of laws and, regrettably, these criminals seem to have a
to acquire weapons even though the law in the District, for example, way
is very strong against it.
Q
Mr. President, do you feel -- would you reconsider
approaching the tax structure if, by chance, within two or three
years -- you see no relief with this problem through your drug strategy
would you consider raising taxes at that point?
solve the drug problem was through increasing taxes, I would money do that.
THE PRESIDENT: If I thought the only way to get to
But that is not the only way to get money for solving the drug
program. And we have made proposals that are well up into the
billions if that don't require socking it to the taxpayer anymore.
in somebody could convince me that all the federal programs that But
existence are perfect and need not be eliminated, or that there's are
the no way to move funds from one account to another in three and
drugs, it I certainly would be open-minded. But that isn't the case and
country was still suffering from this malaise, this sickness years, of
won't be the case in three years.
taxes. somebody jump up and say raise taxes. So I am not in a mode to raise
Every program -- every time you make a proposal you have
for it in I am in a mode to move this national strategy forward and pay
the way we have suggested.
Q
strategy for this strategy in case --
I have a follow up, sir. Do you have a backup
We're and selling this one; we don't need backup. It's a good strategy
THE PRESIDENT: No, I think this one's going to succeed.
we want it to work.
Q
made it quite clear that they don't think your plan is strong enough
Mr. President, the Democrats, nevertheless, have
across the board - not in terms of money, but in terms of all the
noves The that you're proposing - and they pledge now to strengthen it.
question is, will you resist their efforts and is there
flexibility on your part to strengthen what you've already given? any
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- 5 -
THE PRESIDENT: Well, we are involving military assets.
As you know, there were some $67 million worth of assets already
there or in the delivery process. Maybe you're talking about troops.
Mr. Barco -- President Barco, a courageous man, has made clear to me
that they don't want American troops. And what I do not want to do,
and what I will not do as President, is to take public opinion in a
country that is now supporting their President -- Colombia -- in
Colombia -- and turn it around by raising the old time-worn spector
of American military intervention in Colombia.
As I said last night, if requested, we'd take a very
different look at this. But they're making a move, they're doing
what's right, they are taking courageous steps. These cartel cowards
are fighting back by killing the wives of police officers and taking
just brutal steps of that nature. But President Barco is staying
firm.
So the United States cannot and should not impose a
military armed solution into some sovereign country. And so that's
the way I view this. There is a lot of interest in our G-7 partners
on an international force. And that's a new concept. It's a concept
I addressed myself to, I believe, in the campaign. But I don't think
you want to risk turning around public opinion in a country that's
struggling to do something now by the intervention -- unilateral
intervention of U.S. force into the area.
0
To follow up, sir, what about bringing this subject
in the drug summit that you are proposing, and how far away are we
from a drug summit?
THE PRESIDENT: I'm not sure. We haven't set a date on
the drug summit. I think it makes good sense. I did talk to
President Barco about that. He is certainly enthusiastic about it.
And I think in a summit of that nature there should be an open
agenda, all ideas on the table, an open discussion of questions of
this nature.
Q Mr. President, Mr. Bennett has written that the
choice to do drugs is one of a national crisis in character. I want
to ask you two things: why do you think people do drugs? And also,
with some of the penalties you're proposing -- denial of housing
loans and college loans and so forth -- won't you just be eliminating
two programs that might convince someone to avoid a life of drugs?
THE PRESIDENT: No, I think by the time you get up into
college loans you ought to know better than to use drugs. We've had
a tolerant attitude in the past; we've condoned those things we
should have condemned in the past. And now, if, indeed, we're going
to fight this war on all fronts, to use a cliche, this makes
eminently good sense. I don't think it's fair to go after the street
hood and let the casual, university, hip user think that he's doing
no damage to society. And so I strongly support what -- this part of
the proposal.
Was there another part of it I didn't --
Q
Why do you think people do drugs?
THE PRESIDENT: Why do I think they do? Some of it's
addictive, some of it is that the whole national attitude hasn't
changed properly yet. We're seeing it change now in casual use. We
have a much bigger assignment now in education in the neighborhoods
and in the communities that are adversely impacted by poverty and
ignorance. And so there's a wide array of reasons that people use
drugs. Some do it because their peers do it. Some do it because
they're told it will make them feel good or that they can make money
in it. And there's a wide variety of reasons why people use drugs.
But we should never again as a nation look the other way.
We should not have a media -- entertainment media that makes fun and
laughter out of something that is this serious. So I have great
confidence in the American people in turning something around - an
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- 7 -
Chancellor Kohl was enthusiastic about this. The ball, in a sense --
really, the leadership of the G-7 is still in the French court,
President Mitterrand. Chancellor Kohl is visiting with him this
week. And so I'm hopeful and very much encouraged by this united
response.
Q Mr. President, our Lieutenant Governor in New York,
where I'm from, says that the increases you've given toward treatment
and law enforcement and, in fact, the whole budget don't add up to
the cost of one B-2 bomber. And people back home want to know, even
though your commitment toward drug fighting is strong, why your
financial priorities aren't toward trying to support the drug fight
instead toward military.
THE PRESIDENT: This is Lieutenant Governor who?
Q Stan Lundine, the state of --
THE PRESIDENT: Oh, Lundine. Well, it's not surprising
that some think the only way to solve the problem is by greater
taxes. I don't know how Mr. Lundine is proposing the federal
government pay for the program, but we've made suggestions here that
I fully support. But, you know, yes, the B-2 bomber is expensive
and, yes, it is important to the national security of this country.
And, yes, it's easy for a Lieutenant Governor to make an analogy of
that nature. But a President has a responsibility for both -- the
national strategy on fighting drugs and the national security of the
United States that hopefully will encourage the Soviet Union to move
forward productively towards even more arms control.
And so I can understand that; that's a good free one out
there, a big target. But I don't know whether this Lieutenant
Governor is proposing the elimination of the Stealth technology
bomber or not. I don't know where he's coming from. But I think he
was using it as a dramatic example. And I am saying to him, we have
stepped up by $2 billion over the House level the resources for the
fight against drugs.
And so -- you see, let me go back to the basic point, and
then I notice Marlin's restlessness here. The basic point is this --
nobody is criticizing the strategy. No one is coming at us and
saying you've left this out or left that out. And I'm very
encouraged by that. I think that means that if we do our job
properly in selling, we can get support from Democrats as well as
Republicans. We've got to do it. The country is fed up. They don't
want it to be a Republican answer or a Democratic answer or a liberal
or a conservative answer.
So the fact that he -- maybe he is attacking the strategy
-- and if so, I'd have to take it back -- but I haven't heard any
real substantive attack on the strategy itself. So then you come to
the question of whether it's enough or how are you going to pay for
it? And there's a wide array of reflexive people up there who say
more taxes for anything, and I don't think that's what the American
people want. I have a funny feeling that something about the last
election was, are we being taxed too little, and nobody jumped up and
said, hey, please me more.
And I think we can do this significant increase without
raising taxes. And I'm certainly going to do it without diminishing
the fundamental national security requirements of the United States.
And that's my responsibility, and I'm proud to shoulder it and I
think we've come up with a very good answer. And so please -- it's
not your obligation, but we will try hard to convince your able
Lieutenant Governor that the program we have makes good sense.
Q Mr. President, regarding the outreach issue in
education, what role will community-based organizations and national
organizations that already are involved in related programs such as
AIDS education, drug and tobacco education, play in your program?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, last night I tried to make clear
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- 6 -
and killing the kids of this country, their very soul.
Time to come together -- the first time in our history
pass a national strategy to fight drugs, and I'd welcome your efforts
and your support on that behalf. (Applause.)
Let me come back one minute to New Orleans, because when
I was coming down here, the Congressmen reminded me, and
Congresswoman Boggs as well, that things are going -- you know, we've
got some problems in New Orleans, like every city in the world -- of
course, there are problems. But people are rolling up their sleeves
right here. Drug-free zones have been set up to help make New
Orleans a safer place. West of here, 60 miles or less, Thibodeaux,
Louisiana -- a local police set an example -- I want to say that
maybe the first such police force in the country that set what they
call a drug-free police force by volunteering out there to take drugs
Cdrug tests) and be sure the other police officers stay off of drugs.
That's exactly the kind of united effort that we need if America is
going to win the war on drugs. There are 100 million points of light
out there, and I've just cited two of them here.
To provide child care, improve education, to create
opportunity, defeat drugs. There are steps to strengthening the
family that require nothing less than a sustained national effort --
a national partnership. I believe government can and should be a
strong partner. But I also believe that the answer, or the solution
to the social problems facing us ultimately depend on what you and
your communities do.
And I like what's been tested and found to be true. And
your faith has been tested. And your values -- your values have been
found to be true. And it is your faith in those values that America
is turning to today. And so, I know there are a lot of problems out
there, but I am an optimist. I believe we can reach out to families
in need. I believe we can see a strengthening of the many patterns
of family life, and I believe we will see a sharing of values --
values rooted in the conviction that we as individuals and as
families are engaged in a single, wonderful enterprise called
America. America. Let us never forget it. We are one nation under
God.
And Reverend Jemison said that on my shoulders rest the
hopes of so many, but I have what you have -- I have faith in God. I
have conviction about family and family values, and I will not let
you down. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.
(Applause.)
Thank you very much. Thank you. Back to work. This was
pure pleasure. (Applause.)
END
3:07 P.M. CDT
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
September 6, 1989
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO FOREIGN AMBASSADORS
AND
STATE AND LOCAL LEADERS
Room 450
old Executive Office Building
1:27 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you all very much. Well, first,
let me pay special thanks to the ambassadors from countries that are
here, and if it's not an imposition, I'd like to at least have a
chance to say hello to each of you when this is finished.
This is a mixed bag, and I say that respectfully, to
those of you who are not ambassadors from other countries. But it is
a rare and a fine opportunity for me to sum up what Judge Walton and
Bob Gates have told you about our national drug strategy. It's an
important program. It's the first time that the United States has
had a national coordinated strategy. And I was privileged last night
to use the Oval Office to address the nation. It was the first such
address for me, but I can think of no subject that it was more
fitting to talk to.
The strategy came after a lot of consultation, not just
with members of the United States Congress, but with many of you in
this room, various leaders in various fields. And government
officials were consulted, community leaders, educational leaders,
business leaders, labor leaders, and then, indeed, we did consult
with leaders from around the world.
Judge Walton has spent the past several months touring
the country. And he's met with people in the states, in the cities
and towns, who have endured the drug problem firsthand. And from his
own experience on the bench, he understands this problem very well.
Brent Scowcroft, who most of the Ambassadors here know --
know on a personal basis -- has been coordinating the supply
reduction efforts with members of the administration, working closely
with Jim Baker and others and with our allies abroad. And indeed,
for those representatives of the so-called G-7 countries, this matter
as you know, was discussed at the Paris summit, and there was a
strong consensus that we wanted to do as much as we possibly can to
help those countries that are embattled by the cocaine cartels.
So I hope that what you've heard today gives you some
sense of how comprehensive our national strategy really is. I
couldn't help but note that the minute I finished speaking, there was
the predictable response by some that we hadn't done enough. And
that -- I try to be very tolerant and kind and gentle here.
(Laughter.) But nobody expected that the members of the United
States Congress, particularly from the other party, would stamp this
enthusiastically.
But I point out that I didn't hear one single substantive
comment about the strategy itself that was critical. And so what I'm
saying is, maybe I'm just hearing what I want to hear, but I think
there was a broad support for the coordinated strategy. And some are
going to say you ought to put more emphasis on treatment, or you
ought to put more emphasis on education, or you ought to put more
emphasis on law enforcement. But the substance of the strategy has
MORE
- 6 -
and killing the kids of this country, their very soul.
Time to come together -- the first time in our history
pass a national strategy to fight drugs, and I'd welcome your efforts
and your support on that behalf. (Applause.)
Let me come back one minute to New Orleans, because when
I was coming down here, the Congressmen reminded me, and
Congresswoman Boggs as well, that things are going -- you know, we've
got some problems in New Orleans, like every city in the world -- of
course, there are problems. But people are rolling up their sleeves
right here. Drug-free zones have been set up to help make New
Orleans a safer place. West of here, 60 miles or less, Thibodeaux,
Louisiana -- a local police set an example -- I want to say that
maybe the first such police force in the country that set what they
call a drug-free police force by volunteering out there to take drugs
Cdrug tests) and be sure the other police officers stay off of drugs.
That's exactly the kind of united effort that we need if America is
going to win the war on drugs. There are 100 million points of light
out there, and I've just cited two of them here.
To provide child care, improve education, to create
opportunity, defeat drugs. There are steps to strengthening the
family that require nothing less than a sustained national effort --
a national partnership. I believe government can and should be a
strong partner. But I also believe that the answer, or the solution
to the social problems facing us ultimately depend on what you and
your communities do.
And I like what's been tested and found to be true. And
your faith has been tested. And your values -- your values have been
found to be true. And it is your faith in those values that America
is turning to today. And so, I know there are a lot of problems out
there, but I am an optimist. I believe we can reach out to families
in need. I believe we can see a strengthening of the many patterns
of family life, and I believe we will see a sharing of values --
values rooted in the conviction that we as individuals and as
families are engaged in a single, wonderful enterprise called
America. America. Let us never forget it. We are one nation under
God.
And Reverend Jemison said that on my shoulders rest the
hopes of so many, but I have what you have -- I have faith in God. I
have conviction about family and family values, and I will not let
you down. God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.
(Applause.)
Thank you very much. Thank you. Back to work. This was
pure pleasure. (Applause.)
END
3:07 P.M. CDT
- 3 -
And so we will do what we're asked to do, if I find it
prudent as President. We will give the kinds of support to the
Colombian military that you've seen begin, and I believe that is the
way we should effectively treat our military assets. And it's not
going to be a unilateral imposition of United States force just when
you have people strongly supporting a President in what he's trying
to do. Colombian kids laying their lives on the line to restore
order to their community.
So I want to help, and I again take this forum here to
pay my respects to what President Barco is doing, to offer the people
of Colombia whatever support we possibly can give them in the way
they want it to have them continue doing this courageous job they're
doing.
Our administration is committed to making drugs bilateral
and multilateral foreign policy issues. We're going to be talking to
all countries in a cooperative manner about what we can do and
encouraging some to join is in certain initiatives that will help
countries that are embattled. That means working, obviously, with
other nations to fight this drug production and to break up the
money-laundering activities that keep the international traffickers
afloat.
I feel very, very strongly about the enforcement side.
And a person who knowingly launders drug money is just as guilty as
the kingpin or somebody pushing the crack into the school kids of our
country. And I think for too long we may have had inadvertently less
energy going into the money-laundering end. And at our G-7 meeting,
as some of the ambassadors here know very well, there was strong
support for maximum cooperation, intelligence-sharing, whatever, to
get at these insidious money-launderers. so I say again today, we
enlist the support of all and we will give our support to all in
trying to track down these people.
Drugs are, of course, our most important domestic
priority. And I'm pleased to see here in this room the very people
that we'll be depending on in the weeks and the months ahead. Law
enforcement -- in this room are law enforcement officials, drug
treatment professionals, teachers, community and business leaders,
and some state and city elected officials. This is not going to be
won by the federal government, this battle. The federal government
has a key role to play and I am trying to see that we play it by
putting forward and then implementing a national drug strategy. But
please understand I have not changed my conviction that the answer
will lie at the local and the state level as we go forward with our
national strategy.
And I used to get kidded -- I think it was friendly
teasing -- about the thousand points of light, but for the cynics, I
wish you could have been with me today at D.C. General Hospital and
gone to the ward where there were maybe six or eight what they call
boarder babies -- babies that had been deserted. And they were being
-- deserted by their mothers -- 80 percent of them, I'm told, their
cocaine-addicted mothers. Trying to do something about that. But
those babies were being kept alive and given a chance for a life with
love in it by a handful of black women in the District of Columbia
who just got together as one of the thousand points of light.
So it is more than a slogan, and this problem will be
solved as soon as each of us decides to involve himself or herself in
the life of another person. And it's not going to be solved until
all of us adopt that ethic as we approach this important problem.
So thank you all very much. I want you to know we will
continue to play our part in carrying out the proposals of the
strategy. I'd be remiss, seeing this much horsepower here, if I
didn't ask you for your support. We want to work with the various
categories and others -- categories that I mentioned here in these
remarks -- so that real progress in the war can begin immediately.
MORE
PREMIDENT
OFFICE
EXECUTIVE OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT
UNITED
OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
STATES
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20503
THE DIRECTOR
September 5, 1989
Honorable Jamie L. Whitten
Chairman, Committee on Appropriations
U. S. House of Representatives
Washington, DC 20515
Dear Mr. Chairman:
Today, the President is transmitting to Congress his
National Drug Control Strategy. An element of that strategy is
increased anti-drug abuse funding for FY 1990. In total the
President's program would provide $7.9 billion in FY 1990 budget
authority, compared to $5.7 billion in FY 1989, a 39 percent
increase. A summary of the President's funding proposals is at
Enclosure 1.
for much of his anti-drug abuse program and for the related
The President has already submitted FY 1990 budget requests
anti-crime initiatives. Today he is submitting budget amendments
that would authorize an additional $716 million (Enclosure 2).
This $716 million request, when added to the President's pending
FY 1990 budget requests, still fits within the confines of the
Bipartisan Budget Agreement. Currently, the difference between
the President's requests and the ceiling for domestic discre-
tionary programs under the Bipartisan Budget Agreement is
estimated to be $13.2 billion in budget authority and
$3.6 billion in outlays. Technically, therefore, the President's
additional requests do not require offsets in order to remain
consistent with the Bipartisan Budget Agreement.
The Administration recognizes, however, that the Congress
has progressed toward the enactment of FY 1990 appropriations and
that likely appropriations for many accounts will exceed the
Administration's requests. Insofar as Congressional funding
increases may require offsetting decreases in order to fit
within the Congressional 302 (b) allocations, we suggest
reallocations, summarized in Enclosure 3, from the likely
Congressional FY 1990 appropriations. In order to avoid
shifting 302 (b) allocations among the Appropriation
Subcommittees, the proposed increases are offset with proposed
decreases on a subcommittee by subcommittee basis. These are
suggestions only. They are offered recognizing that differences
in priorities will prompt other funding offset proposals.
IDENTICAL LETTERS SENT TO HONORABLE ROBERT C. BYRD,
HONORABLE SILVIO O. CONTE AND HONORABLE MARK O. HATFIELD
Enclosure 1
DRUG RESOURCES FY 1990
BUDGET AUTHORITY (MILLIONS OF DOLLARS)
Feb 9
Budget
Drug
Feb. 9
Plus Drug
Strategy
FY89 -
FY89 -
1989
Budget
Portion of
Sept.
FY90 %
FY90 $
Enacted
1990°
Crime Bill
1990
Increase
Increase
Corrections
734
894
1,601
1,601
118%
867
International
250
306
306
449
80%
199
State and Local Grants
150
150
156
350
133%
200
Judiciary
209
242
250
250
20%
41
Other Law Enforcement
2,779
3,018
3,058
3,113
12%
334
Prevention/Education
943
1,041
1,041
1,176
25%
233
Treatment
604
735
735
925
53%
321
TOTAL
5,669
6,386
7,147
7,864
39%
2,195
These columns include resources for the U.S. Courts and make other minor adjustments
to the figures presented in the "Building a Better America" document issued in February, 1989.
These columns include the "drug portion" ($0.8 billion) of the President's $1.2 billion Crime
Initiative announced in May, 1989. The Administration supports enactment of the
crime initiative (The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1989) in its entirety.
The drug portion of prison construction is based on the projected share of drug offenders in Federal
prison at the time the construction is completed. This new methodology reflects more accurately
the likely impact of drug offenses. For consistency with prior years, the historical prison construction
numbers have been adjusted to reflect this new methodology.
- 6 -
ethic, turning it around, making it more sensible and up-to-date.
Q
Mr. President, much of the black community has been
skeptical of the other wars that were waged on drugs. Is there
something that you can say to them specifically that might ease that
skepticism?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think there is skepticism. And I
would simply say to them, this is the first coordinated national
strategy, the first time we've approached this problem on all fronts
in a coordinated way. So give us your cooperation. Your own
communities are being wiped out by this -- adversely impacted,
heavily impacted adversely. More of the pain being right there. And
so give this a try. Work with us on prevention and on education and
on treatment and help us in terms of law enforcement and be involved
and don't look away.
And so I think that -- I hope we can help the skeptic by
making clear that we do care about those areas that are most heavily
impacted by narcotics.
Q
Mr. President, In the past, Colombia was not able to
stand firm against the cartel for very long. If the Colombian
government's current effort falters, what is your plan?
THE PRESIDENT: My plan is to work with them to see that
they don't falter, and to give them the support they need and the
support they have requested, and encourage our allies to do that.
And that's why I was on the telephone yesterday with Margaret
Thatcher and Helmut Kohl. And that's why I'm encouraged when the G-7
meeting in Paris says they are going to help these countries.
Many countries have felt up till now, well, this is
someone else's problem. A lot of countries in Europe now being
impacted much more heavily than they were, say, five or 10 years ago.
So I am not buying into the hypothetical question that what President
Barco is going to do should fail. We want him to succeed and we'll
work to help him succeed.
Q
There have been some suggestions in Detroit that
National Guard troops be brought into control areas. Would part of
your program foresee using National Guard troops or federalized
troops in designated areas to combat rampant drug sales and --
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I haven't discussed that with Bill,
and I'd like to defer it to him. I don't know whether that's
envisioned here or not.
DIRECTOR BENNETT: Well, that, obviously, in most
situations would be left up to governors. We've seen some action in
this regard in Oregon. Some of the National Guard troops are backing
up the police, doing office and clerical work. But we'd like to
consider the use of the National Guard in some other areas, such as
the marijuana eradication.
Q
Would you like to see -- or would you support
National Guard people on the street in a direct line rather than in a
staff support situation?
DIRECTOR BENNETT: No, generally not. And what we've
found in most cities such as Detroit is that, in most cases, the
police are adequate to the job. The problem is after the police make
the arrest -- the system doesn't have enough resources to support the
arrests through prosecution, conviction, and imprisonment.
Q Sir, what exactly did you ask -- or talk to Mrs.
Thatcher and Mr. Kohl about? And how close are you to a G-7 task
force? Is that still something that's close to reality?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, the -- discussed with her a
follow-on to what we discussed in Paris, and that was G-7 united
support for Colombia. And she is enthusiastic about this, and
MORE
Enclosure 3
Suggestions for Potential Decreases
$194 million from the Economic Development Administration
of the Department of Commerce. No funding has been
requested for this program. There is little evidence to
suggest that this program has materially improved regional
or local economic development. Also, over 85 percent of
the United States now qualifies for this program, showing
that it is not limited to areas of economic distress.
$40 million from the formula grant portion of the Juvenile
Justice Program of the Department of Justice. The House
mark for this program was $69 million above the request
level. The original purpose of the program -- the
separation of juvenile from adult offenders -- has been
largely accomplished.
$15 million from Postal Revenue Foregone. Approximately
$100 million remains available from this source derived
from curbing misuse and abuses of Federal subsidies to non-
profit mailers.
$320 million from the Interim Assistance program of the
Department of Health and Human Services, which would reduce
outlays by $80 million. Under this proposal, States would
still receive nearly $550 million for costs they bear
associated with immigration legalization costs in fiscal
year 1990. Due to slow State spending of Interim
Assistance subsidies, States also will have substantial
levels of fiscal year 1988 and 1989 funding available to
cover fiscal year 1990 costs.
$50 million from Public Housing Operating Subsidies. The
House mark for this program is $75 million above the
request level. Of the amount, $50 million is more
efforts. appropriately spent to improve security and drug prevention
$132 million from the Department of Defense's Single
Channel Ground and Airborne Radio System reflecting a
slowdown in production to allow for more complete testing.
- 6 -
ethic, turning it around, making it more sensible and up-to-date.
0
Mr. President, much of the black community has been
skeptical of the other wars that were waged on drugs. Is there
something that you can say to them specifically that might ease that
skepticism?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I think there is skepticism. And I
would simply say to them, this is the first coordinated national
strategy, the first time we've approached this problem on all fronts
in a coordinated way. So give us your cooperation. Your own
communities are being wiped out by this -- adversely impacted,
heavily impacted adversely. More of the pain being right there. And
so give this a try. Work with us on prevention and on education and
on treatment and help us in terms of law enforcement and be involved
and don't look away.
And so I think that -- I hope we can help the skeptic by
making clear that we do care about those areas that are most heavily
impacted by narcotics.
Q
Mr. President, In the past, Colombia was not able to
stand firm against the cartel for very long. If the Colombian
government's current effort falters, what is your plan?
THE PRESIDENT: My plan is to work with them to see that
they don't falter, and to give them the support they need and the
support they have requested, and encourage our allies to do that.
And that's why I was on the telephone yesterday with Margaret
Thatcher and Helmut Kohl. And that's why I'm encouraged when the G-7
meeting in Paris says they are going to help these countries.
Many countries have felt up till now, well, this is
someone else's problem. A lot of countries in Europe now being
impacted much more heavily than they were, say, five or 10 years ago.
So I am not buying into the hypothetical question that what President
Barco is going to do should fail. We want him to succeed and we'll
work to help him succeed.
Q
There have been some suggestions in Detroit that
National Guard troops be brought into control areas. Would part of
your program foresee using National Guard troops or federalized
troops in designated areas to combat rampant drug sales and --
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I haven't discussed that with Bill,
and I'd like to defer it to him. I don't know whether that's
envisioned here or not.
DIRECTOR BENNETT: Well, that, obviously, in most
situations would be left up to governors. We've seen some action in
this regard in Oregon. Some of the National Guard troops are backing
up the police, doing office and clerical work. But we'd like to
consider the use of the National Guard in some other areas, such as
the marijuana eradication.
Q
Would you like to see -- or would you support
National Guard people on the street in a direct line rather than in a
staff support situation?
DIRECTOR BENNETT: No, generally not. And what we've
found in most cities such as Detroit is that, in most cases, the
police are adequate to the job. The problem is after the police make
the arrest -- the system doesn't have enough resources to support the
arrests through prosecution, conviction, and imprisonment.
Q
sir, what exactly did you ask -- or talk to Mrs.
Thatcher and Mr. Kohl about? And how close are you to a G-7 task
force? Is that still something that's close to reality?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, the -- discussed with her a
follow-on to what we discussed in Paris, and that was G-7 united
support for Colombia. And she is enthusiastic about this, and
MORE
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
September 5, 1989
PRESS BRIEFING
BY
DIRECTOR OF OFFICE OF NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL POLICY
WILLIAM J. BENNETT
AND
DIRECTOR OF OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
RICHARD G. DARMAN
The Briefing Room
5:05 P.M. EDT
MR. FITZWATER: This afternoon we have with us William
Bennett, who is Director of the National Drug Control Policy and the
President's Drug Czar; and Richard Darman, who is Director of the
Office of Management and Budget.
Bill will give a brief overview of the national strategy
that his office has developed, and then Dick Darman will have a short
presentation, and then we'll take questions and answers.
DIRECTOR BENNETT: Some of you are already familiar with
elements of the strategy. Let me just give you a brief overview of
it and tell you why we think it is worthy of consideration.
First of all, the national strategy, for the first time
tries to bring together the disparate pieces and disparate areas of
the goverment's effort against drugs together so that we all act as
one. The stories of turf rivalries and other things are legion and
this was one of the reasons for the creation of my position and for
the formulation of a strategy.
We all now act as one. We proceed from the same basis,
from the same set of assumptions, and are subject to the same
overarching policy. We are also now clearly subject to the will and
interest of the President of the United States, who has embraced this
issue and this strategy or, indeed, will do so tonight. Clearly this
is a matter of presidential concern and that makes everyone in the
ranks and all departments and agencies pay attention.
The strategy proceeds from a rationale which, in the
past, was missing. What we had in the past was a lot of departments
and agencies doing things, good things, very good things -- catching
bad guys and putting bad guys in prison, and seizing cocaine and
making life difficult for traffickers. But these efforts were going
on often independently of each other and not in a coordinated way.
This is not, obviously, the absolute end of all enmity, of all turf,
of all stepping on toes. Competition and efforts to improve things
will mean that we will see some more of this. But it is now less
likely to happen, and when it does happen it will be resolved because
there is an office of policy.
What else is distinctive about the strategy? The
rationale from which the strategy proceeds and what is critical to
understand the strategy is that we identify the chief and seminal
wrong here as drug use. Drug use, we say, is wrong. There are lots
of other things that are wrong, such as money-laundering and crime
and violence in the inner city, but drug use itself is wrong, and
that means the strategy is aimed at reducing drug use. If you go
from the very beginning of the strategy where we say drug use is
wrong to the very end where we talk about our measurable objectives,
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- 4 -
I pointed out last night there is some good news, and I
mentioned specifically the decline in casual cocaine use. And I
mentioned specifically the courageous stand being taken by one of our
friends south of our border, and others as well down there. So it
isn't a message of despair. What I'd rather phrase it is a message
of hope. And I need your help to get the job done.
So thank you all very much for coming. I'm confident
that we will have the support of the American people on this issue.
Your presence here assures me that I can count on you. But I'm
grateful. With Judge Walton sitting here, I want to say how grateful
I am to Bill Bennett and to him for formulating for the first time a
national strategy that offers hope to those little kids we saw today.
Thank you very, very much. (Applause.)
If I would say to those non-ambassadors in the room --
and please do not assume that this is a discriminatory policy -- but
I am one who is very much indebted for the foreign -- the cooperation
we're getting from abroad -- if I could ask the ambassadors from
other nations just to come and maybe have a handshake here, I would
then at least have the feeling that I have made you feel the special
warmth that I feel towards you for coming and to your countries for
being interested in cooperating on this strategy.
END
1:43 P.M. EDT
- 3 -
restore lawful public control of public places. There is no point
talking about education programs or treatment programs or counseling
programs where the Earth is scorched. Where people are living in
terror and fear, of drive-by shootings, there's not much point
talking about bringing in counselors, because the counselors won't
come in if they're afraid of being shot at.
And finally, treatment. We plan to spend a substantial
amount of money, an increase for treatment. We want to make
treatment more accountable; we also want to make it more accessible,
and we want to find out what works.
That's a pretty quick summary. Why don't I pass to Dar
-- Dick Darman and take your questions.
Q
Dar?
DIRECTOR DARMAN: Dar and Czar is one of the -- thank
you, Czar. (Laughter.) I'll try to have about four minutes' worth,
I hope, of comments and touch three topics. First, the principles
that should be applied in developing a funding strategy for this
overall strategy; second, a few observations that amount to a funding
summary; and third, a specific discussion of funding offsets that
we're proposing.
First, with respect to the principles that should guide a
funding strategy, we believe it useful to be guided by four general
principles. First, in a serious war on drugs, discussions about how
to provide necessary funding are secondary. They should not distract
attention from the primary, more fundamental issues that a strategy
must address.
Second, funding constraints should derive from ordinary
tests of prudence, rationality and program effectiveness, more than
from an arbitrary a priori drug budget limit.
Third, at the same time however, fiscal responsibility
demands that we attend to overall federal spending limits. The
bipartisan budget agreement set those limits and should be honored,
and it should be honored without resorting to phony budget gimmicks.
The fourth -- and this follows from the others -- as the
bipartisan budget agreement spending limits are approached in the
appropriations process, increases identified for the war on drugs
should be offset by restraint in other areas of spending. If the
notion implied by the term "war" is to be taken seriously, funding
for the drug war should be treated as more important than funding for
several other areas. The flip side, of course, is that some other
program areas should be treated as less important.
Those are the four general principles. I'll come to
their application in a minute. But first, let me say a few words
about the overall funding picture.
First, with respect to Fiscal Year '90, the expenditures
involved are large by any measure for the overall strategy -- $7.9
billion in budget authority. They represent a substantial increase
-- about $1.5 billion more than requested by the President on
February 9th; about $2.2 billion more than was enacted for Fiscal
Year '89. That's approximately a 40 percent increase -- it's a 39
percent increase Fiscal Year '90, as being requested today relative
to '89 as was actually enacted.
I would note that that $2.2 billion increase alone is
equivalent to what was the entire federal drug effort as recently as
Fiscal Year '86, to give some sense of proportion. The increases are
distributed widely, but with the heaviest new emphasis on corrections
domestically, and on the Andean strategy, as the Czar has noted
internationally. I'd refer you to Page 113 of the red book for a
convenient summary of the budget categories of interest and how they
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- 4 -
I pointed out last night there is some good news, and I
mentioned specifically the decline in casual cocaine use. And I
mentioned specifically the courageous stand being taken by one of our
friends south of our border, and others as well down there. So it
isn't a message of despair. What I'd rather phrase it is a message
of hope. And I need your help to get the job done.
So thank you all very much for coming. I'm confident
that we will have the support of the American people on this issue.
Your presence here assures me that I can count on you. But I'm
grateful. With Judge Walton sitting here, I want to say how grateful
I am to Bill Bennett and to him for formulating for the first time a
national strategy that offers hope to those little kids we saw today.
Thank you very, very much. (Applause.)
If I would say to those non-ambassadors in the room --
and please do not assume that this is a discriminatory policy -- but
I am one who is very much indebted for the foreign -- the cooperation
we're getting from abroad -- if I could ask the ambassadors from
other nations just to come and maybe have a handshake here, I would
then at least have the feeling that I have made you feel the special
warmth that I feel towards you for coming and to your countries for
being interested in cooperating on this strategy.
END
1:43 P.M. EDT
- 5 -
You'll see one listed there, $50 million for public
housing operating subsidies. Let me make something clear about this.
We asked for $1.7 billion in housing subsidies. The Congress is
giving us that $1.7 billion in its current mark, plus an additional
$75 million which we believe in good faith is not necessary. There's
a disagreement among technical estimators. What we're saying is,
take that $75 million -- okay, we'll take it -- but allocate $50
million of it for the specific purpose the Czar referred to, which is
cleaning up public housing rather than just increasing the subsidy
beyond what's necessary.
We're suggesting an offset from Defense, which we'll
contribute to the Andean strategy for Fiscal Year '90 of $132 million
from something called at the Department of Defense the Single Channel
Ground and Airborne Radio System. This is a program which is of
value undoubtedly. But the Defense Department has concluded that it
would merit further testing and can be funded a year later in terms
of its full-scale procurement. So that's another case in point that
we can find offsets within this vast $1.2 trillion budget to help
support the drug strategy. We've done that above and beyond the call
and I hope the letter is persuasive on that point.
I should add one final point about this business of
staying within the budget agreement. We've made some suggestions.
More important than the specific suggestions is the fact that we
intend to work cooperatively and constructively with the Congress to
fund the drug strategy. The President, the Czar and I have all said
this to the congressional leadership today. We've said to them,
we've proposed the toughest way with the offset approaches. We think
it can be done, as I've suggested, without adverse impact.
If they wish to approach this differently, there are a
couple of other approaches that some congressmen have advanced. One
is represented in the Senate by Senator Nunn that deals with existing
unobligated balances. With modifications in that approach, we're
willing to explore whether that could be applied. Another suggested
by Senator Dole over the weekend is the across-the-board percentage
cut in appropriations as a way to finance this. If one were to
follow that approach, and fund the whole crime initiative as well as
this drug strategy, it could be done, depending upon the base, with
an across-the-board percentage cut of less than one percent.
So we're willing to explore other alternatives. We have
shown that it can be done with offsets. The important thing -- the
important thing -- is that the strategy should be substantively
sound, should be funded relatively promptly, and that it fit within
the bipartisan budget agreement. We believe that all of that can be
done. Thank you very much.
Q
Mr. Darman, you're saying then that there is -- you
just have a blueprint for the funding, you haven't really proposed a
funding plan?
DIRECTOR DARMAN: No, quite the opposite. We have
specific budget amendments for every single proposal in the strategy
-- every single one -- $7.9 billion, account by account, every one at
the Congress tonight. So it is as specific a funding plan as one
could possibly have.
What I have said is, in addition to that, if the Congress
wishes to appropriate, in the manner that they have suggested by the
marks within committees to this point, if you take what they are
marking plus what we suggest, you will then be. above the bipartisan
budget agreement limits. so, we've said if you want to get back down
below the limits, here are the specific offsets that will get you
back below.
So it is a complete funding plan. What I was trying to
suggest with my final comments was simply that if that approach is
not fully satisfactory, we intend to find another one working
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- 7 -
For the out-years, rising up to the total of $2 billion
over the five-year period, there are two reasons I have to duck your
question. One is that -- that is, in terms of the specifics -- one
is that not all of the specifics for the out-years have been settled
upon, partly because the specifics are contingent upon performance.
For example, you'll find a reference to economic assistance that
would come in the out years. The concept would tie the economic
assistance to specific performance related to the curtailment of
transit of drugs.
Now, we can't know exactly what the amounts will be until
we see what the specific performance is. We know what the total is
we're willing to allocate for the purpose. There's a second reason
that we're not discussing the out-years which is that parts of what's
involved are classified.
Q
Can you talk a little bit, without getting into --
DIRECTOR BENNETT: Let me just add to what Director
Darman is saying. The package we're talking about, in its large
features, is economic and military assistance -- and other forms of
assistance as appropriate. You see the kind of military assistance
we have in mind. You've had the last two weeks to take a good look
at that -- there's a good, palpable example.
The kind of economic assistance we're talking about would
be economic assistance -- not likely to Colombia, but to Peru and
Bolivia -- Colombia doesn't have that economic problem. But we want
to see Peru and Bolivia step up to the plate and do -- take some
actions against the drug traffickers, analogous to the kinds of
things that Colombia has done. Not exactly, it's a different
situation, but we want to see a seriousness on the part of those
governments as well -- or increased seriousness. That's the kind of
thing we have in mind.
I think if you look at most of the scholarly literature
on this, which we've looked at, what people will say is, the
countries of this region need to make the fight themselves as best
they can, but they need assistance from the United States. The
assistance should come in a variety of ways, and I think it
reasonable and sensible to prudent for some of that assistance to be
conditional on good faith efforts.
Q
Surely you're not suggesting that $2 billion over
five years divided by three countries is going to achieve much
success in terms of weaning these countries off of the multi
billion-dollar illegal drug trade?
DIRECTOR BENNETT: Which multibillion dollar drug trade
are you talking about? If you're talking about the
multibillion-dollar drug trade that operates between South America
and the United States -- if you're adding it all up and you see $2
billion against various numbers that have been thrown out, most of
those numbers, I think, are not reliable.
It doesn't look like very much, but remember, if we take
on this effort, we don't have to replace the salaries of the cartel
dollar for dollar; that's not our responsibility. And the $100
billion number that's been thrown around in the United States, a lot
of that money -- most of that money -- stays in the United States.
It stays with the middlemen, it stays with the street dealers. The
amount of money that's going back into Colombia is much, much less
than that. I don't know what estimates we're using, what numbers
we're using, but it's more like single-digit billion dollars.
o
When will we feel the impact of this plan? When
will there be some evidence that it's --
DIRECTOR BENNETT: Well, we have in the back the
measurable objectives, and they are two-year objectives and 10-year
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- 9 -
we get halfway to where we say we'll be in 10 years in that five-year
period, you're still talking about seven million users of illegal
drugs, and maybe a million or a million and a half users of cocaine
monthly. That's still a pretty significant amount of demand. That
still suggests pressure at all points in the spectrum, including
South America.
Q
Could you talk about carrots and sticks for the
states --
DIRECTOR BENNETT: Yes.
Q
-- what you think are the most significant ones for
states, for employers, for schools?
DIRECTOR BENNETT: Sure. First of all, a general
misunderstanding that most of the money that we are proposing is
matching money -- only five percent of the new money that we're
proposing is matching money. Most of it is not matching and will not
require a matching component. Carrot money, money for state and
local law enforcement, we do want to get that money to the states.
The treatment money -- we want to get that money to the states, block
grants and so on, and these are things that we need to attend to --
the public housing money.
We do require states to take testing seriously. Let me
read it to you exactly. I have the provision here: "Require drug
testing of prisoners, parolees and arrestees as a condition of
receiving those funds. That's one.
There's been much discussion about the requirement that
states revoke the drivers' licenses of people arrested or convicted
of drug offenses. And let me clarify that. This was not a matter
which I pressed the President hard to do and he didn't go with me on
when we came to the final meeting of the Domestic Policy Council on
this issue. I told the President, based on the discussion that I'd
heard, it seemed to me you could call it either way. And after some
discussion and consideration, the President decided to call it by way
of exhortation -- making it an exhortation rather than a stick. This
means, of course, we can still come back if we want to encourage
states to do this and we can even come back and say not enough states
have done it, so we may consider putting some conditions on highway
funds along these lines. But there are a lot of governors out there
who are passing and leading this kind of legislation already. So it
seemed to us, let's deal with encouragement and exhortation.
If the states don't act, we're going to have to do more.
But it seems to me that states have every interest in acting and
being tougher on this issue and adopting user accountability statutes
and the like. If some don't, they're going to very soon learn a very
interesting lesson about the drug trade. If a whole bunch of states
passed tough legislation and five or six don't, those five or six are
going to find a very interesting change in their quality of life.
I was in Portland, Oregon and they were having a bit of a
state identity crisis for a while out there about what they thought
about drugs until they realized -- this was from their own words --
that as Darryl Gates and the LAPD was driving drug dealers out of LA,
they were moving up to Portland, where -- drug dealers read the
kind of business.
newspapers -- they found the laws were much more congenial to their
so if you start to press on this business -- and what we
propose is pressing at every -- and on every link in the chain at
every point -- but some state decides to opt out, it's going to soon
find new reasons for opting back in.
Q
drug interdiction program along the border?
Mr. Bennett, do you have more or less money for the
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- 6 -
cooperatively and constructively, consistent with the first principle
which is that this is secondary, and the most important thing is to
get the substance of the strategy right.
Q
What's the current congressional mark on drugs --
DIRECTOR DARMAN: Six.
or
The current appropriations bill is a six?
DIRECTOR DARMAN: Yes, but that's a -- it's roughly six,
but you have to remember, the House has acted and the Senate hasn't
fully acted, and the House hasn't yet completed all of its action and
so on. So it's apples and oranges. But it's roughly $1.8 billion or
$1.9 billion below what the President is proposing in terms of the
current congressional appropriations mark.
Q
Mr. Darman, according to the table attached to the
letter to Whitten of today -- I just want to check to see if I
understand this correctly your February 9th budget proposals
combined with the $1.2 billion crime initiative announced in May,
brought you to a total proposed of $7.1, roughly, billion dollars?
DIRECTOR DARMAN: For drugs --
Q
For drugs, I understand.
DIRECTOR DARMAN: -- counting only $800 million of the
$1.2 billion as drug-related.
Q
Right, now --
DIRECTOR DARMAN: There's another $400 million that's not
drug related.
Q
Exactly. Now, what you're adding today amounts to
an additional expenditure of approximately $700 million to bring you
to a total of $7.8 billion.
DIRECTOR DARMAN: Roughly $720 million --
Q
-- $720 million -- thank you.
DIRECTOR DARMAN: -- to bring you to roughly $7.9
billion.
Q
So what's new that's what consists of new
substance added in today's plan, or the plan announced today?
DIRECTOR DARMAN: No, that's what's new budget amendments
in today's plan. There's a very large amount of substance that
doesn't involve appropriations, in terms of the types of carrots and
sticks involved in --
Q
I didn't mean to imply that it was only money.
Q
May I ask you about the Andean strategy the $2
billion? How is that to be distributed, what is its purpose, what is
it supposed to do?
DIRECTOR DARMAN: Well, I don't know if I should -- let
me say this subject to the Czar, supplementing what I would have to
say. With respect to the Andean strategy, I think it's important to
differentiate Fiscal Year '90 and the remaining years. For Fiscal
Year '90 we have an extremely specific plan for Colombia, Bolivia and
Peru. We'd be more than happy if you really would wish to break out
the numbers country by country and purpose by purpose there -- for
Fiscal Year '90. That's all fully developed here and it totals
$261.2 million for Fiscal Year '90 for those three countries.
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- 11 -
themselves. It would require great effort, but they could do it by.
themselves. Another million are so addicted or so inclined this way
no treatment and no kind of therapy is going to help them. The
remaining two million is the population that most of the clinical
people think are accessible by some kind of treatment. So what you
want to do is get the numbers of slots up so that you can get as many
of those people as possible. And you're right. If what happens is
what we propose to happen in the criminal justice system, you'll see
increased interest in those slots. And we'll come back and probably
propose more treatment later on.
Q
You've tried to portray this as a big increase in
the budget for drug programs. But, in fact, when you look at the
outlay figures and you look at what's been proposed earlier this
year, for Fiscal '90 you're proposing, I think, about a 15 percent --
but 15 percent of the new outlays is new; 85 percent was already
proposed earlier this year, according to the table that Mr. Darman
just told us.
Now, given those figures, aren't people going to look at
this and say the rhetoric is wonderful, the goals are admirable, and
the money is totally inadequate?
MR. FITZWATER: No! (Laughter.)
DIRECTOR DARMAN: I don't think that ordinary people
would think that $7.9 billion is a small amount of money.
Q
But if the outlay is --
DIRECTOR DARMAN: I was trying to answer this question
earlier, and let me try. The reason that the outlay number is
smaller is because such a large portion of the increase is for
prisons. And the characteristic of spending on prisons is that
budget authority, which is what really matters for getting the prison
built, has to be committed now, but it takes three years to actually
plan and go build the prison. so the initial expenditures, which are
what outlays are, are rather small for prisons and they rise very
rapidly in the out-years.
Most people, in looking at discretionary programs,
certainly the Congress, say the test is budget authority. That is
telling you what you actually are committing. Outlays are the rate
at which the money actually goes out the door and it varies.
Salaries go immediately; prison construction takes years. So the
budget authority is the $7.9 billion and it's a substantial increase.
Now, so is the other if you look over time, but it's not as much.
Q
Director Darman, if this is as an important a war as
you're saying it is, why was it necessary to impose a constraint on
your beginning thinking that it meet the bipartisan budget agreement?
DIRECTOR DARMAN: We've done that with every proposal
that is pending.
Q
Well, except for the savings & loan.
DIRECTOR DARMAN: No, sir -- not correct at all. The
savings & loan fit 100 percent within the bipartisan budget
agreement. It was specifically negotiated as part of the bipartisan
budget agreement. It was understood that its funding would fit
within the budget agreement and it does. And that's true of
everything else that we've proposed from the cleanup of nuclear
weapons production facilities, which some people said couldn't
possibly be fit, and so on done the line -- it fits.
o
Why is that important?
0
Director Darman, to follow a question on the huge
expense for prisons, how much money are you setting aside to feed and
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cooperatively and constructively, consistent with the first principle
which is that this is secondary, and the most important thing is to
get the substance of the strategy right.
Q
What's the current congressional mark on drugs --
DIRECTOR DARMAN: Six.
0
The current appropriations bill is a six?
DIRECTOR DARMAN: Yes, but that's a -- it's roughly six,
but you have to remember, the House has acted and the Senate hasn't
fully acted, and the House hasn't yet completed all of its action and
so on. So it's apples and oranges. But it's roughly $1.8 billion or
$1.9 billion below what the President is proposing in terms of the
current congressional appropriations mark.
0
Mr. Darman, according to the table attached to the
letter to Whitten of today -- I just want to check to see if I
understand this correctly -- your February 9th budget proposals
combined with the $1.2 billion crime initiative announced in May,
brought you to a total proposed of $7.1, roughly, billion dollars?
DIRECTOR DARMAN: For drugs --
Q
For drugs, I understand.
DIRECTOR DARMAN: -- counting only $800 million of the
$1.2 billion as drug-related.
Q
Right, now --
DIRECTOR DARMAN: There's another $400 million that's not
drug related.
Q
Exactly. Now, what you're adding today amounts to
an additional expenditure of approximately $700 million to bring you
to a total of $7.8 billion.
DIRECTOR DARMAN: Roughly $720 million --
Q
-- $720 million -- thank you.
DIRECTOR DARMAN: -- to bring you to roughly $7.9
billion.
Q
So what's new -- that's what consists of new
substance added in today's plan, or the plan announced today?
DIRECTOR DARMAN: No, that's what's new budget amendments
in today's plan. There's a very large amount of substance that
doesn't involve appropriations, in terms of the types of carrots and
sticks involved in --
or
I didn't mean to imply that it was only money.
Q
May I ask you about the Andean strategy -- the $2
billion? How is that to be distributed, what is its purpose, what is
it supposed to do?
DIRECTOR DARMAN: Well, I don't know if I should -- let
me say this subject to the Czar, supplementing what I would have to
say. With respect to the Andean strategy, I think it's important to
differentiate Fiscal Year '90 and the remaining years. For Fiscal
Year '90 we have an extremely specific plan for Colombia, Bolivia and
Peru. We'd be more than happy if you really would wish to break out
the numbers country by country and purpose by purpose there -- for
Fiscal Year '90. That's all fully developed here and it totals
$261.2 million for Fiscal Year '90 for those three countries.
MORE
- 13 -
become homeless. But it's a pretty -- it's clear that you can't save
everybody.
In terms of the prisons, let me make a point about the
cost benefit because, no doubt, someone is going to come along and
say that $20,000 a year for a prison cell could be used to send that
person to Brown. I don't know how Brown feels about that, but that
aside, there's another argument here that's very important.
The Bureau of Justice has estimated that the cost of not
putting a drug felon in prison is $200,000 to $220,000 a year to
society. These numbers -- the Chief in Dallas took me through these
numbers the first time -- $60-a-day crack habit, you've got to steal
$600 to feed your $60-a-day habit because you fence and you get 10
percent of what you've stolen -- $600-a-day over a year is $215,000.
One crack addict with a $60-a-day habit, which is not
extraordinary -- you can have $100, $500-a-day habit -- can wreak an
awful lot of havoc in society and a lot of costs.
Q Are you satisfied with the money in this package --
DIRECTOR BENNETT: Yes, I am satisfied with the money in
this package. And I wanted to follow up on the ceiling business.
When I got this assignment I was not given a ceiling. I, of course,
was asked to recognize that this is Fiscal '90, that there's a budget
agreement, to be prudent. But I was not told to come in at any
certain number or was I given a ceiling. I was told to write a
strategy and to put together a budget to pay for it in Fiscal '90,
and then to begin work on '91, '92, '93.
MR. FITZWATER: Thank you very much.
THE PRESS: Thank you.
END
5:48 P.M. EDT
(Lange/Blessey)
September 11, 1989
10:30 p.m.
[SCHOOLS.DOC]
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS:
ADDRESS TO STUDENTS (7TH-12TH)
THE LIBRARY
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1989
12:15 P.M.
Somehow the fall always feels like a time to start over.
It's a time full of possibility. Everyone gets a new chance.
Now, Presidents don't talk directly to students very often
-- and I know there are Americans of every age watching. But
what's been on my mind lately is very important -- particularly
for the kids. Maybe some of you heard my talk to the nation last
week. The point is
this message goes straight to students.
[LEANS BACK, ON EDGE OF DESK] When I was thinking about
what I wanted to say to you today about drugs, I tried to put
myself in your place. To look at it from your perspective. But
you know, the harder I tried, the harder it got.
You live in complicated times. You deal with pressures that
people like me -- people like your mom or dad -- never had to
face.
It may seem to you that your parents and your teachers grew
up in simpler times. But most of them lived through the civil
rights struggles. Some of your fathers fought in Vietnam. And
for many of you, your parents and teachers were among the first
to face drugs.
If you care enough to talk to them, you might be surprised
at how much they do understand.
2
[PICKS UP BASEBALL] I used to play ball. Knew I'd never
make the big leagues -- but I made a lot of friends. Friends I
learned to count on -- both on and off the field.
We trusted each other to come through -- no matter how tough
it got. And I learned from that. I learned that the kind of
people you make your friends can either give you strength -- or
take it away.
I'm not sure why it is, but some people just make you find
the best in yourself. They can help make you a better person --
help you discover more of who you are.
[PUTS DOWN BASEBALL] There are others, who may seem like
friends, but they're not -- and they prove it -- every time they
offer you drugs.
With a thousand small decisions you make, every day, you're
shaping your future. It's a future that ought to be bright with
potential. And most of you are doing the right thing. But for
those who let drugs make their decisions for them, you can almost
hear the doors slamming shut.
It isn't worth it. We know that now. Attitudes that once
encouraged or excused drug use have changed. Cocaine use has
dropped by about a fifth among high school seniors. Overall drug
use is at the lowest levels in ten years.
But even if you don't use drugs, you ought to be angry about
them. Because you're being cheated by those who do.
Add it all up, and drug use costs this country well over $60
billion a year -- in cash -- and I don't know how to quantify the
3
human suffering drugs cause, but I do know we're all paying for
it. We're all feeling it. Every day.
Every time someone does drugs; or sells drugs; or even "just
looks the other way," they're supporting an industry that costs
more than money. It costs lives.
Each of you has a decision to make -- and dozens of chances
to make it: at a party, on the street, in the school parking
lot. And parents, teachers, coaches, politicians, Presidents --
no one else makes that decision for you. But if you talk to
someone you trust, they may remind you of what's at stake.
Yes, it's your decision. But I will tell you what it means.
You all watch TV. You see the news -- the crime -- the
devastation.
Every dollar that goes to drugs fuels the killing. As long
as there are Americans willing to buy drugs, there will be people
willing to sell drugs -- and people willing to kill as a cost of
doing business. There is a connection between the suppliers and
even "occasional" or "weekend" users that can never be forgotten.
Casual drug use is responsible for the casualties of the
drug war. From the city streets of America to the street
bombings of Columbia, even dabblers in drugs bear responsibility
for the blood being spilled. And unlike those of you in school
this fall, those killed by the drug trade never do get a second
chance.
Drugs are an equal opportunity destroyer. They have no
conscience. They don't care where the money comes from. They
4
just murder people. Young and old, good and bad, innocent and
guilty -- it doesn't matter. For too many, drugs mean death.
[PICKS UP BADGE] I keep this badge in a drawer in my desk,
to remind me of that. It was worn by a young rookie cop named
Eddie Byrne. Twenty-two years old -- not much older than some of
you. He was out trying to stop the drug trade -- protecting a
witness, so that a dealer could be brought to justice.
Eddie Byrne had three brothers. A girlfriend he'd known for
four years. He loved fishing and football -- was a running back
at Plain Edge High School in New York. He had a lot of friends
in his neighborhood. And Eddie Byrne had dreams.
But in the early hours of a cold February morning, sitting
in a police cruiser, Eddie Byrne was blown away at point-blank
range. By four young dealers, on the orders of a drug kingpin.
Cold and calculated.
I've heard some say, "If you do drugs, you're not hurting
anybody. It's no big deal." Well, the next time you think about
using drugs, I want you to think of Eddie Byrne -- and I want you
to think about the family that lost him.
To me this badge is a constant reminder -- that the killing
must and will stop. This is a promise: Eddie Byrne's life was
not given in vain. [PUTS BADGE DOWN.]
Where you're sitting right now -- in school -- I know you've
got your dreams. Everyone does. But out on the streets, a
nightmare for America is happening, every day. Every night.
5
Somewhere a teenage girl who ought to be in school is giving
birth to a baby already addicted to cocaine. That baby is coming
into this world shaking and twitching from withdrawal -- so
sensitive to the touch that it can't be held or fed properly.
[PICKS UP VIAL] How can something so small cause so much
pain? How can it force brothers to kill brothers, mothers to
abandon children? And behind all of the senseless violence, the
needless tragedy, what haunts me is the question -- why?
[PUTS DOWN VIAL] I have one answer. Drugs are still a
problem, because too many of us are still looking the other way.
And that's why I wanted to talk to you today.
I'm asking you not to look the other way. Maybe you're in
trouble -- or on the edge of trouble. Maybe you know someone who
is. Maybe you've got younger brothers or sisters -- you know
they're looking up to you. Don't risk your life -- or theirs.
And if you're struggling with the kind of problem that can
truly be the toughest -- if you have parents who have problems
with drugs or alcohol -- find someone you can trust. Talk to
them about it.
You know -- all of you in a classroom know -- who's got a
problem. Today I'm not just asking you to get help. I'm asking
you to find someone who needs you. And help them. I'll say it
again: If you're not in trouble, seek out someone who is.
We all want to succeed. And I'll let you in on a secret:
we all can succeed. Maybe you've heard Michael Jordan say "If
you don't use drugs, you can just about be anything you want to
6
be. You've got at least 3/4 of your life to go. That's three
more lifetimes to you. So don't blow it."
Saying "no" won't make you a nerd. It won't make you a
loser. In fact, it will make you more friends than drugs ever
will. Real friends.
But if that's not enough reason, there's another side:
Using illegal drugs is against the law. And if you break the
law, you pay the price. Because the rules have changed.
If you do drugs, you will be caught. And when you're
caught, you will be punished. You might lose your driver's
license -- some states have started revoking users' driving
privileges. Or you might lose the college loan you wanted --
because we're not helping those who break the law. These are
privileges, not rights. If you risk doing drugs, you risk
everything -- even your freedom. Because you will be punished.
Now, I can imagine a few whispers out there -- maybe you
think we'll never get drugs under control -- that it's too easy
for the dealers to get back on the street. Those days are over,
too. The revolving door
just jammed.
You think there won't be room for them in jail? We'll make
room
we're almost doubling prison space. You think there
aren't enough prosecutors? We'll hire them
with the largest
increase in federal prosecutors in history. The day of the
dealer is drawing to a close. [PAUSE]
No matter who you are -- or how strong you are -- drugs take
control of your life. But without drugs, you are in control.
7
You can determine your future. And that means staying in school.
If you're thinking about dropping out, think again. If you
know somebody who's thinking about dropping out, talk to them
about it. If you have friends who have already dropped out, find
them. Talk to them. Find a way to bring them back.
Today I've asked you to think about the terrible cost drugs
are making us all pay, every day. But even more important, I'm
asking you to think about what you can do, to make a difference
for someone else.
Last winter, after I was sworn in as President, I said that
from now on in America, any definition of a successful life must
include serving others. Helping others. And I hope we all
believe that.
There's a story about a young boy and an old man who were
walking along a beach. As the boy walked along the beach he
picked up each starfish he passed, and threw it into the sea.
The old man asked him why.
"If I left them here," the boy said, "they would dry up in
the sun and die. I'm saving their lives."
"But the beach goes on for miles and there are millions of
starfish," the old man said. "How can what you're doing make any
difference?"
The boy looked at the starfish in his hand, threw it into
the ocean, and answered, "It makes a difference to this one."
8
You're here to make a difference -- for yourself, and those
around you. So learn to count on each other. Take care of each
other. Give someone else another chance.
And make the days mean something.
Have a good year. And God bless you.
# # #
PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS ON DRUGS: ALL NETWORKS
TUESDAY, SEPT. 5/9 P.M.
((GOOD EVENING.)
THIS IS THE FIRST TIME SINCE TAKING THE OATH OF
OFFICE THAT I FELT AN ISSUE WAS so IMPORTANT, SO
THREATENING, THAT IT WARRANTED TALKING DIRECTLY WITH
YOU, THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. ALL OF US AGREE THAT THE
GRAVEST DOMESTIC THREAT FACING OUR NATION TODAY IS
DRUGS.
DRUGS HAVE STRAINED OUR FAITH IN OUR SYSTEM OF
JUSTICE. OUR COURTS, OUR PRISONS, OUR LEGAL SYSTEM ARE
STRETCHED TO THE BREAKING POINT. THE SOCIAL COSTS OF
DRUGS ARE MOUNTING. IN SHORT, DRUGS ARE SAPPING OUR
STRENGTH AS A NATION.
TURN ON THE EVENING NEWS, OR PICK UP THE MORNING
PAPER AND YOU'LL SEE WHAT SOME AMERICANS KNOW JUST BY
STEPPING OUT THEIR FRONT DOOR: OUR MOST SERIOUS PROBLEM
TODAY IS COCAINE, AND IN PARTICULAR, CRACK.
- 2 -
WHO'S RESPONSIBLE? LET ME TELL YOU STRAIGHT OUT.
EVERYONE WHO USES DRUGS.
EVERYONE WHO SELLS DRUGS.
AND EVERYONE 11 WHO LOOKS THE OTHER WAY.
TONIGHT, I WILL TELL YOU HOW MANY AMERICANS ARE
USING ILLEGAL DRUGS. I WILL PRESENT TO YOU OUR
NATIONAL STRATEGY TO DEAL WITH EVERY ASPECT OF THIS
THREAT. AND I WILL ASK YOU TO GET INVOLVED IN WHAT
PROMISES TO BE A VERY DIFFICULT FIGHT.
((PICK UP DRUGS)) THIS IS CRACK COCAINE SEIZED A
FEW DAYS AGO BY DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION AGENTS
IN A PARK JUST ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE WHITE HOUSE.
IT COULD EASILY HAVE BEEN HEROIN OR PCP. IT'S AS
INNOCENT LOOKING AS CANDY, BUT IT IS TURNING OUR CITIES
INTO BATTLE ZONES, AND IT IS MURDERING OUR CHILDREN.
LET THERE BE NO MISTAKE, THIS STUFF IS POISON. ((SET
DRUGS DOWN.))
- 3 -
SOME USED TO CALL DRUGS HARMLESS RECREATION. 11
THEY'RE NOT. DRUGS ARE A REAL AND TERRIBLY DANGEROUS
THREAT TO OUR NEIGHBORHOODS, OUR FRIENDS AND OUR
FAMILIES.
NO ONE AMONG US IS OUT OF HARM'S WAY. WHEN FOUR-
YEAR-OLDS PLAY IN PLAYGROUNDS STREWN WITH DISCARDED
HYPODERMIC NEEDLES AND CRACK VIALS -- IT BREAKS MY
HEART. WHEN COCAINE -- ONE OF THE MOST DEADLY AND
ADDICTIVE ILLEGAL DRUGS -- IS AVAILABLE TO SCHOOL KIDS
-- SCHOOL KIDS -- IT'S AN OUTRAGE. AND WHEN HUNDREDS
OF THOUSANDS OF BABIES ARE BORN EACH YEAR TO MOTHERS
WHO USE DRUGS -- PREMATURE BABIES BORN DESPERATELY SICK
-- THEN EVEN THE MOST DEFENSELESS AMONG US ARE AT RISK.
- 4 -
/\/\
THESE ARE THE TRAGEDIES BEHIND THE STATISTICS.
BUT THE NUMBERS ALSO HAVE QUITE A STORY TO TELL. LET
ME SHARE WITH YOU THE RESULTS OF THE RECENTLY COMPLETED
HOUSEHOLD SURVEY OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DRUG
ABUSE. IT COMPARES RECENT DRUG USE TO THREE YEARS AGO.
IT TELLS US SOME GOOD NEWS III AND, SOME VERY BAD
NEWS. FIRST, THE GOOD. (CAMERA CUTS TO SLIDE ONE.))
((PAUSE))
AS YOU CAN SEE IN THE CHART, IN 1985, THE
GOVERNMENT ESTIMATED THAT 23 MILLION AMERICANS WERE
USING DRUGS ON A "CURRENT" BASIS -- THAT IS, AT LEAST
ONCE IN THE PRECEDING MONTH. LAST YEAR, THAT NUMBER
FELL BY MORE THAN A THIRD. THAT MEANS ALMOST NINE
MILLION FEWER AMERICANS ARE CASUAL DRUG USERS. 11 GOOD
NEWS. ((CAMERA BACK TO PRESIDENT.) )
- 5 -
BECAUSE WE CHANGED OUR NATIONAL ATTITUDE TOWARD
DRUGS, CASUAL DRUG USE HAS DECLINED. WE HAVE MANY TO
THANK: OUR BRAVE LAW-ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS, RELIGIOUS
LEADERS, TEACHERS, COMMUNITY ACTIVISTS, AND LEADERS OF
BUSINESS AND LABOR. 11 WE SHOULD ALSO THANK THE MEDIA
FOR THEIR EXHAUSTIVE NEWS AND EDITORIAL COVERAGE; AND
ADVERTISERS FOR RUNNING ANTI-DRUG MESSAGES. 11
FINALLY, I WANT TO THANK PRESIDENT AND MRS. REAGAN FOR
THEIR LEADERSHIP. ALL OF THESE GOOD PEOPLE TOLD THE
TRUTH -- THAT DRUG USE IS WRONG AND DANGEROUS.
BUT, AS MUCH COMFORT AS WE CAN DRAW FROM THESE
DRAMATIC REDUCTIONS, THERE IS ALSO BAD NEWS -- VERY BAD
NEWS. III ROUGHLY EIGHT MILLION PEOPLE HAVE USED
COCAINE IN THE PAST YEAR, ALMOST ONE MILLION OF THEM
USED IT FREQUENTLY ONCE A WEEK OR MORE.
- 6 -
((CAMERA TO SLIDE TWO) )
WHAT THIS MEANS IS THAT, IN SPITE OF THE FACT THAT
OVERALL COCAINE USE IS DOWN, AMONG THOSE USING COCAINE,
FREQUENT USE HAS ALMOST DOUBLED IN THE LAST FEW YEARS.
AND THAT'S WHY HABITUAL COCAINE USERS -- ESPECIALLY
CRACK USERS ARE THE MOST PRESSING, IMMEDIATE DRUG
PROBLEM. ((PAUSE)) ((RETURN TO PRESIDENT.
\/\/
WHAT, THEN, IS OUR PLAN? 11 TO BEGIN WITH, I
TRUST THE LESSON OF EXPERIENCE: NO SINGLE POLICY WILL
CUT IT, NO MATTER HOW GLAMOROUS OR MAGICAL IT MAY
SOUND. TO WIN THE WAR AGAINST ADDICTIVE DRUGS LIKE
CRACK WILL TAKE MORE THAN JUST A FEDERAL STRATEGY. IT
WILL TAKE A NATIONAL STRATEGY, ONE THAT REACHES INTO
EVERY SCHOOL, EVERY WORKPLACE, INVOLVING EVERY FAMILY.
- 7 -
EARLIER TODAY, I SENT THIS DOCUMENT, ((HOLD UP RED
BOOK)) OUR FIRST SUCH NATIONAL STRATEGY TO THE
CONGRESS. IT WAS DEVELOPED WITH THE HARD WORK OF OUR
NATION'S FIRST DRUG POLICY DIRECTOR, BILL BENNETT.
/\/\ IN PREPARING THIS PLAN, WE TALKED WITH STATE,
LOCAL AND COMMUNITY LEADERS, LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICIALS
AND EXPERTS IN EDUCATION, DRUG PREVENTION, AND
REHABILITATION. WE TALKED WITH PARENTS AND KIDS. WE
TOOK A LONG HARD LOOK AT ALL THAT THE FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT HAS DONE ABOUT DRUGS IN THE PAST: WHAT'S
WORKED, AND -- LET'S BE HONEST -- WHAT HASN'T. TOO
OFTEN, PEOPLE IN GOVERNMENT ACTED AS IF THEIR PART OF
THE PROBLEM -- WHETHER FIGHTING DRUG PRODUCTION, OR
DRUG SMUGGLING, OR DRUG DEMAND --WAS THE ONLY PROBLEM.
BUT TURF BATTLES WON'T WIN THIS WAR. III TEAMWORK
WILL.
TONIGHT, I'M ANNOUNCING A STRATEGY THAT REFLECTS
THE COORDINATED, COOPERATIVE COMMITMENT OF ALL FEDERAL
AGENCIES. 11 IN SHORT, THIS PLAN IS AS COMPREHENSIVE
AS THE PROBLEM. WITH THIS STRATEGY, WE NOW FINALLY
HAVE A PLAN THAT COORDINATES OUR RESOURCES, OUR
PROGRAMS AND THE PEOPLE WHO RUN THEM.
- 8 -
OUR WEAPONS IN THIS STRATEGY ARE: THE LAW AND
CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM; OUR FOREIGN POLICY; OUR
TREATMENT SYSTEMS, AND OUR SCHOOLS AND DRUG PREVENTION
PROGRAMS. so THE BASIC WEAPONS WE NEED ARE THE ONES WE
ALREADY HAVE. WHAT HAS BEEN LACKING IS A STRATEGY TO
EFFECTIVELY USE THEM. IIII
LET ME ADDRESS FOUR OF THE MAJOR ELEMENTS OF OUR
STRATEGY.
*** FIRST, WE ARE DETERMINED TO ENFORCE THE LAW,
TO MAKE OUR STREETS AND NEIGHBORHOODS SAFE. so TO
START, I'M PROPOSING THAT WE MORE THAN DOUBLE FEDERAL
ASSISTANCE TO STATE AND LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT.
AMERICANS HAVE A RIGHT TO SAFETY IN AND AROUND THEIR
HOMES.
- 9 -
AND WE WON'T HAVE SAFE NEIGHBORHOODS UNLESS WE ARE
TOUGH ON DRUG CRIMINALS -- MUCH TOUGHER THAN WE ARE
NOW. SOMETIMES THAT MEANS TOUGHER PENALTIES. BUT MORE
OFTEN IT JUST MEANS PUNISHMENT THAT IS SWIFT AND
CERTAIN. WE'VE ALL HEARD STORIES ABOUT DRUG DEALERS
WHO ARE CAUGHT AND ARRESTED -- AGAIN AND AGAIN -- BUT
NEVER PUNISHED. III WELL, HERE THE RULES HAVE
CHANGED: IF YOU SELL DRUGS, YOU WILL BE CAUGHT. AND
WHEN YOU'RE CAUGHT, YOU WILL BE PROSECUTED. AND ONCE
YOU'RE CONVICTED, YOU WILL DO TIME. CAUGHT.
PROSECUTED. PUNISHED. 1111
/\/\
I AM ALSO PROPOSING THAT WE ENLARGE OUR CRIMINAL
JUSTICE SYSTEM ACROSS THE BOARD -- AT THE LOCAL, STATE
AND FEDERAL LEVELS ALIKE. WE NEED MORE PRISONS, MORE
JAILS, MORE COURTS, MORE PROSECUTORS. SO TONIGHT, I'M
REQUESTING -- ALTOGETHER -- AN ALMOST BILLION-AND-A-
HALF DOLLAR INCREASE IN DRUG-RELATED FEDERAL SPENDING
ON LAW ENFORCEMENT.
- 10 -
AND WHILE ILLEGAL DRUG USE IS FOUND IN EVERY
COMMUNITY, NOWHERE IS IT WORSE THAN IN OUR PUBLIC
HOUSING PROJECTS. YOU KNOW, THE POOR HAVE NEVER HAD IT
EASY IN THIS WORLD. BUT IN THE PAST, THEY WEREN'T
MUGGED ON THE WAY HOME FROM WORK BY CRACK GANGS. AND
THEIR CHILDREN DIDN'T HAVE TO DODGE BULLETS ON THE WAY
TO SCHOOL. THAT IS WHY I'M TARGETING FIFTY-MILLION
DOLLARS TO FIGHT CRIME IN PUBLIC HOUSING PROJECTS -- TO
HELP RESTORE ORDER, AND TO KICK OUT THE DEALERS FOR
GOOD.
- 11 -
*** THE SECOND ELEMENT OF OUR STRATEGY LOOKS
BEYOND OUR BORDERS, WHERE THE COCAINE AND CRACK, BOUGHT
ON AMERICA'S STREETS, IS GROWN AND PROCESSED. IN
COLOMBIA ALONE, COCAINE KILLERS HAVE GUNNED DOWN A
LEADING STATESMAN, MURDERED ALMOST TWO HUNDRED JUDGES
AND SEVEN MEMBERS OF THEIR SUPREME COURT. THE BESIEGED
GOVERNMENTS OF THE DRUG-PRODUCING COUNTRIES ARE
FIGHTING BACK, FIGHTING TO BREAK THE INTERNATIONAL DRUG
RINGS. BUT YOU AND I AGREE WITH THE COURAGEOUS
PRESIDENT OF COLOMBIA, VIRGILIO ((VEER-HEEL-LEO))
BARCO, WHO SAID THAT IF AMERICANS USE COCAINE, THEN
AMERICANS ARE PAYING 11 FOR MURDER. 11 AMERICAN
COCAINE USERS NEED TO UNDERSTAND THAT OUR NATION HAS
ZERO TOLERANCE FOR CASUAL DRUG USE. WE HAVE A
RESPONSIBILITY NOT TO LEAVE OUR BRAVE FRIENDS IN
COLOMBIA TO FIGHT ALONE.
THE SIXTY-FIVE-MILLION DOLLAR EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE
ANNOUNCED TWO WEEKS AGO WAS JUST OUR FIRST STEP IN
ASSISTING THE ANDEAN NATIONS IN THEIR FIGHT AGAINST THE
COCAINE CARTELS. COLOMBIA HAS ALREADY ARRESTED
SUPPLIERS, SEIZED TONS OF COCAINE AND CONFISCATED
PALATIAL HOMES OF DRUG LORDS. BUT COLOMBIA FACES A
LONG, UPHILL BATTLE, SO WE MUST BE READY TO DO MORE.
- 12 -
OUR STRATEGY ALLOCATES MORE THAN A QUARTER OF A
BILLION DOLLARS FOR NEXT YEAR IN MILITARY AND LAW
ENFORCEMENT ASSISTANCE FOR THE THREE ANDEAN NATIONS OF
COLOMBIA, BOLIVIA AND PERU. THIS WILL BE THE FIRST
PART OF A FIVE-YEAR, TWO-BILLION DOLLAR PROGRAM TO
COUNTER THE PRODUCERS, THE TRAFFICKERS AND THE
SMUGGLERS.
I SPOKE WITH PRESIDENT BARCO LAST WEEK, AND WE
HOPE TO MEET WITH THE LEADERS OF AFFECTED COUNTRIES IN
AN UNPRECEDENTED DRUG SUMMIT, ALL TO COORDINATE AN
INTER-AMERICAN STRATEGY AGAINST THE CARTELS. WE WILL
WORK WITH OUR ALLIES AND FRIENDS -- ESPECIALLY OUR
ECONOMIC SUMMIT PARTNERS -- TO DO MORE IN THE FIGHT
AGAINST DRUGS. I'M ALSO ASKING THE SENATE TO RATIFY
THE U.N. ANTI-DRUG CONVENTION CONCLUDED LAST DECEMBER.
TO STOP THOSE DRUGS ON THE WAY TO AMERICA, I
PROPOSE THAT WE SPEND MORE THAN A BILLION-AND-A-HALF
DOLLARS ON INTERDICTION, TO STOP DRUGS AT OUR BORDERS.
- 13 -
OUR MESSAGE TO THE DRUG CARTELS IS THIS: 11 THE
RULES HAVE CHANGED. 11 WE WILL HELP ANY GOVERNMENT
THAT WANTS OUR HELP. WHEN REQUESTED, WE WILL FOR THE
FIRST TIME MAKE AVAILABLE THE APPROPRIATE RESOURCES OF
AMERICA'S ARMED FORCES. WE WILL INTENSIFY OUR EFFORTS
AGAINST DRUG SMUGGLERS ON THE HIGH SEAS, IN
INTERNATIONAL AIRSPACE AND AT OUR BORDERS. WE WILL
STOP THE FLOW OF CHEMICALS FROM THE UNITED STATES USED
TO PROCESS DRUGS. WE WILL PERSUE AND ENFORCE
INTERNATIONAL AGREEMENTS TO TRACK DRUG MONEY TO THE
FRONT MEN AND FINANCIERS. AND THEN WE WILL HANDCUFF
THESE MONEY LAUNDERERS, AND JAIL THEM JUST LIKE ANY
STREET DEALER. AND FOR DRUG KINGPINS, THE DEATH
PENALTY. IIII
*** THE THIRD PART OF OUR STRATEGY CONCERNS DRUG
TREATMENT. EXPERTS BELIEVE THAT THERE ARE TWO MILLION
AMERICAN DRUG USERS WHO MAY BE ABLE TO GET OFF DRUGS
WITH PROPER TREATMENT. BUT RIGHT NOW, ONLY 40 PERCENT
OF THEM ARE ACTUALLY GETTING HELP. THIS IS SIMPLY NOT
GOOD ENOUGH.
- 14 -
MANY PEOPLE WHO NEED TREATMENT WON'T SEEK IT ON
THEIR OWN. AND SOME WHO DO SEEK IT ARE PUT ON A
WAITING LIST. MOST PROGRAMS WERE SET UP TO DEAL WITH
HEROIN ADDICTS, 11 BUT TODAY, THE MAJOR PROBLEM IS
COCAINE USERS. IT'S TIME WE EXPAND OUR TREATMENT
SYSTEMS AND DO A BETTER JOB OF PROVIDING SERVICES TO
THOSE WHO NEED THEM.
SO TONIGHT, I'M PROPOSING AN INCREASE OF THREE
HUNDRED AND TWENTY-ONE MILLION DOLLARS IN FEDERAL
SPENDING ON DRUG TREATMENT.
WITH THIS STRATEGY, WE WILL DO MORE. WE WILL WORK
WITH THE STATES. WE WILL ENCOURAGE EMPLOYERS TO
ESTABLISH EMPLOYEE ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS TO COPE WITH
DRUG USE. AND, BECAUSE ADDICTION IS SUCH A CRUEL
INHERITANCE, WE WILL INTENSIFY OUR SEARCH FOR WAYS TO
HELP EXPECTANT MOTHERS WHO USE DRUGS.
- 15 -
/\/\
*** FOURTH, WE MUST STOP ILLEGAL DRUG USE BEFORE
IT STARTS. UNFORTUNATELY, IT BEGINS EARLY -- FOR MANY
KIDS, BEFORE THEIR TEENS. BUT IT DOESN'T START THE WAY
YOU MIGHT THINK, FROM A DEALER OR AN ADDICT HANGING
AROUND A SCHOOL PLAYGROUND. MORE OFTEN, OUR KIDS FIRST
GET THEIR DRUGS FREE, FROM FRIENDS, OR EVEN FROM OLDER
BROTHERS OR SISTERS. PEER PRESSURE SPREADS DRUG USE.
PEER PRESSURE CAN HELP STOP IT.
I AM PROPOSING A OUARTER-OF-A-BILLION-DOLLAR
INCREASE IN FEDERAL FUNDS FOR SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY
PREVENTION PROGRAMS THAT HELP YOUNG PEOPLE AND ADULTS
REJECT ENTICEMENTS TO TRY DRUGS. 11 AND I'M PROPOSING
SOMETHING ELSE. 11 EVERY SCHOOL, COLLEGE AND
UNIVERSITY -- AND EVERY WORKPLACE -- MUST ADOPT TOUGH
BUT FAIR POLICIES ABOUT DRUG USE BY STUDENTS AND
EMPLOYEES. 11 THOSE THAT WILL NOT ADOPT SUCH POLICIES
WILL NOT GET FEDERAL FUNDS. PERIOD.
- 16 -
THE PRIVATE SECTOR ALSO HAS A ROLE TO PLAY. I
SPOKE WITH A BUSINESSMAN NAMED JIM BURKE WHO SAID HE
WAS HAUNTED BY THE THOUGHT -- A NIGHTMARE REALLY --
THAT SOMEWHERE IN AMERICA, AT ANY GIVEN MOMENT, THERE
IS A TEEN-AGE GIRL WHO SHOULD BE IN SCHOOL, INSTEAD OF
GIVING BIRTH TO A CHILD ADDICTED TO COCAINE. SO JIM
DID SOMETHING. HE LED AN ANTI-DRUG PARTNERSHIP,
FINANCED BY PRIVATE FUNDS, TO WORK WITH ADVERTISERS AND
MEDIA FIRMS. THEIR PARTNERSHIP IS NOW DETERMINED TO
WORK WITH OUR STRATEGY BY RAISING A MILLION DOLLARS IN
AIRTIME EVERY DAY FOR THE NEXT THREE YEARS -- A BILLION
DOLLARS TOTAL. THINK OF IT, A BILLION DOLLARS OF
TELEVISION TIME, ALL TO PROMOTE THE ANTI-DRUG MESSAGE.
1111
AS PRESIDENT, ONE OF MY FIRST MISSIONS IS TO KEEP
THE NATIONAL FOCUS ON OUR OFFENSIVE AGAINST DRUGS. so
NEXT WEEK I WILL TAKE THE ANTI-DRUG MESSAGE TO THE
CLASSROOMS OF AMERICA IN A SPECIAL TELEVISION ADDRESS,
ONE THAT I HOPE WILL REACH EVERY SCHOOL, EVERY YOUNG
AMERICAN. BUT DRUG EDUCATION DOESN'T BEGIN IN CLASS OR
ON T.V. IT MUST BEGIN AT HOME AND IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
PARENTS AND FAMILIES MUST SET THE FIRST EXAMPLE OF A
DRUG-FREE LIFE. AND WHEN FAMILIES ARE BROKEN, CARING
FRIENDS, AND NEIGHBORS MUST STEP IN. IIII
- 17 -
THESE ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT ELEMENTS IN OUR
STRATEGY TO FIGHT DRUGS. THEY ARE ALL DESIGNED TO
REINFORCE ONE ANOTHER, TO MESH INTO A POWERFUL WHOLE.
TO MOUNT AN AGGRESSIVE ATTACK ON THE PROBLEM FROM EVERY
ANGLE. THIS IS THE FIRST TIME IN THE HISTORY OF OUR
COUNTRY, THAT WE TRULY HAVE A COMPREHENSIVE STRATEGY.
AS YOU CAN TELL, SUCH AN APPROACH WILL NOT COME
CHEAPLY. LAST FEBRUARY, I ASKED FOR A SEVEN-HUNDRED-
MILLION DOLLAR INCREASE IN THE DRUG BUDGET FOR THE
COMING YEAR. OVER THE PAST SIX MONTHS OF CAREFUL
STUDY, WE HAVE FOUND AN IMMEDIATE NEED FOR ANOTHER
BILLION-AND-A-HALF DOLLARS. WITH THIS ADDED 2.2
BILLION, OUR 1990 DRUG BUDGET TOTALS ALMOST EIGHT
BILLION DOLLARS -- THE LARGEST INCREASE IN HISTORY.
- 18 -
WE NEED THIS PROGRAM FULLY IMPLEMENTED -- RIGHT
AWAY. 11 THE NEXT FISCAL YEAR BEGINS JUST 26 DAYS FROM
NOW. SO TONIGHT I'M ASKING THE CONGRESS -- WHICH HAS
HELPED US FORMULATE THIS STRATEGY -- TO HELP US MOVE IT
FORWARD IMMEDIATELY.
WE CAN PAY FOR THIS FIGHT AGAINST DRUGS WITHOUT
RAISING TAXES OR ADDING TO THE BUDGET DEFICIT. WE HAVE
SUBMITTED OUR PLAN TO CONGRESS THAT SHOWS JUST HOW TO
FUND IT WITHIN THE LIMITS OF OUR BIPARTISAN BUDGET
AGREEMENT.
I KNOW SOME WILL STILL SAY THAT WE ARE NOT
SPENDING ENOUGH MONEY. BUT THOSE WHO JUDGE OUR
STRATEGY ONLY BY ITS PRICE TAG, SIMPLY DON'T UNDERSTAND
THE PROBLEM. LET'S FACE IT, WE'VE ALL SEEN IN THE PAST
THAT MONEY ALONE WON'T SOLVE OUR TOUGHEST PROBLEMS.
TO BE STRONG AND EFFICIENT, OUR STRATEGY NEEDS
THESE FUNDS. BUT THERE IS NO MATCH FOR A UNITED
AMERICA, A DETERMINED AMERICA, AN ANGRY AMERICA. OUR
OUTRAGE AGAINST DRUGS UNITES US, BRINGS US TOGETHER
BEHIND THIS ONE PLAN OF ACTION, 11 AN ASSAULT ON EVERY
FRONT.
- 19 -
THIS IS THE TOUGHEST DOMESTIC CHALLENGE WE'VE
FACED IN DECADES. AND IT IS A CHALLENGE WE MUST
FACE -- NOT AS DEMOCRATS OR REPUBLICANS, LIBERALS OR
CONSERVATIVES -- BUT AS AMERICANS. THE KEY IS A
COORDINATED, UNITED EFFORT. WE HAVE RESPONDED
FAITHFULLY TO THE REQUEST OF THE CONGRESS TO PRODUCE
OUR NATION'S FIRST NATIONAL DRUG STRATEGY. I'LL BE
LOOKING TO THE DEMOCRATIC MAJORITY AND OUR REPUBLICANS
IN CONGRESS FOR LEADERSHIP AND BIPARTISAN SUPPORT. AND
OUR CITIZENS DESERVE COOPERATION, NOT COMPETITION; A
NATIONAL EFFORT, NOT A PARTISAN BIDDING WAR.
TO START, CONGRESS NEEDS NOT ONLY TO ACT ON THIS
NATIONAL DRUG STRATEGY, BUT ALSO TO ACT ON OUR CRIME
PACKAGE ANNOUNCED LAST MAY; A PACKAGE TO TOUGHEN
SENTENCES, BEEF UP LAW ENFORCEMENT AND BUILD NEW
PRISION SPACE FOR 24,000 INMATES.
11 YOU AND I BOTH KNOW THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
CAN'T DO IT ALONE. THE STATES NEED TO MATCH TOUGHER
FEDERAL LAWS WITH TOUGHER LAWS OF THEIR OWN -- STIFFER
BAIL, PROBATION, PAROLE AND SENTENCING.
- 20 -
AND WE NEED YOUR HELP. IF PEOPLE YOU KNOW ARE
USERS, HELP THEM GET OFF DRUGS. IF YOU ARE A PARENT,
TALK TO YOUR CHILDREN ABOUT DRUGS -- TONIGHT.
CALL YOUR LOCAL DRUG PREVENTION PROGRAM. BE A BIG
BROTHER OR SISTER TO A CHILD IN NEED. PITCH IN WITH
YOUR LOCAL NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH PROGRAM. WHETHER YOU
GIVE YOUR TIME OR TALENT, EVERYONE COUNTS.
\/\/
EVERY EMPLOYER WHO BANS DRUGS FROM THE WORKPLACE.
EVERY SCHOOL THAT'S TOUGH ON DRUG USE.
EVERY NEIGHBORHOOD IN WHICH DRUGS ARE NOT WELCOME.
\/\/
AND MOST IMPORTANT, EVERY ONE OF YOU WHO REFUSES
TO LOOK THE OTHER WAY. EVERY ONE OF YOU COUNTS.
OF COURSE, VICTORY WILL TAKE HARD WORK AND TIME.
BUT TOGETHER WE WILL WIN -- TOO MANY YOUNG LIVES ARE AT
STAKE. 1111
- 21 -
/\/\
NOT LONG AGO, I READ A NEWSPAPER STORY ABOUT A
LITTLE BOY NAMED DOONEY, WHO, UNTIL RECENTLY, LIVED IN
A CRACK HOUSE IN A SUBURB OF WASHINGTON, D.C. IN
DOONEY'S NEIGHBORHOOD, CHILDREN DON'T FLINCH AT THE
SOUND OF GUNFIRE. AND WHEN THEY PLAY, THEY PRETEND TO
SELL TO EACH OTHER SMALL WHITE ROCKS THEY CALL CRACK.
LIFE AT HOME WAS SO CRUEL THAT DOONEY BEGGED HIS
TEACHERS TO LET HIM SLEEP ON THE FLOOR AT SCHOOL. AND,
WHEN ASKED ABOUT HIS FUTURE, 6-YEAR-OLD DOONEY ANSWERS:
"I DON'T WANT TO SELL DRUGS, BUT I WILL PROBABLY HAVE
TO." ((PAUSE)) IIII
WELL, DOONEY DOES NOT HAVE TO SELL DRUGS. NO
CHILD IN AMERICA SHOULD HAVE TO LIVE LIKE THIS.
TOGETHER, AS A PEOPLE, WE CAN SAVE THESE KIDS.
WE
HAVE ALREADY TRANSFORMED A NATIONAL ATTITUDE OF
TOLERANCE INTO ONE OF CONDEMNATION. BUT THE WAR ON
DRUGS WILL BE HARD-WON, NEIGHBORHOOD BY NEIGHBORHOOD,
BLOCK BY BLOCK, CHILD BY CHILD. 11
- 22 -
IF WE FIGHT THIS WAR AS A DIVIDED NATION, THEN THE
WAR IS LOST. ((PICK UP DRUGS, HOLD IT IN FRONT OF
YOU) ) BUT, IF WE FACE THIS EVIL AS A NATION UNITED,
THIS WILL BE NOTHING BUT A HANDFUL OF USELESS
CHEMICALS. ((SET VIAL DOWN, OFF CAMERA))
VICTORY ... ((PAUSE)) VICTORY OVER DRUGS IS
OUR CAUSE, A JUST CAUSE, AND WITH YOUR HELP, WE ARE
GOING TO WIN THIS THING.
THANK YOU, GOD BLESS YOU AND GOOD NIGHT.
###
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
Embargoed For Release Until 9:00 P.M. EDT
September 5, 1989
FACT SHEET
NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL STRATEGY
The National Drug Control Strategy describes a coordinated and
comprehensive plan of attack involving all basic anti-drug
initiatives and agencies. The Strategy recommends the largest
dollar increase in the history of the drug war -- nearly $2.2
billion, 39 percent above the Fiscal 1989 level. Throughout, the
Strategy emphasizes the principle of user accountability -- in
law enforcement efforts focused on individual users; in decisions
regarding sentencing and parole; in school, college, and
university policies regarding the use of drugs by students and
employees; in the workplace; and in treatment.
The Strategy also calls for increased efforts in cocaine source
countries and a more active international campaign by the United
States to engage other nations in the fight against drugs.
Interdiction efforts will be better targeted on key individuals
in the drug organizations and on high-value shipments.
Another major priority is increasing the capacity of the drug
treatment system and making it more accountable for results.
Significant emphasis is also given to providing increased support
for prevention and education efforts aimed at helping young
people and others resist and reject drugs.
The Strategy embodies the following elements:
Expand the criminal justice system
Provide funds for larger police forces, and increased
numbers of jails, prosecutors, and courts.
o
Develop alternatives for incarceration such as boot
camps to free up jail and prison space.
Require drug testing of prisoners, parolees, and
arrestees.
Page 2
Hold users, whether casual or heavy users, accountable for their
actions
Undertake a vigorous program to eradicate domestically-grown
marijuana
Mobilize communities in the war on drugs
Emphasize community-level prevention of drug use before
it starts.
Require schools and colleges to implement firm drug-
free policies in order to receive Federal funds.
Clean up and secure public housing.
Expand drug-free workplace policies
Promote drug-free workplace policies in the private
sector.
Recommend testing for job applicants and employers in
safety and sensitive positions.
Aggressively implement Executive Order 12564 to assure
drug-free workplace plans and policies within the
Federal government.
Expand treatment and target services to improve the number of
individuals served and the effectiveness of treatment
Hold Federally-funded treatment programs accountable
for their effectiveness by establishing performance
criteria.
Require drug testing in treatment programs receiving
Federal funds.
Explore expanded use of "civil commitment" whereby
addicts are sent by the courts to residential treatment
facilities.
Improve drug treatment services for pregnant women.
Place heavier emphasis on targeted international efforts closer
to production and trafficking sources
Elevate the drug issue as a foreign policy priority.
Dismantle drug trafficking organizations.
Reduce trafficking profits by focusing increased
efforts on money laundering.
Page 3
Take a fresh approach to interdiction
Create interagency and interdisciplinary teams to
analyze and target smuggling modes, methods, and
routes.
Target key individuals and high-value shipments.
Enhance border interdiction systems, operations, and
activities.
Improve the quality of research, information, and technological
capabilities available for drug control efforts
Establish a Federal Drug Control Research and
Development Committee.
Develop a more current and flexible information base.
Improve coordination of Federal anti-drug policy and intelligence
support
Establish interagency working groups chaired by the
Office of National Drug Control Policy to coordinate
supply and demand reduction efforts.
Establish an interagency working group chaired by the
Office of National Drug Control Policy to develop plans
for an intelligence center to unite U.S. drug-related
analytical capabilities, and to improve intelligence
capabilities.
Page 4
Recommend a $2.2 billion increase in drug funding to $7.9 billion
in 1990. The major changes over 1989 are shown on the
following chart:
Drug Resources, Fiscal Year 1990
Budget Authority (Millions of Dollars)
Feb 9
Budget
Drug
Feb 9
Plus Drug
Strategy
FY89-
FY89-
FY1989
Budget
Portion of
Sep
FY90 %
FY90 $
Enacted
FY1990*
Crime Bill**
FY1990**
Increase
Increase
Corrections
734
894
1,601
1,601
118%
867
International
250
306
306
449
80%
199
State and Local Grants
150
150
156
350
133%
200
Judiciary
209
242
250
250
20%
41
Other Law Enforcement
2,779
3,018
3,058
3,113
12%
334
Prevention/Education
943
1,041
1,041
1,176
25%
233
Treatment
604
735
735
925
53%
321
Total
5,669
6,386
7,147
7,864
39%
2,195
These columns include resources for the U.S. Court and make other minor adjustments to
the figures presented in the "Building a Better America" document issued in February,
1989.
These columns include the "drug portion" ($0.8 billion) of the President's $1.2 billion crime
initiative announced in May, 1989. The Administration supports enactment of the crime
initiative (The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1989) in its entirety.
The drug portion of prison construction is based on the projected share of drug offenders in
Federal prison at the time the construction is completed. This new methodology reflects more
accurately the likely impact of drug offenses. For consistency with prior years, the historical
prison construction numbers have been adjusted to reflect this new methodology.
National
Drug Control
Strategy
Executive
Summary
September 1989
National Drug
Control Strategy
Executive Summary
Most Americans believe that illegal drugs represent the gravest
present threat to our national well-being. The evidence reinforces this
concern:
Crime. Fear of drugs and attendant crime are at an all-time high.
Rates of drug-related homicide continue to rise - sometimes alarm-
ingly - in cities across the country.
Health. The number of drug-related emergency hospital admis-
sions increased by 121 percent between 1985 and 1988, as many as
100,000 babies are born each year to mothers who use drugs, and
intravenous drug use is now the single largest source of new AIDS virus
infections.
The Economy. A U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimate puts
annual gross illegal drug sales at $110 billion - more than our total
gross agricultural income, and more than double the profits enjoyed by
the Fortune 500 companies combined.
Overseas. In many foreign nations the drug trade and drug
inspired violence and corruption are causing serious social, economic,
and political disruption. Trafficking threatens stability and democratic
institutions.
However, there is also some positive news. Recently, the National
Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) released the results of its National
Household Survey on Drug Abuse - the first such national study since
1985. The survey found the number of Americans using any illegal drug
on a "current" basis (i.e., at least once in the 30-day period preceding
the survey) has dropped 37 percent: from 23 million in 1985 to 14.5
million last year.
1
Executive Summary
The survey tells us that, despite the persistent widespread availa-
bility of illegal drugs, millions of Americans who once used them regu-
larly appear to have given them up altogether. This and other surveys
indicate that many others - young people for the most part - have
chosen not to try drugs in the first place.
But the NIDA survey also found that "frequent" use of cocaine in
any form (i.e., the number of respondents who report ingesting the drug
one or more times each week) is up a shocking 33 percent since 1985.
One word probably explains much of the intensifying drug-related
chaos that we see every day: crack.
There are really two drug wars to be fought. The first is against
"casual" use of drugs, and that is being won. The other, much more
difficult war is against addiction to cocaine, by far the most common
dangerous drug of abuse. On this second front, increasingly located in
our cities, the war is being lost - badly.
To win the drug war it is important first to come to terms with the
drug problem in its essence: drug use. Drug use must be reduced, but
it is necessary to be scrupulously honest about the difficulties that are
faced and set reasonable goals and objectives. In addition, there must
be created something that has never existed before: a comprehensive,
fully integrated national drug control strategy - a strategy with particu-
lar emphasis on attacking the use of crack cocaine.
A
The Strategy lays out a coordinated plan of attack involving all
basic anti-drug initiatives and agencies. Following the Introduction,
seven chapters examine the "fronts" on which the drug war must be
waged: Criminal Justice; Treatment; Education, Community Action,
and the Workplace; International Initiatives; Interdiction; Research;
and Intelligence. Each chapter is preceded by a summary of the recom-
mendations contained therein.
Several Appendices are included within the Strategy. Quantified
goals and measures of success, as required by Section 1005(b) of the
Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, are set forth in Appendix A. Also included
are implementation plans (Appendix B), recommended State anti-drug
legislation (Appendix C), high-intensity drug trafficking areas (Appendix
D), a plan for improved automatic data processing and management
among Federal drug agencies (Appendix E), and a list of individuals
consulted in writing the Strategy (Appendix F).
2
Executive Summary
Several fundamental themes underlie the Strategy, including:
-
society has been too permissive of drug use:
- better coordination and management of government efforts is
needed;
- State and local governments should adopt Federal principles of
accountability as a model in developing their anti-drug strate-
gies; and
- efforts should focus heavily on certain aspects of the problem,
such as cocaine.
This is a truly national strategy. It calls upon all sectors of
American society - private (individuals, educators, philanthropic
organizations, businesses, the media, and religious, cultural, and com-
munity organizations) and public (Federal, State, and local govern-
ments) - to combát the drug problem.
What follows is a summary of the key priorities of the National Drug
Control Strategy!
bl
I. CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Overview
The absence of a significant risk of punishment for illegal drug
activity is perhaps the single greatest hindrance to drug reduction
efforts. More predictable, severe sanctions provided by the criminal
justice system will be one of the most powerful forms of drug prevention.
They will make it increasingly difficult to engage in any drug activity
with impunity.
In order to be an effective deterrent, the criminal justice system
must expand to accommodate more people at every point, from arrest
through prosecution, release, and final supervision. This means more
law enforcement officers, prosecutors, judges, courtrooms, and jails.
3
Executive Summary
Priorities
Increased Federal funding to States and localities for street-level
drug law enforcement.
Federal funding to States for planning, developing, and imple-
menting alternative sentencing programs for nonviolent drug
offenders, including house arrest and boot camps.
Increased Federal funding for Federal law enforcement activities
(including courts, prisons, prosecutors, and law enforcement offi-
cers); and additional resources targeted on Federal money laun-
dering investigations.
Vigorous prosecution of and increased fines for all misdemeanor
State drug offenses.
Expanded programs to eradicate the domestic marijuana crop.
Adoption by the States of drug-testing programs throughout their
criminal justice systems: for arrestees, prisoners, parolees, and
those out on bail. Adoption of such programs will be a condition
for receipt of Federal criminal justice funds.
Funding through the Department of Housing and Urban Develop-
ment to establish security systems for public housing projects,
including tenant identification cards, guards, and security fences.
Establishment of a Supply Reduction Working Group, chaired by
the Office of National Drug Control Policy, to carry out the statu-
tory requirement to "coordinate and oversee the implementation
by National Drug Control Program agencies of the policies, objec-
tives, and priorities" defined in the National Drug Control Strat-
egy. This group will consider supply-related drug policy issues
that are interdepartmental in nature. It will not deal with opera-
tional decisions or have line authority or responsibility.
Revision of Federal drug agency personnel evaluation systems,
where appropriate, to add a criterion for career advancement and
reward that emphasizes cooperation among employees within and
across various agencies.
Strong encouragement for States to adopt policies revoking the
drivers licenses of those convicted of a drug offense and recom-
mendation of model drivers license revocation legislation to the
States.
4
Executive Summary
II. DRUG TREATMENT
Overview
Effective treatment is an important part of the overall strategy to
reduce drug use. Millions of Americans need help to stop using drugs.
Responsible and compassionate public policy requires that our nation's
drug treatment capacity be increased.
Priorities
Increased Federal funds for treatment in order to expand the
number of treatment slots and the range of treatment methods
available.
Greater State, local, and individual treatment program accounta-
bility for effectiveness. Submission of State plans for treatment
resource allocation and systemic improvements will be a condition
for receipt of Federal treatment funds.
Improved coordination among local treatment facilities SO that
treatment resources and availability match community needs,
and S0 that drug users are referred to the most appropriate treat-
ment provider.
Improved coordination between treatment facilities and social,
health, and employment agencies in order better to assist those
drug-dependent persons who need services in addition to treat-
ment. Under some circumstances, treatment facilities will be
assisted in the development of their own programs in these areas.
Increased funding of outreach programs and early treatment for
expectant mothers who use drugs.
State and private insurance company coverage of outpatient and
other less intensive forms of treatment for drug use. A thorough
review of Federal policy will be conducted to determine whether
changes in Federal coverage are necessary.
Exploration of ways to increase the use of civil commitment as a
means to bring more drug dependent persons into the treatment
system.
Expanded and improved Federal information collection and re-
search. Priority will be given to describing our current treatment
5
Executive Summary
capacities and needs; evaluating treatment effectiveness for spe-
cific populations; and developing methods of treatment for cocaine
and crack dependency, cocaine in combination with other sub-
stances, and individuals with both psychiatric and drug prob-
lems.
III. EDUCATION, COMMUNITY ACTION,
AND THE WORKPLACE
Overview
The principal goal of prevention is to see that Americans, especially
children, never start taking drugs. Prevention begins at the local level:
at homes, in schools, and in the community.
The Federal government should galvanize public opinion to make it
clear that illegal use of drugs is wrong and harmful. This includes
support for community drug prevention efforts. Activities should be
targeted at youth; in addition, individuals, parents, and employers must
become involved in drug prevention and education.
Priorities
Implementation of firm drug prevention programs and policies in
schools, colleges, and universities. Such programs and policies
will be a condition of eligibility for receipt of Federal funds.
Development of model alternative school programs for youths with
drug problems. Federal assistance to local education agencies
will promote such development.
Federal support for community-wide drug prevention efforts.
Federal support for development of anti-drug media outreach ac-
tivities that deal with the dangers of using illegal drugs - particu-
larly crack - and with drug-impaired pregnancies.
Creation of a national program to mobilize volunteer efforts to pre-
vent the illegal use of drugs.
Implementation of Executive Order 12564 to ensure a drug-free
Federal workforce.
6
Executive Summary
Drug-free workplace policies in the private sector and State and
local government, including clear penalties for drug use, and drug
testing where appropriate.
Establishment of a Demand-Reduction Working Group, chaired
by the Office of National Drug Control Policy, to carry out the
statutory requirement to "coordinate and oversee the implementa-
tion by National Drug Control Program agencies of the policies,
objectives, and priorities" defined in the National Drug Control
Strategy. This group will consider demand-related drug policy is-
sues that are interdepartmental in nature. It will not deal with
operational decisions or have line authority or responsibility.
IV. INTERNATIONAL
Overview
The international drug trade poses a serious threat to the welfare.
economy, and national security of the United States. The principal
foreign drug threats are cocaine, heroin, and marijuana. Programs are
needed to deter and incapacitate international production and the
trafficking organizations responsible for bringing these drugs into the
United States. Other nations must be motivated to engage their re-
sources and efforts to defeat international narcotics trafficking.
Priorities
Disruption and dismantlement of drug-trafficking organizations.
Reduced cocaine supply. Law enforcement, military, and eco-
nomic assistance will be provided to the three Andean cocaine-
producing countries to isolate major coca-growing areas; to block
delivery of chemicals used for cocaine processing: to destroy co-
caine hydrochloride processing labs; and to dismantle the traffick-
ing organizations. Efforts in transit areas will be improved and
Joint Intelligence Collection Centers will be created in the Carib-
bean Basin.
Reduced heroin supply through efforts to convince other countries
to exert influence on opium growers and reduce heroin processing
and distribution.
Reduced marijuana supply through strengthened foreign law en-
forcement and eradication, and through efforts to discourage
minor producing nations from becoming major producers.
7
Executive Summary
U.S. assistance and encouragement for European community and
multi-lateral efforts aimed at source country and transit country
production and distribution, and at European consumption. Eu-
ropean community support against international and regional
drug organizations will be enlisted.
Other international objectives:
- Elevation of drugs as a bilateral foreign policy issue.
- U.S. ratification of the United Nations Convention Against Illicit
Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, along
with other pending Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties. Other
nations will be urged to ratify the Convention.
- Support for the U.S. foreign aid certification process in order to
achieve more effective supply- and transit-country compliance
with American drug control objectives.
- Bilateral and multi-lateral efforts against international money-
laundering activities.
V. INTERDICTION
Overview
Effective interdiction is critical in the effort to reduce the flow of
drugs. Interdicting illegal drug shipments and intercepting other re-
sources is an important method of attacking the drug trade at home and
abroad. Interdiction should focus not only on drug seizures, but also on
creating serious personal and financial risk for trafficking organizations
and their top level personnel.
Priorities
Development of a comprehensive information-based approach to
Federal air, maritime, land, and Port-of-Entry interdiction.
- Upgraded intelligence support to interdiction, through intensi-
fied interdiction-specific investigations and undercover opera-
tions.
8
Executive Summary
- Enhanced computer support to interdiction through accelera-
tion of machine readable documentation programs; installation
of document machine readers at appropriate Ports of Entry: and
development of the International Border Interdiction System
(IBIS) and other computerized border information systems.
- Creation of interagency/interdisciplinary teams to analyze and
target smuggling modes, methods, and routes.
Concentration on high-value individuals and shipments.
- Review of existing methods for deterring air smugglers.
- Improved operations aimed at money couriers and shipments.
- Improved container inspection techniques and intelligence.
Enhanced border systems, operations, and activities.
- Dramatically reduced document fraud, especially fraudulent
use of U.S. birth certificates and other "breeder documents."
- Expanded use of drug detection dogs, anti-vehicle barriers, and
container inspections.
- Provision of automatic exclusion authority and general arrest
authority to Immigration and Naturalization Service officers.
- Improved detection and monitoring systems and secure opera-
tions procedures.
- Expanded secure communications systems.
VI. RESEARCH
Overview
The quality of information, research, and technological capabilities
available to implement drug control policies and programs must be
improved. A more up-to-date and flexible data base is needed to refine
and target drug control efforts. Technology must be developed and
adapted to aid in law enforcement. More medical research is also
needed into the causes of and treatment for drug addiction.
9
Executive Summary
Priorities
Establishment of a Drug Control Research and Development
Committee involving directors of research and evaluation, and
chief technology advisers to all appropriate drug supply and
demand reduction agencies. This committee will:
- Recommend to the Office of National Drug Control Policy poli-
cies and priorities for drug-related research and development;
- Review, monitor, and coordinate Federal research, data collec-
tion, and evaluation activities;
- Eliminate duplication and gaps in current data collection, and
generate accurate and useful information on which to base na-
tional drug control policies; and
- Assist agencies in effectively acquiring and using new technolo-
gies to prevent and treat drug use and to detect and suppress
the flow of illegal drugs and related commodities.
Better and more frequent data collection and analysis, including
flexible, quick-response data collection instruments.
Increased basic and clinical research on drug use and addiction.
Development of new technologies or innovative adaptation of ex-
isting technologies for use against illegal drugs.
Development of a comprehensive information base about "what
works" in controlling drug use through support for public and pri-
vate evaluation of drug enforcement, drug prevention, and drug
treatment programs.
Archived and disseminated information, research, and evaluation
results through an appropriate mechanism that combines preven-
tion, treatment, and criminal justice data.
10
Executive Summary
VII. INTELLIGENCE
Overview
The war against drugs cannot be fought without comprehensive
collection, analysis, and dissemination of critical information on drug
production and trafficking. To target the traffickers' most vulnerable
points, more information about the enemy must be obtained.
Priorities
Increased intelligence efforts to concentrate on the infrastructure
of trafficking organizations and their allied enterprises, particu-
larly money laundering.
Improved drug automation and information systems to allow
swifter, better, and more cost-effective drug law enforcement,
prosecutions, and interdictions.
Sharing of intelligence developed in the course of investigations.
and intelligence operations, and dissemination of finished, ana-
lyzed: intelligence to appropriate Federal law enforcement and in-
telligence agencies.
Establishment of an interagency working group chaired by the
Office of National Drug Control Policy to develop plans for an in-
telligence center to unite U.S. drug-related analytical capabilities,
and to improve intelligence capabilities. Results will be presented
to the appropriate Cabinet Council.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
(APPENDIX A)
The Strategy includes comprehensive, research-based, long-range
goals for reducing drug use as well as short-term measurable objectives.
There are nine goals for reducing drug use in two stages of measure-
ment: during the next two years and over the next ten years. Specific
percentage reductions are proposed in the nine categories, including
overall drug use, use of specific drugs, use by certain age groups. and
overall supply reductions.
11
Executive Summary
FEDERAL IMPLEMENTATION and
RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS
(APPENDIX B)
Overview
The National Drug Control Strategy recommends the largest dollar
increase in the history of the drug war - nearly $2.2 billion, 39 percent
above the Fiscal 1989 level. Key funding priorities for Fiscal Year 1990
are to:
Increase assistance to State and local law enforcement;
Expand resources for treatment and prevention programs;
Initiate a major anti-drug campaign in the cocaine source coun-
tries;
Establish order in the nation's public housing projects;
Build more Federal prisons, expand Federal and State courts and
correctional systems, and add more prosecutors;
Step up efforts against money laundering operations;
Expand our knowledge base about drugs and how to fight them
through more research, data collection, and information sharing;
and
Provide sufficient resources to operate and maintain our
border interdiction system.
The following priorities will be added in 1991 and 1992:
Expand inter-agency drug task force operations;
Augment drug intelligence capabilities;
Strengthen the presence of the Border Patrol along the Southwest
border;
12
Executive Summary
Help the police get people who are driving while under the
influence of drugs off the highways; and
Reduce the amount of marijuana cultivated on American soil.
Major changes over FY 1989 are:
Drug Resources, Fiscal Year 1990
Budget Authority (Millions of Dollars)
Feb 9
Budget
Drug
Feb 9
Plus Drug
Strategy
FY89-
FY89-
FY1989
Budget
Portion of
Sep
FY90 %
FY90 $
Enacted
FY1990*
Crime Bill*
FY1990**
Increase
Increase
Corrections
734
894
1,601
1,601
118%
867
International
250
306
306
449
80%
199
State and Local Grants
150
150
156
350
133%
200
Judiciary
209
242
250
250
20%
41
2
Other Law Enforcement
2,779
3,018
3,058
3,113
12%
334
Prevention/Education
943
1,041
1,041
1,176
25%
233
Treatment
604
735
735
925
53%
321
)
Total
5,669
6,386
7,147
7,864
39%
2,195
These columns include resources for the U.S. Court and make other minor adjustments to
the figures presented in the "Building a Better America" document issued in February,
1989.
These columns include the "drug portion" ($0.8 billion) of the President's $1.2 billion crime
initiative announced in May, 1989. The Administration supports enactment of the crime
initiative (The Comprehensive Crime Control Act of 1989) in its entirety.
The drug portion of prison construction is based on the projected share of drug offenders in
Federal prison at the time the construction is completed. This new methodology reflects more
accurately the likely impact of drug offenses. For consistency with prior years, the historical
prison construction numbers have been adjusted to reflect this new methodology.
13
Office of National Drug Control Policy
Executive Office of the President
Washington, D.C. 20500
ADDENDUM FOR ANTICIPATED QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
CRIME REPORTERS BRIEFING
Democratic complaint: "What we need is another D-Day, not
another Vietnam -- not a limited war, fought on the cheap and
destined for stalemate and human tragedy. " (Biden)
Response: Anyone who thinks the situation in Colombia is a
"limited war" is not paying attention to the real world. The
rules have changed, and no more business as usual. This
Administration is engaging in an all-out assault on drug use in
America. This is the first comprehensive strategy, that deals
with all aspects of law enforcement, interdiction, education and
prevention, and treatment. As I said last night, we have the
weapons at our disposal -- we just need a strategy to use them
most effectively.
This is not a war on the cheap. Take a look at the numbers
-- we've proposed the largest single drug budget increase ever.
Past anti-drug efforts have been destined for stalemate
because of turf wars, and the philosophy of government officials
that their part of the fight was the only part -- whether it was
treatment, enforcement, or interdiction. But under the
leadership of Bill Bennett, we've changed all that. This is a
truly coordinated strategy that will steer us clear of stalemate.
Democratic complaint: Why not "come clean,' and use a tax hike
to pay for this -- instead of cutting vital social programs? "We
can make it painless." (Rangel)
Response: Anyone who thinks we can end drug abuse in America
simply with money does not understand the problem. We've got a
national, not a federal, strategy to beef up all aspects of the
fight against drugs. This involves more than money -- it
involves uniting Americans to stand up against drugs in their
neighborhoods and workplaces.
Democratic complaint: Triple the enforcement budget, because we
need more prosecutors, prisons and law officers. (Biden)
Response: If my critics in the Congress are worried about more
enforcement, I urge them to pass the Crime bill I transmitted to
them in June. The Administration's package proposed increased
enforcement and prosecution for drug-related violent crime.
Senator Biden wants us to fight the war against drugs with
our hands tied behind our backs -- because America's courts need
the death penalty for drug kingpins and drug-related murders.
Those who want us to fight a tough war on drugs and crime, yet
who don't seem to think that kingpins should pay the ultimate
price, are not matching their rhetoric with reality.
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
September 6, 1989
MEMORANDUM TO AGENCY PUBLIC AFFAIRS DIRECTORS
FROM: CHRISS WINSTON cw
DEPUTY ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR COMMUNICATIONS
SUBJECT: THE NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL STRATEGY
Last night President Bush gave an address to the nation
announcing his strategy for the war on drugs. Enclosed in this
week's package, you will find the President's speech, as well as
the National Drug Control Strategy book, the executive summary,
and fact sheet. You also will find suggested talking points on
the drug strategy.
If you have any questions, please contact Holly Williamson (456-
2245).
FOR INTERNAL USE ONLY
September 5, 1989
TALKING POINTS
Revised
NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL STRATEGY
On September 5, President Bush announced the
Administration's National Drug Control strategy.
Comprehensive Strategy: This is the first such national
strategy to end the evil of drug use and drug trafficking, a
fully integrated approach that is an assault on every front.
The President's strategy addresses all the elements
necessary to an effective strategy: school and drug
prevention programs, our treatment system, our laws and
criminal justice system, and our foreign policy.
o
Coordinated Approach: Jurisdictional and "turf" problems
have slowed past anti-drug efforts. Therefore, President
Bush has emphasized the need for a coordinated national
effort. This means federal, state and local levels must
work together. At the federal level, with the leadership of
the Director of National Drug Control Policy, William
Bennett, strong interagency cooperation has already
resulted.
Bipartisan Consensus: Americans agree that the gravest
domestic threat facing the country today is drugs. The
President is looking to the leadership in Congress for
bipartisan support in the implementation of his strategy,
and is looking to the grass-roots support of America's
communities in the fight against drugs.
Call to Action: President Bush is issuing an urgent call to
action to all Americans to support this national strategy.
He challenges every citizen to make a personal commitment to
help in the fight against drug abuse.
The evidence suggests that the drug problem is a grave threat:
O
Good and Bad News: The National Institute on Drug Abuse's
recently released national survey of drug use (the first
since 1985) indicates that number of Americans using any
illegal drug on a "current" basis has dropped 37 percent.
That means that almost nine million Americans have given up
"casual" drug use. Among the more than eight million people
who used cocaine at all in the past year, almost one million
of them used it once a week or more. So while overall
cocaine use is down, habitual cocaine use has almost
doubled.
2
O
Crime: Fear of drugs and attendant crime are at an all-time
high. Rates of drug-related homicide continue to rise --
sometimes alarmingly -- in cities around the country.
Health: The number of drug-related emergency hospital
admissions increased by 121 percent between 1985 and 1988,
and hundreds of thousands of babies are born each year to
mothers who use drugs.
The Economy: A U.S. Chamber of Commerce estimate puts annual
gross drug sales at $100 billion -- more than our total
gross agricultural income, and more than double the profits
enjoyed by the Fortune 500 companies combined.
Overseas: In many foreign nations, the drug trade and the
violence and corruption that go with it are causing serious
social, economic, and political disruption. Trafficking
threatens stability and democratic institutions.
The National Drug Control Strategy:
Enforcement: The Administration's enforcement strategy is
based upon this principle: If you sell drugs, you will be
caught; when caught you will be prosecuted; and if
convicted, you will do time.
--
The criminal justice system will be enlarged across the
board, at the local, state and federal levels.
--
The Administration is requesting a $1.4 billion
increase in drug-related federal spending on law
enforcement, including a 133 percent increase -- or
$200 million -- in federal assistance to state and
local law enforcement.
President Bush is seeking $50 million through the
Department of Housing and Urban Development to restore
order in hard-hit public housing projects by kicking
dealers out for good.
International Interdiction: The international drug trade
poses a serious threat to the welfare, economy and national
security of the United States.
-- $1.5 billion dollars will be requested for interdiction
efforts, especially for continued support of our Coast
Guard and Customs agents to stop drugs at our borders.
$260 million in military and law enforcement assistance
for next year will be sought for Colombia, Bolivia and
Peru, the first part of a five-year, $2 billion program
to fight drug producers, traffickers and smugglers.
3
--
President Bush is seeking a drug summit with affected
Western Hemisphere nations, to coordinate an Inter-
American strategy against the cartels.
-- The President will also negotiate international
agreements to track drug money and punish money
laundering.
Treatment: Experts believe that there are two million
American drug users who can be helped by well-designed,
existing programs, yet only 40 percent of them are actually
getting the help they need.
--
A 53 percent increase, of $321 million, will be sought
in Federal spending on drug treatment programs that
work.
--
The federal government will work with states to better
coordinate the drug treatment system, and will
encourage employers to establish Employee Assistance
Programs that cover drug use.
--
Research will be expanded in the search for improved
methods to break cocaine and crack addiction, and
treatment efforts will be targeted on expectant mothers
and crack babies.
Education and Prevention: We must stop drug abuse before it
starts.
--
Education and prevention programs in schools and
communities will be increased by $233 million.
--
The President called on every school, college,
university, and workplace to adopt tough, fair anti-
drug policies.
--
President Bush will be addressing American
schoolchildren in a special televised address, to
discuss the war on drugs.
# # #
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
September 5, 1989
ADDRESS BY THE PRESIDENT
ON NATIONAL DRUG POLICY
The Oval Office
9:00 P.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Good evening. This is the first time
since taking the oath of office that I felt an issue was so
important, so threatening that it warranted talking directly with
you, the American people. All of us agree that the gravest domestic
threat facing our nation today is drugs.
Drugs have strained our faith in our system of justice.
Our courts, our prisons, our legal system are stretched to the
breaking point. The social costs of drugs are mounting. In short,
drugs are sapping our strength as a nation. Turn on the evening nev
or pick up the morning paper and you'll see what some Americans know
just by stepping out their front door: Our most serious problem
today is cocaine and, in particular, crack.
Who's responsible? Let me tell you straight out.
Everyone who uses drugs. Everyone who sells drugs. Anc
everyone who looks the other way.
Tonight, I'll tell you how many Americans are using
illegal drugs. I will present to you our national strategy to deal
with every aspect of this threat. And I will ask you to get involve
in what promises to be a very difficult fight.
This -- this is crack cocaine seized a few days ago by
Drug Enforcement agents in a park just across the street from the
White House. It could easily have been heroine or PCP. It's as
innocent looking as candy, but it's turning our cities into battle
zones and it is murdering our children. Let there be no mistake,
this stuff is poison. Some used to call drugs harmless recreation.
They're not. Drugs are a real and terribly dangerous threat to our
neighborhoods, our friends and our families.
No one among us is out of harm's way. When
four-year-olds play in playgrounds strewn with discarded hypodermic
needles and crack vials -- it breaks my heart. When cocaine -- one
of the most deadly and addictive illegal drugs -- is available to
school kids -- school kids -- it's an outrage. And when hundreds of
thousands of babies are born each year to mothers who use drugs --
premature babies born desperately sick -- then even the most
defenseless among us are at risk.
These are the tragedies behind the statistics. But the
numbers also have quite a story to tell. Let me share with you the
results of the recently completed Household Survey of the National
Institute on Drug Abuse. It compares recent drug use to three years
ago. It tells us some good news and some very bad news. First, the
good.
As you can see in the chart, in 1985, the government
estimated that 23 million Americans were using drugs on a "current"
basis -- that is, at least once in the preceding month. Last year,
that number fell by more than a third. That means almost nine
million fewer Americans are casual drug users. Good news.
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Because we changed our national attitude toward drugs,
casual drug use has declined. We have many to thank: Our brave
law-enforcement officers, religious leaders, teachers, community
activists, and leaders of business and labor. We should also thank
the media for their exhaustive news and editorial coverage and for
their air time and space for antidrug messages. And finally, I want
to thank President and Mrs. Reagan for their leadership. All of
these good people told the truth -- that drug use is wrong and
dangerous.
But as much comfort as we can draw from these dramatic
reductions, there is also bad news -- very bad news. Roughly eight
million people have used cocaine in the past year, almost one millic
of them used it frequently -- once a week or more.
What this means is that, in spite of the fact that
overall cocaine use is down, frequent use has almost doubled in the
last few years. And that's why habitual cocaine users -- especially
crack users -- are the most pressing, immediate drug problem.
What, then, is our plan? To begin with, I trust the
lesson of experience: No single policy will cut it, no matter how
glamorous or magical it may sound. To win the war against addictive
drugs like crack will take more than just a federal strategy. It
will take a national strategy, one that reaches into every school,
every workplace, involving every family.
Earlier today, I sent this document, our first such
national strategy, to the Congress. It was developed with the hard
work of our nation's first Drug Policy Director, Bill Bennett. In
preparing this plan, we talked with state, local and community
leaders, law enforcement officials and experts in education, drug
prevention, and rehabilitation. We talked with parents and kids.
took a long, hard look at all that the federal government has done
about drugs in the past: What's worked, and -- let's be honest --
what hasn't. Too often, people in government acted as if their par
of the problem -- whether fighting drug production, or drug
smuggling, or drug demand -- was the only problem. But turf battle
won't win this war. Teamwork will.
Tonight, I'm announcing a strategy that reflects the
coordinated, cooperative commitment of all our federal agencies. I:
short, this plan is as comprehensive as the problem. With this
strategy, we now finally have a plan that coordinates our resources
our programs and the people who run them.
Our weapons in this strategy are the law and criminal
justice system, our foreign policy, our treatment systems, and our
schools and drug prevention programs. So the basic weapons we need
are the ones we already have. What's been lacking is a strategy to
effectively use them.
Let me address four of the major elements of our
strategy.
First, we are determined to enforce the law, to make ou:
streets and neighborhoods safe. So to start, I'm proposing that we
more than double federal assistance to state and local law
enforcement. Americans have a right to safety in and around their
homes. And we won't have safe neighborhoods unless we're tough on
drug criminals -- much tougher than we are now. Sometimes that mea:
tougher penalties. But more often it just means punishment that is
swift and certain. We've all heard stories about drug dealers who
are caught and arrested -- again and again -- but never punished.
Well, here the rules have changed: If you sell drugs, you will be
caught. And when you're caught, you will be prosecuted. And once
you're convicted, you will do time. Caught. Prosecuted. Punished
I'm also proposing that we enlarge our criminal justice
system across the board -- at the local, state and federal levels
alike. We need more prisons, more jails, more courts, more
prosecutors. So tonight, I'm requesting -- altogether -- an almost
MORE
$1.5 billion increase in drug-related federal spending on law
enforcement.
And while illegal drug use is found in every community,
nowwhere is it worse than in our public housing projects. You know,
the poor have never had it easy in this world. But in the past, the
weren't mugged on the way home from work by crack gangs. And their
children didn't have to dodge bullets on the way to school. And
that's why I'm targeting $50 million to fight crime in public housin
projects -- to help restore order and to kick out the dealers for
good.
The second element of our strategy looks beyond our
borders where the cocaine and crack bought on America's streets is
grown and processed. In Colombia alone, cocaine killers have gunne
down a leading statesman, murdered almost 200 judges and seven
members of their Supreme Court. The besieged governments of the
drug-producing countries are fighting back, fighting to break the
international drug rings. But you and I agree with the courageous
President of Colombia, Virgilio Barco, who said that if Americans us
cocaine, then Americans are paying for murder. American cocaine
users need to understand that our nation has zero tolerance for
casual drug use. We have a responsibility not to leave our brave
friends in Colombia to fight alone.
The $65-million emergency assistance announced two week:
ago was just our first step in assisting the Andean nations in thei:
fight against the cocaine cartels. Colombia has already arrested
suppliers, seized tons of cocaine and confiscated palatial homes of
drug lords. But Colombia faces a long, uphill battle, so we must b
ready to do more.
Our strategy allocates more than a quarter of a billion
dollars for next year in military and law enforcement assistance fo:
the three Andean nations of Colombia, Bolivia and Peru. This will
the first part of a five-year, $2-billion program to counter the
producers, the traffickers and the smugglers.
I spoke with President Barco just last week, and we hop
to meet with the leaders of affected countries in an unprecedented
drug summit, all to coordinate an inter-American strategy against t)
cartels. We will work with our allies and friends -- especially ou:
economic summit partners -- to do more in the fight against drugs.
I'm also asking the Senate to ratify the United Nations Antidrug
Convention concluded last December.
To stop those drugs on the way to America, I propose the
we spend more than $1.5 billion on interdiction. Greater interageno
cooperation, combined with sophisticated intelligence-gathering and
Defense Department technology can help stop drugs at our borders.
And our message to the drug cartels is this: The rules
have changed. We will help any government that wants our help. Wh
requested, we will for the first time make available the appropriat
resources of America's armed forces. We will intensify our efforts
against drug smugglers on the high seas, in international airspace
and at our borders. We will stop the flow of chemicals from the
United States used to process drugs. We will pursue and enforce
international agreements to track drug money to the front men and
financiers. And then we will handcuff these money launderers and
jail them -- just like any street dealer. And for the drug kingpin
the death penalty.
The third part of our strategy concerns drug treatment.
Experts believe that there are two million American drug users who
may be able to get off drugs with proper treatment. But right now,
only 40 percent of them are actually getting help. This is simply
not good enough.
Many people who need treatment won't seek it on their
own. And some who do seek it are put on a waiting list. Most
programs were set up to deal with heroin addicts, but today, the
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- 4 -
major problem is cocaine users. It's time we expand our treatment
systems and do a better job of providing services to those who need
them.
And so tonight, I'm proposing an increase of $321 millic
in federal spending on drug treatment.
With this strategy, we will do more. We will work with
the states. We will encourage employers to establish employee
assistance programs to cope with drug use. And because addiction is
such a cruel inheritance, we will intensify our search for ways to
help expectant mothers who use drugs.
Fourth, we must stop illegal drug use before it starts.
Unfortunately, it begins early -- for many kids, before their teens.
But it doesn't start the way you might think, from a dealer or an
addict hanging around a school playground. More often, our kids
first get their drugs free, from friends, or even from older brother
or sisters. Peer pressure spreads drug use. Peer pressure can help
stop it.
I am proposing a quarter-of-a-billion-dollar increase ir
federal funds for school and community prevention programs that help
young people and adults reject enticements to try drugs. And I'm
proposing something else. Every school, college and university -
and every workplace -- must adopt tough but fair policies about drug
use by students and employees. And those that will not adopt such
policies will not get federal funds. Period.
The private sector also has an important role to play.
spoke with a businessman named Jim Burke who said he was haunted by
the thought --- a nightmare, really -- that somewhere in America, at
any given moment, there is a teenage girl who should be in school,
instead of giving birth to a child addicted to cocaine. so Jim did
something. He led an antidrug partnership, financed by private
funds, to work with advertisers and media firms. Their partnership
is now determined to work with our strategy by generating educationa
messages worth a million dollars a day -- every day for the next
three years -- a billion dollars worth of advertising, all to promot
the antidrug message.
As President, one of my first missions is to keep the
national focus on our offensive against drugs. And so next week I
will take the antidrug message to the classrooms of America in a
special television address, one that I hope will reach every school,
every young American. But drug education doesn't begin in class or
on TV. It must begin at home and in the neighborhood. Parents and
families must set the first example of a drug-free life. And when
families are broken, caring friends and neighbors must step in.
These are the most important elements in our strategy to
fight drugs. They are all designed to reinforce one another, to mes
into a powerful whole, to mount an aggressive attack on the problem
from every angle. This is the first time in the history of our
country, that we truly have a comprehensive strategy.
As you can tell, such an approach will not come cheaply.
Last February, I asked for a $700-million increase in the drug budge
for the coming year. And now, over the past six months of careful
study, we have found an immediate need for another $1.5 billion.
With this added $2.2 billion, our 1990 drug budget totals almost $8
billion -- the largest increase in history.
We need this program fully implemented -- right away.
The next fiscal year begins just 26 days from now. So tonight, I'm
asking the Congress -- which has helped us formulate this strategy -
to help us move it forward immediately.
We can pay for this fight against drugs without raising
taxes or adding to the budget deficit. We have submitted our plan t
Congress that shows just how to fund it within the limits of our
bipartisan budget agreement.
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- 5 -
Now, I know some will still say that we're not spending
enough money. But those who judge our strategy only by its price ta
simply don't understand the problem. Let's face it, we've all seen
in the past that money alone won't solve our toughest problems.
To be strong and efficient, our strategy needs these
funds. But there is no match for a united America, a determined
America, an angry America. Our outrage against drugs unites us,
brings us together behind this one plan of action, an assault on
every front.
This is the toughest domestic challenge we've faced in
decades. And it's a challenge we must face -- not as Democrats or
Republicans, liberals or conservatives -- but as Americans. The key
is a coordinated, united effort. We've responded faithfully to the
request of the Congress to produce our nation's first national drug
strategy. I'll be looking to the Democratic majority and our
Republicans in Congress for leadership and bipartisan support. And
our citizens deserve cooperation, not competition; a national effort
not a partisan bidding war.
To start, Congress needs not only to act on this nationa
drug strategy, but also to act on our crime package announced last
May; a package to toughen sentences, beef up law enforcement and
build new prison space for 24,000 inmates.
You and I both know the federal government can't do it
alone. The states need to match tougher federal laws with tougher
laws of their own -- stiffer bail, probation, parole and sentencing.
And we need your help. If people you know are users,
help them help them get off drugs. If you're a parent, talk to
your kids about drugs -- tonight.
Call your local drug prevention program. Be a Big
Brother or Sister to a child in need. Pitch in with your local
Neighborhood Watch program. Whether you give your time or talent,
everyone counts.
Every employer who bans drugs from the workplace. Every
school that's tough on drug use. Every neighborhood in which drugs
are not welcome. And most important, every one of you who refuses to
look the other way. Every one of you counts.
of course, victory will take hard work and time. But
together we will win -- too many young lives are at stake.
Not long ago, I read a newspaper story about a little boy
named Dooney, who, until recently, lived in a crack house in a suburt
of Washington, D.C. In Dooney's neighborhood, children don't flinch
at the sound of gunfire. And when they play, they pretend to sell tc
each other small white rocks that they call crack.
Life at home was so cruel that Dooney begged his teachers
to let him sleep on the floor at school. And when asked about his
future, six-year-old Dooney answers, "I don't want to sell drugs, but
I'll probably have to."
Well, Dooney does not have to sell drugs. No child in
America should have to live like this. Together as a people we can
save these kids. We've already transformed a national attitude of
tolerance into one of condemnation. But the war on drugs will be
hard-won, child. neighborhood by neighborhood, block by block, child by
If we fight this war as a divided nation, then the war is
lost. But if we face this evil as a nation united, this will be
nothing but a handful of useless chemicals.
Victory. Victory over drugs is our cause, a just cause
and, with your help, we are going to win.
Thank you, God bless you, and good night.
END
9:23 P.M. EDT