[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1997, Book I)]
[February 25, 1997]
[Pages 203-204]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Message to the Congress Transmitting the 1997 National Drug Control 
Strategy
February 25, 1997

To the Congress of the United States:
    I am pleased to transmit the 1997 National Drug Control Strategy to 
the Congress. This strategy renews our bipartisan commitment to reducing 
drug abuse and its destructive consequences. It reflects the combined 
and coordinated Federal effort that is directed by National Drug Control 
Policy Director Barry McCaffrey and includes every department and over 
50 agencies. It enlists all State and local leaders from across the 
country who must share in the responsibility to protect our children and 
all citizens from the scourge of illegal drugs.
    In the 1996 National Drug Control Strategy, we set forth the basis 
of a coherent, rational, long-term national effort to reduce illicit 
drug use and its consequences. Building upon that framework, the 1997 
National Drug Control Strategy adopts a 10-year national drug-control 
strategy that includes quantifiable measures of effectiveness. The use 
of a long-term strategy, with annual reports to the Congress and 
consistent outreach to the American people on our progress, will allow 
us to execute a dynamic, comprehensive plan for the Nation and will help 
us to achieve our goals.
    We know from the past decade of Federal drug control efforts that 
progress in achieving our goals will not occur overnight. But our 
success in reducing casual drug use over the last decade demonstrates 
that drug abuse is not an incurable social ill. Thanks to the bipartisan 
efforts of the Congress and the past three administrations, combined 
with broad-based efforts of citizens and communities throughout the 
United States, we have made tremendous progress since the 1970's in 
reducing drug use.
    Nonetheless, we are deeply concerned about the rising trend of drug 
use by young Americans. While overall use of drugs in the United States 
has fallen dramatically--by half in 15 years--adolescent drug abuse 
continues to rise. That is why the number one goal of our strategy is to 
motivate America's youth to reject illegal drugs and substance abuse.
    Our strategy contains programs that will help youth to recognize the 
terrible risks associated with the use of illegal substances. The 
cornerstone of this effort will be our national media campaign that will 
target our youth with a consistent anti-drug message. But government 
cannot do this job alone. We challenge the national media and 
entertainment industry to join us--by renouncing the glamorization of 
drug abuse and realistically portraying its consequences.
    All Americans must accept responsibility to teach young people that 
drugs are wrong, drugs are illegal, and drugs are deadly. We must renew 
our commitment to the drug prevention strategies that deter first-time 
drug use and halt the progression from alcohol and tobacco use to 
illicit drugs.
    While we continue to teach our children the dangers of drugs, we 
must also increase the safety of our citizens by substantially reducing 
drug-related crime and violence. At the beginning of my Administration, 
we set out to change this country's approach to crime by putting more 
police officers on our streets, taking guns out of the hands of 
criminals and juveniles, and breaking the back of violent street gangs. 
We are making a difference. For the fifth year in a row serious crime in 
this country has declined. This is the longest period of decline in over 
25 years. But our work is far from done and we must continue to move in 
the right direction.
    More than half of all individuals brought into the Nation's criminal 
justice systems have substance abuse problems. Unless we also break the 
cycle of drugs and violence, criminal addicts will end up back on the 
street, committing more crimes, and back in the criminal justice system,

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still hooked on drugs. The criminal justice system should reduce drug 
demand--not prolong or tolerate it. Our strategy implements testing and 
sanctions through coerced abstinence as a way to reduce the level of 
drug use in the population of offenders under criminal justice 
supervision, and thereby reduce the level of other criminal behavior.
    Our strategy supports the expansion of drug-free workplaces, which 
have proven so successful and we will continue to seek more effective, 
efficient, and accessible drug treatment to ensure that we are 
responsive to emerging drug-abuse trends.
    We must continue to shield America's air, land, and sea frontiers 
from the drug threat. By devoting more resources to protecting the 
Southwest border than ever before, we are increasing drug seizures, 
stopping drug smugglers, and disrupting major drug trafficking 
operations. We must continue our interdiction efforts, which have 
greatly disrupted the trafficking patterns of cocaine smugglers and have 
blocked the free flow of cocaine through the western Caribbean into 
Florida and the Southeast.
    Our comprehensive effort to reduce the drug flow cannot be limited 
to seizing drugs as they enter the United States. We must persist in our 
efforts to break foreign and domestic sources of supply. We know that by 
working with source and transit nations, we can greatly reduce foreign 
supply. International criminal narcotics organizations are a threat to 
our national security. But if we target these networks, we can dismantle 
them--as we did the Cali Cartel.
    We will continue to oppose all calls for the legalization of illicit 
drugs. Our vigilance is needed now more than ever. We will continue to 
ensure that all Americans have access to safe and effective medicine. 
However, the current drug legalization movement sends the wrong message 
to our children. It undermines the concerted efforts of parents, 
educators, businesses, elected leaders, community groups, and others to 
achieve a healthy, drug-free society.
    I am confident that the national challenge of drug abuse can be met 
by extending our strategic vision into the future, educating citizens, 
treating addiction, and seizing the initiative in dealing with criminals 
who traffic not only in illegal drugs but in human misery and lost 
lives.
    Every year drug abuse kills 14,000 Americans and costs taxpayers 
nearly $70 billion. Drug abuse fuels spouse and child abuse, property 
and violent crime, the incarceration of young men and women, the spread 
of AIDS, workplace and motor vehicle accidents, and absenteeism in the 
work force.
    For our children's sake and the sake of this Nation, this menace 
must be confronted through a rational, coherent, cooperative, and long-
range strategy. I ask the Congress to join me in a partnership to carry 
out this national strategy to reduce illegal drug use and its 
devastating impact on America.

                                                      William J. Clinton

The White House,

February 25, 1997.