    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1996, Book I)]
    [March 7, 1996]
    [Pages 388-394]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    [[Page 388]]

    Remarks in a Roundtable Discussion at the White House Leadership
    Conference on Youth Drug Use and Violence in Greenbelt
    March 7, 1996

        The President. Well, hello, and good afternoon. Let me again thank
    all of you who are participating and all of you who came to the White
    House yesterday. I know that the event which we just held with the
    students at Eleanor Roosevelt was shown here, so I have no further
    introductory remarks. I'm anxious to get to the panel, except to say one
    thing briefly.
        In the 12 years that I served as the Governor, when I had the
    opportunity not only to go to every community in my State but from time
    to time to travel throughout the country, I saw a modern example of what
    the framers of the Constitution intended when they set up State
    governments, and they basically devolved a certain amount of authority
    throughout our country. They wanted the States and, ultimately,
    communities to be laboratories of democracy. And they thought, the
    people who set our country up, that once in any laboratory a solution to
    a problem was found it would be like science, that that then would be
    adopted and people would go on to another set of problems.
        What I think is happening in our country is that nearly every
    serious challenge we face has been dealt with brilliantly by somebody,
    somewhere, whether it's in education or in dealing with the crime
    problem or you name it. The one place where their laboratory of
    democracy probably fell down is that its human affairs are not like
    science, and very often, even though things are working well, they're
    not adapted, adopted, embraced as they should be.
        So I think that all of you who are struggling and working to find
    ways to mobilize the energies not only of your communities, but willing
    then to see it spread across the country, are doing the most important
    thing you could be doing because it's the second half of what the
    framers of the Constitution knew we'd have to do in order to meet all
    the challenges of the future. I mean, they couldn't have imagined the
    world that we live in now, but they set up a system that requires the
    second half--and you are that.
        I thank you for being here. I'm anxious to go forward, and I'd like
    to begin by having, I think, about four opening statements, beginning
    with Joe Califano. And I want to begin by just thanking you, sir, for
    the work that you have done at your center and the work that you have
    done for so many years now to try to help people deal with all kinds of
    substance abuse problems. And we'd be glad to hear from you.

    [Joseph Califano, director, Center for Alcohol and Substance Abuse,
    discussed the statistical relationship between substance abuse and and
    other social problems, particularly among adolescents, and suggested
    methods of treatment and prevention.]

        The President. Reverend Jackson?

    [Civil rights leader Jesse Jackson explained the effects that drugs have
    had on the African-American community. He urged parents and clergy to
    become involved in children's lives, suggesting that 20,000 parents in
    50 cities pledge to work with teachers and that 100 ministers in 50
    cities work with juvenile court judges. He concluded by challenging
    children to become involved in the war on drugs and to take personal
    responsibility for their own lives.]

        The President. Let me just say, yesterday Reverend Jackson and I
    spent a few minutes together in preparation for this day. And he went
    through what he was going to say. And the thing I want to say, quite
    apart from the incredible power of his remarks, is that he has given us
    a way to take what is working and to spread it across the country. And
    we now have to see if we're willing to do that.
        Can you find 20,000 parents in 50 cities? Can you find this number
    of churches in 50 cities? Can we prove that we can take these--if you
    want to prove that you--we know objectively we can't jail our way out of
    the crisis, but we have never presented, frankly, a constructive
    alternative that we could spread across the country. You can build a
    jail in one city and another, and it looks about the same. This program
    or that program or the other program may not look the same in every
    community.
        So the great--the enduring genius of what he has said today may well
    be his plan that

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    would allow us to systematically make a difference across the country
    and offer us an alternative approach to this in the future. And I thank
    you, sir.
        Jim--Mr. Burke.

    [James Burke, chairman, Partnership for a Drug-Free America, reiterated
    the link between drug abuse and other social problems but explained that
    drug use had declined over the years due to changing attitudes toward
    drugs. He added that more leadership was needed at all levels to
    continue changing those attitudes and suggested listening to youth for
    ideas about what could be done.]

        The President. I would like to now call on a remarkable person who
    has probably laid a costlier sacrifice on the altar of our modern
    troubles than almost any other American, and who has responded by
    devoting her life to trying to help us work our way out of it, Dr.
    Lonise Bias. Thank you for being here.

    [Dr. Bias described her efforts to encourage positive change in the
    Nation following the drug-related death of her son Len and the murder of
    her son Jay, explaining her values of unconditional love, community,
    faith, and a commitment to character over image. She added that parents
    must monitor the flow of information that their children receive and
    impress upon them the importance of values and morals.]

        The President.  We have a number of distinguished people on this
    panel, and I'd like to--I think it's time we began with the young people
    and hear from them. So I will just call on them and then I want to call
    on some of the other panelists who are here who have done so many
    important things. But let me begin by asking Karen Lee, who is a senior
    here at Eleanor Roosevelt, who joined Students Against Violence a year
    ago, immediately after her classmate, Julie Ferguson, was abducted
    across from the school and killed. I'd like to ask her what has been
    happening here, what happened in the antiviolence program and where it's
    going, and what impact it's had on the students in the schools.

    [Ms. Lee explained that Students Against Violence tried to provide
    alternatives to violence such as peer mediation and counseling, taught
    self-defense and stress management, worked to raise community awareness,
    and organized memorial candlelight vigils.]

        The President.  How many students here at the school are involved in
    it?

    [Ms. Lee said that the group had approximately 20 active members.]

        The President.  Thank you. I want to come back to that in a moment
    with some of our other panelists, but I'd like to go now to Izaak Prado,
    who is a junior at a community school in Visalia, California. A former
    drug user, a former gang member who is in the second phase of the Tulare
    County Juvenile Drug Court in Visalia. He's returned to school; he says
    his attitude and his outlook have changed and that in his program
    associated with the drug court he attends mandatory drug counseling,
    sets goals, and learns from the experience of older men about how to
    handle peer pressure and stay away from drugs.
        There are a lot of people talking here today; you've actually had to
    walk the walk. And I thank you just for having the courage to sit up
    here on this panel. I would like to ask you to make whatever statement
    you would like to make about your experience and what you would say to
    other young people and what you think you could do to make a difference
    there.
        Mr. Prado. Well, I'm here because I got in trouble. I got in trouble
    for possession.
        The President. I just want to make sure they can hear you. I think
    they turned the mike up. That's good.

    [Mr. Prado described the program and how his attitude toward drugs and
    gangs had changed and said that the program should be expanded
    nationally.]

        The President. Could you tell the people who are here how you
    happened to be placed in the drug court when you were arrested, or
    whatever happened to you? How did you wind up going into the drug court?
        Mr. Prado. Well, I was arrested, and I was sent to see the judge.
    And since my case was in affiliation with drugs, they gave me an
    opportunity to come into the program.
        The President. You had the choice about whether to go into the drug
    program or be punished conventionally in the criminal justice system,
    right?
        Mr. Prado. Yes, and I chose to be part of the program. And it's not
    like you can just drop out of the program if you feel you can't complete
    it. You know, once you make it, it's a

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    commitment and you have to stay in it for approximately 9 months.
        The President. Let me say that a lot of people here in this audience
    will be familiar with the drug courts, but one of the first ones in the
    country was established in Miami. And I happened to have, just by family
    accident, the exposure to it many years ago because my brother-in-law
    was the public defender in the drug court. So I have sat for hours on
    end on two different occasions in the Miami drug court. And all the
    people there also have to voluntarily choose to be in the drug court's
    jurisdiction to choose the path of rehabilitation to avoid automatic
    jailing of people who just got into this.
        And one of the parts of our crime bill that we're still struggling
    to preserve funding for is a small stream of money to help people
    establish these drug courts around the country. And you're a pretty good
    walking advertisement for it, and I thank you for what you've done.
        I wonder if any of the other panelists would like to ask Izaak a
    question before I go on to anyone else. Anyone have a question you want
    to ask him?
        Well, I thank you. You hang in there.

    [Reverend Jackson asked Mr. Prado if he was afraid that he would use
    drugs again. Mr. Prado responded that the program made him want to live
    a clean and healthy life.]

        The President. You heard Dr. Bias say it's what happens in your mind
    that's the most important thing. So, you hang in there. We're for you.
        I'd like to ask Margaret Alstaetter, who's here to my left, a
    freshman at Wilmington College in Ohio, and she's the Students Against
    Drinking and Driving Student of the Year. To raise awareness of alcohol-
    related issues, she coordinated a mock accident, planned public service
    announcements, organized Red Ribbon Week activities, and conducted a lot
    of other projects involving local elementary schools and young people.
        And so I'd like to ask her to say whatever is on her mind and ask
    her whether she thinks the SADD movement has helped to change the
    attitude of students about what is or is not the cool thing to do, or is
    or is not an acceptable thing to do, and whether or not it--whether
    having a chapter like this at every college and at every high school in
    the country would make a difference in the culture, to go back to what
    Mr. Burke said about our ability to change people's views of this. But
    talk a little about your own experience and tell us what you think.

    [Ms. Alstaetter described the efforts of her SADD chapter to educate
    schools and communities about the dangers of alcohol and drugs.]

        The President. Thank you very much. Let me ask you this. How many
    people are in your organization?
        Ms Alstaetter. In my high school, we have about 70 active members.
        The President. That's good.
        Barry McCaffrey. Let me, if I may, intervene. We're scheduled to
    terminate at 1:15, but Mr. President, knowing how valuable your time is,
    nonetheless you did make me your drug czar. So could we go beyond this
    to 1:30, do you think, to get some of the power of these comments out on
    the table?
        The President. He's only been out of uniform for a few days, and
    he's already off schedule. [Laughter]
        I would like to stay very much until at least 1:30, until we hear
    from everybody. Thank you very much, General.
        Let me say, I think--I wanted you to hear from these three students.
    Now, I'd like to come back and sort of pick up the issues, starting
    with--Karen talked about school violence, and I would like to call on a
    couple of people now to discuss how they have dealt with it.
        Carl Cohn is the superintendent of the Long Beach Unified School
    District in California. It's the third largest school district in
    California; there are 81,000 students in this school district. And 2
    weeks ago, I went to his school district to one of the schools there,
    named for the great American baseball player Jackie Robinson. And he
    was, as far as I know, the first major school district in the country to
    implement for elementary and junior high school students a school
    uniform policy.
        I went out there because we had worked, particularly through the
    Attorney General's office and through the Department of Education,
    through Secretary Riley, to make sure that the school district and that
    others who wish to do the same thing could do so legally, explain how it
    could best be done, and then put together a handbook which you could
    then mail to every school district in the country explaining how Long
    Beach had done what they've done and

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    how a school district who was interested in this could do it.
        And when I first heard about it and, indeed, when I mentioned it in
    the State of the Union Address, my last State of the Union Address--I
    always try to keep up with the reaction--on balance, it was the most
    positive reaction I ever got, except for all of the nasty letters I got
    from kids saying, ``How dare you suggest that school uniforms would be a
    good thing. It would be the most boring, awful thing that ever happened;
    our liberties would be trampled.'' And in one fell swoop, one remark, I
    turned myself into an old fogey before the entire country. But I must
    say, having gone out there since the State of the Union, I think that at
    least every American needs to hear about the Long Beach experience,
    particularly in light of what Karen said and others have said.
        So, Carl, the floor is yours.

    [Mr. Cohn said that since introducing the uniforms, there had been a
    dramatic reduction in school crime at the elementary and middle school
    level.]

        The President. Let me just inject a couple of facts here, in case
    any of you are thinking about this. First of all, there was not a
    uniform school district policy. He allowed every school, by some process
    or another, to choose their uniforms. And they were basically just
    comfortable school clothes, like I saw one of the young people was in
    a--the uniform for the boys was blue slacks and a white shirt with a
    collar every day. It wasn't--and there was some variation within that.
    And then the uniform for the girls was the same thing or a skirt.
        And each school got to choose their own colors and got to decide
    what the parameters of the uniform were. If the school chose, the
    teachers and the principal also wore the uniform, but that varied by
    school. But the young man that he mentioned, for example, said his
    school was located in a high crime area where the gangs associated gang
    membership with the colors red and blue, so the school chose black,
    white, and green for the school uniform. And to see this young,
    attractive African-American student saying, ``I don't have to look over
    my shoulder anymore when I walk to and from school; I feel safe,''
    that's worth something.
        The other student who spoke was a young--I think a 13-year-old
    student, who is a terrifically powerful young woman who said that she
    felt one of the reasons that the learning had gone up and discipline and
    behavior problems had gone down is that it gave all the children a sense
    of unity and that all of them were being judged based on what was on the
    inside, rather than on the outside. It's interesting. And in that sense,
    she said she thought the children who came from well-to-do families were
    helped as much by the policy as children who came from poor families.
    And they also had to set up a system so kids who came from families who
    couldn't afford it and all that, and they covered all that.
        But if you have any interest in this I would urge you to write to
    Carl because it's hard to quarrel with the results and what the kids
    said. Maybe it's not the thing for every school district and every
    school, but they had a lot of problems and to see them drop in a
    breathtaking fashion I think is a real tribute to the courage and vision
    of the people of that school district. And I thank you for what you did.

    [Reverend Jackson stated that school uniforms would have a positive
    impact regardless of a student's economic background. He also suggested
    that students learn to sew their uniforms themselves.]

        The President. Before you laugh too much about the last comment
    Reverend Jackson made, let me remind you that the most famous cloth
    spinner of the 20th century was Mohandas Gandhi. That was his main non-
    work activity.
        So I'd like to call on Yvonne Green who is the director of the safe
    schools initiative in and around East Capitol and Marshall Heights in
    Washington, DC. She has a very challenging job. And she is helping to
    establish the kind of school and community partnerships that the rest of
    us so often talk about. So I'd like to ask her whether the safe and
    drug-free school funds out of the crime bill have helped her and what
    she's done with it and what she thinks it's making a difference.

    [Ms. Green explained that the program established community and school
    partnerships to reduce violence and create a safe learning environment
    for children. She added that program participants, including parents,
    police departments, and civic organizations, served as peer mediators
    and met regularly to discuss improving the schools. She concluded by
    suggesting that De-

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    partment of Education funds be given to individual groups directly.]

        The President. Thank you very much. That's a very good idea.
        Now, if you will remember, Izaak said that he was involved in the
    drug court system in his hometown of Visalia, California. I'd like to
    call now on Judge Jeff Tauber, who is here, who initiated the design
    implementation of the Oakland drug court program, which was one of the
    Nation's first. He's now president of the National Association of Drug
    Court Professionals, and he advises Federal, State, and local agencies
    about how to establish these drug courts.
        So I'd like for him to talk about this. In view of--you heard the
    statistics Reverend Jackson mentioned. We know more than half of the
    individuals that come into the criminal justice system in the country
    have some sort of a substance abuse problem. And I'd like for him to
    tell me what he thinks the results are from the drug courts that have
    been established enough--in time for us to evaluate them and what he
    believes the future of the drug courts movement is.

    [Judge Tauber described the drug courts program, indicating that
    research showed that the program dramatically reduced recidivism by 40
    to 60 percent. He described how the drug courts had successfully
    collaborated with other organizations and agencies in the communities.]

        The President. I want to open the floor if anybody has questions of
    Judge Tauber. But I want to emphasize to all of you--remember Izaak's
    story. Not only are these courts reducing the recidivism rates, these
    people are not going to prison in the first place--they are not going to
    prison in the first place. And as far as I--the only courts that I've
    any experience with, the option to go through the regular system or to
    go into the drug court, since the drug court imposes certain
    responsibilities on the defendant going in, is left with the person who
    is charged, as it was in Izaak's case.
        But I think the question of what the aggregate impact on this
    country would be if every community of any size had a court like this--
    which requires a community support system because you've got to show up
    on a regular basis and all that--is quite significant. And the one I
    watched in Miami for long periods of time on two separate occasions, the
    whole atmosphere was different, the chemistry of the court was
    different, the way that the defense lawyer and the prosecutor and the
    judge related to each other was different, because they knew what they
    were trying to do was to save the defendant and in the process get the
    law observed and make the community safer.
        It's a very exciting thing. I would like to see it done everywhere.
    And I think what you're doing is very important.
        Would anyone like to ask any questions of Jeff before we go on?
        Judge Tauber. I would like to add one thing, if I may. I just wanted
    to thank you and this administration for its support of drug court and
    the Attorney General and the Department of Justice, because I think that
    we had the opportunity to grow and to grow in a very, I think, a very
    thoughtful and responsible way because of that support.
        The President. Thank you.
        Judge Tauber. Thank you.
        The President. Now, if you remember, our third young person,
    Margaret, talked about the Students Against Drunk Driving and what they
    were trying to do to keep our young people sober and drug-free. I'd like
    to now call on Kurt Landgraf, who is the president and CEO of DuPont
    Merck Pharmaceutical Company, who is now the representative of the
    National Pharmaceutical Council here. And he will discuss the $33
    million program I announced in my speech.
        I say this because we know that the students need help and support
    at home. We also know, whether you believe--you know, there's this
    endless debate that started that basically was the study of people who
    had an alcohol addiction, about whether it's all a matter of weak will
    and bad habits or whether some people are biologically predisposed to it
    have problems. We know that whether you believe it's totally determined
    or not, there are all kind of differences both in the home situation and
    in people's makeup that makes it more important than ever that we get
    the parents involved early, making good decisions and understanding what
    to do.
        So I'm excited about this, and I'd like to ask Kurt just to talk a
    little bit about this program, why the pharmaceutical companies decided
    to do it, and how they expect it to work.

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    [Mr. Landgraf explained that the National Pharmaceutical Council
    enlisted 17,000 sales representatives from 15 pharmaceutical companies
    to distribute Office of Drug Control Policy information to health
    professionals, saying his industry recognized a problem and offered its
    resources. He added that business was a important social institution,
    like government, and should help address social problems.]

        The President. Thank you. I want to say a special word of thanks to
    you, sir, not only to you, individually, but to the people in your
    business. You know the United States has the most successful
    pharmaceutical industry in the world. And it depends, in part, for its
    success on a decent partnership with the Federal Government, especially
    through the Food and Drug Administration.
        And the statement you have just made is the statement that I think
    is very important, that in many respects the collective influence of
    American business practices is far greater on the American people than
    the influence of the Government is, and that's as it should be in many
    respects because we have a free enterprise system, we believe in a
    private economy and it has served us rather well.
        But the statement you just made is a very important statement--that
    even in a global economy, when you have to worry about the worldwide
    competition, the home base still matters. And in the end business has to
    be able to do well by doing good, because America must be strong for the
    private economy to flourish. And that's a very important statement, and
    I thank you for it.
        I have intentionally saved for last among our panelists--and I want
    to give the Governor a chance to say a word as we close--but the sheriff
    of Jacksonville, Florida, Nat Glover, because he is one of the most
    unusual success stories in our country. He was elected sheriff in a
    community in which is a majority white community and which is also a
    majority of the other political party. [Laughter] And he was elected
    sheriff because people of all races and both political parties and all
    backgrounds trusted him to take the lead in lowering the crime rate and
    making the streets safer. It wasn't a political issue, at all; it was a
    human issue.
        And he was elected by promising, in effect, to have his office on
    the street. And I had the extraordinary opportunity to spend a day with
    him, not just at a rally of young people giving a talk, which I got to
    do, but actually walking the streets and watching him relate to people,
    the young and old alike, and seeing how they looked at him as the source
    of energy for delivering them from their own fears. And it was an
    extraordinary thing.
        So I wanted him to talk about what he's done in relating to the
    community and what the successes have been and to just thank him
    publicly for being a role model for law enforcement around the country.
    But I'd like to ask him to say a few words and maybe reflect on what
    he's heard here today and what he's trying to do in Jacksonville.
        Sheriff Glover.

    [Mr. Glover described how the President's community-policing strategy
    improved a low income community in Jacksonville.]

        The President. Thank you.
        Governor.

    [Gov. Parris Glendening of Maryland stated that many families in the
    Nation had been affected by violence and people must take personal
    responsibility for themselves and for future generations. He said that
    education, job training, and drug treatment programs were more effective
    than prisons in deterring crime and disagreed with recent cuts in
    funding.]

        The President. Thank you very much. As we--yes, Jesse? [Laughter]

    [Reverend Jackson stated that the roundtable discussion and community-
    policing efforts would have positive effects on the war on drugs but
    voiced his concern about police corruption. He concluded by asking
    students who were registered to vote to stand.]

        The President. That's pretty good.

    [Reverend Jackson asked the students who were not registered to stand
    and then encouraged them to register and exercise the power of their
    votes.]

        The President. I would like to thank Eleanor Roosevelt again for
    hosting us and thank all of the others who made this possible. I want to
    thank the panelists. I hope all of you who came to this conference got
    something out of their moving statements, their personal experiences,
    and perhaps some ideas you can take home. I want to assure you that the
    Vice Presi-

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    dent and General McCaffrey and I and the other members of our Cabinet
    will read the reports of all the various sessions of this conference.
        I have only two regrets as I leave here. One is that we couldn't
    spend all day hearing from all the young people who are here. And the
    other is that we couldn't spend all day listening to all the people who
    are here from the conference who could have just as well been on this
    panel.
        I want to thank you for the life you're leading, the work you're
    doing. Many of you out there in this audience I've had some personal
    involvement with, and I feel personally indebted to you--you know who
    you are--and I thank you for that.
        This is our country's great challenge. And if you look at these fine
    young people that were here, the rest of us owe it to them to meet it.
    And I feel more optimistic than I did before I came here today that
    we'll do exactly that.
        Thank you, and God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:18 p.m. in the auditorium at Eleanor
    Roosevelt High School.