[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 34, Number 38 (Monday, September 21, 1998)]
[Pages 1772-1773]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
The President's Radio Address

September 12, 1998

    Good morning. It's been an exhausting and difficult week in the 
Capital, not only for me but for many others. But as I told my Cabinet 
on Thursday, we cannot lose sight of our primary mission, which is to 
work for the American people and especially for the future of our 
children. The most important thing to do now is to stay focused on the 
issues the American people sent us here to deal with, from health care 
to the economy to terrorism.
    Today that's exactly what we're doing. I want to tell you about the 
latest steps we're taking to combat a truly alarming trend: the growing 
use of drugs among our young people. The good news is that overall drug 
use has dropped by half since 1979. But among our children, the problem 
is getting worse. In fact, if present trends continue, half of all high 
school seniors will have smoked marijuana by the time they graduate. 
That's a frightening development. When we know that drugs lead to crime, 
to failure in school, to the fraying of families and neighborhoods, we 
know we must do better.
    We can reverse this terrible trend if we attack it in the way we did 
the crime problem,  by  working  together  at  the  community level, 
neighborhood-by-neighborhood, block-by-block, person-by-person.
    Crime overall has dropped to a 25-year low now, because whole 
communities are taking responsibility for their own streets and 
neighborhoods, and because here in Washington we're giving them the 
tools they need, such as support for community policing programs. When 
we assumed responsibility for bringing down crime, something remarkable 
happens--crime does go down.
    We can have a similarly dramatic effect in curbing the use of drugs 
among our young people. But all of us have a responsibility to send our 
young people the same simple message: Drugs are wrong; drugs are 
illegal; and drugs can kill you.
    This summer my administration launched an unprecedented media 
campaign to ensure that the message comes across when young people watch 
television, listen to radio, or read the newspaper. But media is not 
enough. We also must enlist the efforts of parents, teachers, ministers 
and clergy, coaches, principals from the community of adults around 
them. That's why, with the support of both Democrats and Republicans in 
Congress, and under the direction of General Barry McCaffrey, we're 
extending new help to community-based groups all over our Nation. 
Representatives of some of those groups are here with me in the Oval 
Office today. Already they are working to curb drug use by reclaiming 
drug houses, reaching out to at-risk foster kids, teaching parents to 
deliver the antidrug message.
    Today I'm delighted to announce the first round of high-impact, low-
redtape grants to

[[Page 1773]]

93 communities. Their dollar amounts are not large, but if these grants 
empower communities to do more of what works to keep young people away 
from the scourge of drugs, their effect will be enormous.
    Now, we also need the support of Congress on other serious issues 
facing our country. We are committed, in a bipartisan way, to fight 
against drug use among our young people. We must similarly be committed 
in a bipartisan way to continue our economic growth by staying with our 
economic strategy that has made our country the envy of the world, by 
maintaining our fiscal discipline, setting aside the surplus--every 
penny of it--until we save Social Security first. We have to restore 
strength in growth to the world economy by investing our proportionate 
share in the International Monetary Fund.
    All of you know that the world economy has been going up and down 
and changing quite a bit lately. Treasury Secretary Rubin and I will go 
to New York on Monday, where I will discuss the current challenges of 
the global economy and the risks to our prosperity unless we act on the 
IMF request and take some other steps designed to make sure that America 
does not become a sea of prosperity in an ocean of distress.
    We also have to continue to invest in the education of our people. 
We have to have smaller classes, more teachers, modernize schools, all 
the classrooms hooked up to the Internet, and higher standards. We need 
a real Patients' Bill of Rights. We need to protect the environment. We 
need to protect our democracy by passing bipartisan campaign finance 
reform. All these items, also, are before Congress now.
    It is truly encouraging to me how we have put aside partisan 
differences to save our children and their future from drugs. We have to 
do that on other issues critical to our future now--and even in the 
weeks before the election in November. We must stay focused on your 
business.
    Thanks for listening.

Note: The President spoke at 10:06 a.m. from the Oval Office at the 
White House.