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Remarks of the President at the Irving Bar Association Law Day Dinner, Texas Stadium [Ford Speech or Statement]
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7343454
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Remarks of the President at the Irving Bar Association Law Day Dinner, Texas Stadium [Ford Speech or Statement]
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White House Press Releases (Ford Administration)
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Digitized from Box 24 of the White House Press Releases at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
APRIL 9, 1976
OFFICE OF THE WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY
(Dallas, Texas)
THE WHITE HOUSE
REMARKS OF THE PRESIDENT
AT THE
IRVING BAR ASSOCIATION
LAW DAY DINNER
TEXAS STADIUM
IRVING, TEXAS
9:36 P.M. CST
Martin, Senator Tower, President John Lawrence,
Ed Kincaid, members of the judiciary, members of the
Irving Bar Association, guests:
It is a very great privilege and honor for me
to have the opportunity of coming to Irving and participating
in the Law Day ceremonies here in this part of the State
of Texas.
I have had the privilege and honor a good many
times to visit many parts of the State of Texas.
Fortunately, I have had a good many acquaintances, and my
closest friend and acquaintances are, or have been, the
Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate
from your State, one of whom is here this evening, John
Tower.
I must say -- and I say this with emphasis and
sincerity -- having spent 25 years in the Congress, you
get to know good delegations and those that don't quite
make it. John Tower represents the high quality of the
Texas delegation, whether they are Democrat or Republican,
and as I said, members of your delegation have been my
very closest and best friends, whether on my side of the
aisle or on the other.
I want to compliment your State in having such
outstanding statesmen represent you in Washington, D.C.,
and John Tower is one of them.
Texas, they tell me, is number one in the country
in many, many important ways -- number one in cattle pro-
duction, number one in oil production, number one in
cotton and often number one in football. (Laughter)
I am delighted to see tonight that you are
certainly still second to none in hospitality, and for that
I thank you very, very much.
MORE
Page 2
Now, in observance of Law Day here in Irving, I thought
it would be tremendously appropriate if I directed my remarks
to an increasingly serious problem all across America, and when
I say "all across America", I mean its totality, and I hope
and trust that you will not misunderstand what I say tonight
by indirection or otherwise that I might be talking just about
Texas.
This is a problem that affects all 50 States, and I
think it is time that all of us, whether we are from Texas or
Michigan or elsewhere, that we get a refocus on this serious
matter that involves a good many fine people in our society.
As practitioners of the law, as leaders of your
community, as loving parents, all of you must share my very
deepening concern about a new wave of drug abuse that is
affecting our Nation.
Only a few short years ago, many of you will recall
the United States was faced with a virtual epidemic of drug
abuse, large quantities of opium was coming out of poppy
fields from countries such as Turkey, they were converted into
heroin in port cities in France, and from there were smuggled
into the United States.
This country mounted a massive, active campaign
against illicit drug traffic, and with the cooperation of law
enforcement officials, both here and abroad, we eventually
broke the back of the so-called "French Connection".
There was good reason to be pleased because it
seems we had not only turned the corner in drug abuse, but
we had also begun to make significant strides in street crime
problems.
Our success, however, did not last as long as most of
us would have hoped. The heroin trade has now shifted to
other countries, and today there is a renewed and alarming flow
of drug trafficking into this country.
The time has come to step up our fight, sharpen the
weapons in our arsenal and launch a new and far more aggressive
attack against this insiduous enemy. The cost of drug abuse to
this Nation is staggering, and I had the benefit of the various
agencies and departments in the Government give me a two-hour
briefing earlier this week, and the information, the facts
are unbelievable.
Every year more than 5,000 Americans die from direct
drug-related causes. Every year more than 170,000 injuries can
be directly traced to drugs. Every year the problem of drug
abuse costs up to $17 billion.
MORE
Page 3
Significantly, the greatest bulk of this $17 billion
is money lost through crime. Law enforcement officials estimate
that up to one-half robberies, muggings, burglaries and
other forms of property crimes are committed by addicts to
support their expensive and debilitating habit.
These statistics, as ominous as they are, reflect
only part of the traffic total. For every teenage child
killed by a drug overdose, there are thousands and thousands of
others who do not die but continue only the motions of living.
They sit in classrooms without learning, they grow isolated
from their families and from their friends. When they should
be preparing for the future, they can hardly cope with the
present.
And this disease is by no means limited to youth or
to any other particular group in our society -- the suburban
housewife, the worker on the assembly line, the white collar
professional, nobody is immune.
As you know, 80 to 90 percent of the heroin coming into
the United States today has come across the border from Mexico.
The problem is not an easy one to cope with. There are as
many as 20,000 small poppy fields hidden in the mountainous
terrain of the Sierra Madre.
With the new equipment that we have, not only the
aircraft, whether it is fixed wing or helicopter and with
the traffic capability, you can see these relatively small, but
very productive and very financially beneficial, Doppy fields.
And I pledge to you tonight that we will spare no
effort to crush the meance of drug abuse.
Clearly, as we look at the picture today, our first
defense must be directed at our own borders to clamp down on
the illegal flow of drugs from foreign sources. And as I
mentioned a moment ago, 80 to 90 percent of the current flow
of heroin comes across the Mexican border, having been moved
from what had previously been the case with Turkey and several
other countries.
The drugs that come from these fields might be smuggled
here in any way, any one of almost a million vehicles a week that
cross border check points, or aboard any one of 4,000 aircraft the
illegally penetrated the border last year or even in the
backpack of someone who illegallywalks across the 2,000-mile
border that we share with Mexico.
MORE
Page 4
Fortunately -- and I think we are fortunate --
the Government of Mexico, under the leadership of President
Echeverria has been increasingly concerned with this
problem and has cracked down very hard on both the growers
and the traffickers.
With help provided by our Government -- this
help includes helicopters and other advanced equipment
and committing substantial resources of our own -- the
Government of Mexico is undertaking the biggest and most
effective crop eradication program in its history.
Thousands upon thousands of fields have already been
wiped out.
While many of these fields can and will be
replanted, the Government also plans for the first time
to maintain a year round eradication program. This is the
only way that you can really stop the growth of this into
our country.
The efforts made on their side of the border
have been very substantial and they have been aided by
what we have done on our own side through the combined
efforts of Federal, State and local authorities. In
particular, I would like to compliment the law enforcement
officials of Texas.
The people in the Federal Government tell me
that they get maximum help and assistance from your
State, as well as local officials. So, speaking for the
Federal Government, may I thank you and indicate our great
appreciation.
Your people have done a fine job in helping to
control the flow of illegal drugs and they not only
deserve your thanks, but they deserve the appreciation of
many, many thousands of Americans throughout the other
States of the Union because if you look at the flow
charts, they bring these drugs across the border and they
fan out in almost organized routes that end up in Chicago
or New York or any one of the other places.
So, what is done at the border, or what is done
behind the border in Mexico is significant from the point
of view of the people in the other States of the Union.
I believe, and I believe very strongly, that the leaders of
Mexico feel that together we seized a great opportunity
and we, working together in conjunction with one another,
can stem the tide of new drug invasion within a year.
That is a hard goal, that is a tough accomplish-
ment, but with their cooperation and our joint efforts,
and with the help and assistance of local and State
officials in Texas and elsewhere, we can effectually
achieve a substantial reduction in the supply at the
source, as well as crossing the border.
MORE
Page 5
But frankly, our efforts must not ston there.
We must also accelerate our law enforcement efforts here
throughout our own country.
Frankly, despite all the rhetoric of recent years,
I do not believe that we have yet succeeded in making it
tough enough for drug traffickers.
As far as I am concerned, and I think this is
shared by virtually everybody in the Congress, the House, as
well as the Senate, the people who traffic in hard drugs
are nothing less than merchants of death and should be put
behind bars for a long, long, long time.
Yet the Justice Department studies show that more
than a quarter of those convicted of narcotics trafficking do
not spend a single day in jail. The extraordinary laxity
that sometimes exists was illustrated just last month in a case
when law enforcement officers arrested 31 people, most of whom
were major violators responsible for very large shipments of
heroin into the United States, 19 of those arrested were
immediately freed on a $500 personal recogniment bond, even
though their offerses were punishable by 15 years in jail.
All but two of the 19 had long, long arrest records, and
one was on parole for narcotics offense -- unforgiveable,
completely indefensible.
I believe that we have to close legal loopholes that
permit traffickers to escape the Federal pen tentiary. Those
who live off the misery of others must pay the price, and the
higher the price, the better, as I see it.
To his great credit, the new head of the Drug
Enforcement Administration, Peter Bensinger, who independently
is off to a very fine start, quickly intervened in the case that
I mentioned. Carrents were reissued for the 19, and bail was
rained to $10,000 for each of the others.
I can't tell you the end result because it hasn't
been concluded, and we shouldn't talk about individual cases by
name. But something has to be done to prevent the kind of an
illustration that I indicated.
Last year, the Administration sent to the Congress
legislation that would require mandatory prison sentences for
persons convicted of high-level trafficking in heroin and
similar narcotics. Sentences would not be less than three
years for such traffickers and would range up to a total of 30
years.
MORE
Page 6
Unfortunately this legislation has been caught up
in the great debate over Senate Bill 1, which is a very
controversial piece of legislation and, unfortunately, unless
we break it out, unless we separate it from other very
controversial reorganization and rewriting of our Federal
Criminal Code, I am afraid we can't get affirmative action.
But because we cannot afford delay, I am recommending
the separation of these recommended provisions to handle
these problems from S. 1 which is a comprehensive rewrite of
our Federal Criminal Code.
I will recommend in a special drug message that
will soon be sent to the Congress, the separation and to urge
the Congress to act as quickly as possible in order to join
with us in the Executive Branch with the local and State
people who are trying to do something very affirmatively
in this one-year period.
Now, beyond halting the illegal flow of drugs from
abroad and stiffening our domestic law enforcement, still
another prong of tack on drug abuse must lie in prevention,
treatment and rehabilitation.
In recent years we have made very significant
progress in the United States creating a very large and success-
ful treatment network. Today some $460 million in Federal
funds is spent annually on prevention, treatment and rehabili-
tation, ten times more than we spent just seven years ago.
We can now treat more than a quarter of a million
drug addicts at one time in the United States. In addition,
recent studies show that the number of addicts who go back to
drugs after they have been treated has dranatically declined,
which indicates that the treatment is and certainly, if
we can get then carly enough, it's infinitely better.
Encouraging progress has also been made in working with
local leaders on programs of drug education, particularly
counseling. I know that the people of Dallas must take
a very special pride in the highly innovative program that
has been set up with Federal seed money, and is to run by the
Dallas Independent School District under Dr. Nolan Estes.
This program, as I understand it, built on the philosophy that
the drug problem is actually a human problem, has turned countless
numbers of individuals away from drug abuse and has helped to
rehabilitate many, many others.
And what impresses me most about this effort is
that it's leaders are not only concerned adults, but young people
themselves, young people who have a real mission in life to save
their classmates, their families from a very horrible fate.
Now, looking over the wide range of drug efforts, it
can been seen that the Federal Government must play a very
essential role in dealing with law enforcement problems that are
national in scope and mobilizing the enormous potential resources
of State and local localities.
MORE
Page 7
We are pursuing an active program now and build-
ing upon a white paper which was issued just a few months
ago. We plan to accelerate that program in the future.
We will step up our interdiction efforts. We shall step
up our law enforcement efforts. We shall step up our
efforts at prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, and
we shall stick with it as long as we must to get the
results that are essential and vital to the history and
the health of this country.
Now, let me add this final note -- before getting
into the final note that it was going to be the final
note (Laughter) -- I couldn't help but gather from the
conversation at the dinner table tonight that some in this
audience were very pleased with the firm actions under the
leadership of John Tower and several others in the Senate
in defeating, or in effect killing for this session of the
Congress at least, the no-fault insurance legislation.
The Administration helped a little bit. We didn't
like it either, congratulations, John.
The final note, if I might. Everything we do,
whether in combatting drugs, in solving the problems of
our economy or in regaining energy independence for
America, you know as well as I that we cannot rely solely
upon Washington, D.C. This country is great, not because
of what Government has done for people, but what people
have done for themselves.
There is one very fundamental truth that I would
like to repeat because it means a great deal to all of
you as citizens, but it means something to you particularly
as lawyers. We should never forget this fundamental
truth, that Go ernment big enough to give us everything
we want is a Government big enough to take from us everything
we have.
Now, as we take a final look at the total effort,
cooperation with the Mexican Government and the prevention
of the growing or planting of the poppies, to the inter-
diction at the border, to more law enforcement, tougher
action in the courts, prevention, rehabilitation, when we
mobilize all of those resources -- Federal, State and
local -- we in Government have made the most massive
effort that we possibly can.
But, all of that effort will be of little use
unless the American people themselves rally and fight
this scourge of drug abuse within their own communities
and within their own family. The mysteries of growing
up, of finding meaning in life, are perhaps more baffling
today than they were in much simpler times.
MORE
Page 8
As adults, we cannot provide all cf the answers,
but we can provide a loving and a caring home. We can
provide good counsel, we can provide good communities in
which we can live and the children we bear can also live.
We can show, through our own example, that life in the
United States is still very meaningful and very satisfying
and very worthwhile.
Americans have always stood tall and strong
against all enemies. Drug abuse is an enemy we can, we
must and we will overcome, but it has to be a personal
and a national dedication.
If we do, we can be successful. I am convinced
we want to, and we will and we must.
Thank you very, very much.
END
(AT 10:00 P.M. CST)