[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 33, Number 42 (Monday, October 20, 1997)]
[Pages 1555-1556]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

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The President's Radio Address

October 11, 1997

    Good morning. We have worked hard to help parents pass on their 
values to their children and to protect them from bad influences. Today 
I want to talk about a powerful new tool in our arsenal to help parents 
and to protect our children from the dangers of drugs.
    Of all the investments we can make in our children's future, none is 
more important than our fight against the greatest threat to their 
safety: illegal drugs. Under the leadership of our national drug czar, 
General Barry McCaffrey, we've fought to keep drugs away from our 
borders, off our streets, and out of our schools with a tough and smart 
antidrug strategy. Working together with State and local law 
enforcement, we've made real progress. But unless we teach our children 
about the dangers of drugs, our efforts will be in vain.
    Make no mistake; without our guidance, children are more likely to 
use drugs. Although overall drug use has declined dramatically, drug use 
by our young people has doubled. Among eighth graders, typically 13 and 
14 years old, drug use has nearly tripled. We do not understand all the 
reasons for these unsettling statistics, but we do know this: While 
illegal drug use by young people has risen, the number of antidrug 
public service ads has fallen by more than a third.
    In the meantime, movies, music videos, and magazines have filled the 
gap--and our children's minds--too often with warped images of a dream 
world where drugs are cool. We know that the media can powerfully affect 
our children, for good or ill. That is why we acted to protect our 
children from tobacco advertisements, and why we've urged the liquor 
industry to refrain from running hard liquor ads on television. Now we 
must take the next step and give our children the straight facts: Drugs 
are wrong, drugs are illegal, and drugs can kill you.
    Young people who have not used illegal drugs by the age of 21 
probably never will use them. That's why we must reach our children with 
the right message before it's too late. I just signed into law 
legislation that includes $195 million to launch an unprecedented high-
profile, prime-time media campaign to reach every child in America 
between the ages of 9 and 17 at least four times a week. For the very 
first time, we'll be able to use the full power of the media--from 
television to the Internet to sports marketing--to protect our children 
from drugs. Teaching our children about the dangers of drugs today can 
mean saving their lives and our shared future tomorrow.
    I am pleased that the Partnership for a Drug-Free American and the 
Ad Council will serve as advisers for this vitally important project. 
I'd like to say a special word of thanks to the Partnership for a Drug-
Free America and its chairman, Jim Burke, for the outstanding example 
they have already set in showing us what good ads can do. And I urge 
business leaders all over our country to help us reach our goal by 
matching the funds that the Congress has appropriated. Finally, I ask 
all Americans to join in this crusade.
    Above all, I ask the entertainment industry to do its part as well. 
Never glorify drugs; but more important, tell our children the truth. 
Show them that drug use is really a death sentence. Use the power of 
your voice to teach our children and to help shape our Nation's future.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The address was recorded at 2:47 p.m. on October 10 in the Oval 
Office at the White House for broadcast at 10:06 a.m. on October 11.

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