[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 14 (Monday, April 12, 1999)]
[Page 615]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Proclamation 7180--National D.A.R.E. Day, 1999

April 8, 1999

By the President of the United States

of America

A Proclamation

    The Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program, founded in 
1983 by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Unified 
School District, helps children across our Nation develop into the 
bright, talented, and healthy individuals they have the potential to 
become. The D.A.R.E. curriculum is designed to give children in 
kindergarten through 12th grade the skills they need to avoid 
involvement in drugs, gangs, and violence. Taught by community police 
officers who have the special training and experience necessary to 
address the difficult issues facing young people, the D.A.R.E. program 
reaches more than 26 million students each day in nearly 75 percent of 
our Nation's school districts, encouraging young Americans to resist 
peer pressure and to lead lives free from the shadows of drugs and 
violence.
    D.A.R.E.'s mission is a crucial one. Drug abuse costs our Nation 
more than 14,000 lives and billions of dollars each year. A recent study 
by the Department of Justice confirms that drug use continues to be a 
factor in crimes such as burglary, auto theft, assault, and murder, and 
that one in six offenders commits a crime just to get money for drugs. 
Because of alarming statistics like these, we must focus our efforts not 
just on those already addicted to drugs, but on all our young people, so 
that we can reach them before they are exposed to these illegal 
substances. Working in partnership with parents, teachers, and 
communities, the D.A.R.E. program conveys to children at an 
impressionable age a strong message about the dangers of substance abuse 
and strives to give them the tools and motivation they need to avoid 
those dangers.
    Expanding on grassroots efforts like D.A.R.E., my Administration's 
1999 National Drug Control Strategy provides a comprehensive approach to 
move us closer to a drug-free America. An important part of this long-
term plan is our emphasis on educating children. We know that when 
children understand the dangers of drugs, their rates of drug use 
decline. Our National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign and the Safe and 
Drug-Free Schools program focus on helping young Americans reject 
illegal drugs and violence. In addition, in recent years, we have 
protected and increased the funding of the Safe and Drug-Free Schools 
program. Coupled with programs like D.A.R.E., these efforts offer us 
real hope for freeing America's communities from the tragedy of 
substance abuse and the crime and violence they spawn. By doing so, we 
will give our children the safe and healthy future they deserve.
    Now, Therefore, I, William J. Clinton, President of the United 
States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the 
Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 8, 
1999, as National D.A.R.E. Day. I call upon our youth, parents, 
educators, and all the people of the United States to observe this day 
with appropriate programs and activities.
    In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this eighth day of 
April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-nine, and of 
the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 
twenty-third.
                                            William J. Clinton

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:38 a.m., April 9, 
1999]

Note: This proclamation was published in the Federal Register on April 
12.