[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 35, Number 31 (Monday, August 9, 1999)]
[Pages 1535-1538]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on the Antidrug Initiative

August 2, 1999

    The President. Thank you so much. Andy, you might consider politics 
when you get out of skateboarding. [Laughter] You have to fall down a 
lot. It's about as dangerous. And we could use you. I thought he did a 
terrific job. Let's give him another hand. [Applause] Thank you.
    General McCaffrey, thank you so much, and all your team, for the 
wonderful job you do. I met General McCaffrey when he was

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still in uniform, and I decided he could do just about anything he put 
his mind to, and I think he's just about proved it. I think he and the 
whole team, all of them who are here, have done a wonderful job. I'm 
grateful to them.
    Jim Burke, thank you so much--you and the Partnership for a Drug-
Free America, for everything you have done, and for the inspiration and 
the urging you have given to me these last 6\1/2\ years. Thank you, 
Peggy Conlon and the Ad Council for all you have done to make this media 
campaign a success. And I want to thank Senator Specter and Congressman 
Levin and Congressman Cummings for being here, because the Congress has 
been a critical part of this.
    Let me say, before I get into my brief remarks and we watch the ads, 
which is why we all came here--because this is my first opportunity to 
meet with the media today, I want to say a word about this heat wave 
that is going on in our country that now has claimed at least 190 lives 
and caused great hardship, especially for a lot of our farmers and 
ranchers.

Farm Aid

    Our Secretary of Agriculture, Dan Glickman, today issued an 
emergency declaration for all of West Virginia and for counties in 
surrounding States which will give family farm operators eligibility for 
low-interest emergency loans. We're also working with local governments 
and private agencies to help farmers get water and hay to keep their 
livestock alive. It's literally a problem for them to keep their 
livelihoods alive. I'm also committed to working with this Congress to 
provide the resources to help our farmers and ranchers to deal with the 
crisis today and by fixing the farm bill for the future.
    To others, especially our elderly who are very vulnerable in this 
heat, we have provided $100 million to pay for air-conditioning and 
fans, and I expect we will be doing more things in the days ahead.

Antidrug Initiative

    Now, let me talk a little bit about this whole antidrug effort, and 
let me begin with something that has not yet been mentioned. We owe a 
profound debt to the men and women who are engaged in this struggle for 
our children's lives and future. All those who are here today or their 
groups have been mentioned. I also want to say a special word of 
appreciation to the young people who are here who remind us what this 
campaign is all about. And there are a lot of young people here today, 
and I want to thank all of them for being here.
    I'd also like to say that we should not let this moment go by 
without acknowledging the enormous courage of a lot of our men and women 
in various Federal services and the Armed Services who are working to 
prevent drugs from coming here in the first place.
    Last week we mourned the loss of five U.S. Army personnel who died 
with their Colombian colleagues when their antidrug reconnaissance plane 
crashed in the Andes. They perished far from home, but in a very real 
sense they gave their lives to protect our families, our neighborhoods, 
our Nation, indeed, our national security. We honor their commitment. We 
remember their sacrifice. And I'm sure all of us will join in a pledge 
to continue their work.
    I also want to say that as much work as still remains to be done, 
I'd like to take a moment just to celebrate the work that all of you 
have done. When we were out there running for office in 1992, the Vice 
President had this hilarious rap about everything that should be up was 
down, and everything that should be down was up, and everything was all 
mixed up. And it is true. And one of the sad things that was up was drug 
use.
    All of you, I suppose, have heard me say this, but I have had 
personal experience with the devastation drugs can bring to families. I 
know they can bring death, and, as I saw in my own family with my 
brother, they can also destroy lives. I also saw that they are not fatal 
if you survive them, that you can come back. For all of you who deal 
with drug treatment and who help young people overcome their problems, I 
am personally, profoundly grateful.
    Since I've been here, I've done what I could to work with people who 
were committed to turning our children away from drugs and saving more 
families from going through what my family did. And again I say,

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under the remarkable leadership of General McCaffrey and with the help 
of all the community groups and all the others here represented, we have 
seen the unrelenting increase in drug use begin to turn around. In the 
last 2 years, drug use has begun to decline among people of all ages for 
all types of drugs.
    We've tried to do more with enforcement and prevention, more police 
on the street, doing more to keep drugs from coming into the United 
States, more drug testing of prisoners and parolees to break the link 
between drugs and crime. And of course, in December of 1997, we'd 
launched this sweeping effort to change the attitudes of an entire 
generation of young people with the unprecedented youth antidrug media 
campaign.
    I'd like to just say a word here. Normally, the press in Washington 
focuses on what we are fighting about and what the parties disagree 
about. But we had enormous bipartisan support in Congress for this 
endeavor, and for that I am profoundly grateful.
    It seemed a little awkward at first when General McCaffrey and I 
went to the Congress to ask for this money, but I kept pointing out--I 
said, ``Look, guys, look how much money we raise every year to 
advertise. Every election, we advertise because we think that we have to 
get our message out. When I'm doing something up here people disagree 
with, groups get together and raise money, and they advertise, and they 
say the President is wrong.'' And it's part of the American system. And 
here we've got a problem that is just as important, if not more 
important than anything else in our society, where we know we have a 
large number of our young people who may not be getting the right 
message, and it seemed to me totally illogical that we would not be 
using one of the most important weapons for influencing attitudes in a 
modern information age.
    The media campaign appears to be working even better than we had 
thought across all grade levels, income levels, races, and genders. 
Today I will release the results of a detailed evaluation of the second 
phase of this campaign in which we began rolling out the ads nationwide. 
This report shows that if you're a teenager or a parent, it is nearly 
impossible to avoid seeing or hearing our antidrug messages on 
television or radio several times a week. It shows the percentage of 
young people who said the ads made them stay away from drugs increased 
significantly during the course of the study.
    We expected the ads would greatly increase awareness. What we didn't 
expect was that the ads would already have a measurable effect on 
attitudes. This is a very good sign. What it proves is, I suppose, what 
we should have known all along, that if advertising works in commerce 
and advertising works in politics, advertising ought to work on this 
issue as well.
    I have to say a special word of appreciation to the Ad Council and 
all those who put the ads together, because they were, one, effective, 
and two, honest. And in order to have any enduring impact, I can tell 
you, having participated for 25 years, now, in doing political 
advertising, they have to be both effective and honest in order to last. 
And to all those who helped us put these ads together, I am very, very 
grateful.
    Today we launch the next phase of the campaign. I think the most 
appropriate thing to do is just to show you a couple of our newest ads, 
and you will see that the gentleman who introduced me is in truth a 
professional athlete. [Laughter] So let's turn out the lights and watch 
the ad. We ought to turn the lights out. Otherwise, we won't be able to 
see them. [Laughter]

[At this point, videotapes of the ads were shown.]

    The President. I told Andy that I had already seen him on 
television; even I, when I'm channel-surfing, sometimes catch the 
skateboarders. [Laughter] Every time I see him do that I think, you 
know, a couple of years ago I fell 6 inches and was hobbled for 6 
months. [Laughter] Thank you.
     Let me say, as important as this advertising is, it isn't enough. 
And I want to say a special word of appreciation for the partnerships at 
the national and community level, because everywhere young people go 
during every part of the day, they will see more than the television. 
They will see the message that drugs are wrong; they can kill; they are 
illegal.

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     This will outdo the ``Star Wars'' promotion for name and brand. You 
will see not just television, radio, newspapers, magazines, the 
Internet; you will see this message on bus stops and subway cars, movie 
screens, and video games. It will be in the classroom through cable 
programming in schools and substance abuse materials we'll provide the 
teachers.
     It will be part of after-school activities, through organizations 
like the YMCA. The message will be part of an increasing number of 
sporting events, like basketball tournaments sponsored by the New York 
Knicks. And last month during the X Games, not only did we place 
antidrug messages everywhere the TV viewer could constantly see them, we 
also handed out stickers with the slogan, ``Get vertical, not high.'' 
They became one of the hottest items for the hundreds of thousands of 
spectators who came to the X Games.
     And as General McCaffrey said, we will get the word out in 11 
languages other than English, including Spanish, Cantonese, Vietnamese, 
and Navaho and Lakota, a language I just tried out when I was at the 
Pine Ridge Indian Reservation.
     I think that this phase will be even more effective than the last 
phase of the campaign. And I think you will see real impacts on the 
behavior of our young people and that teen drug use will continue to 
decline.
     But I would also say that no matter how effective all of you are, 
we still have to have more help as close to home as possible, with the 
parents sitting down and talking to their children, not waiting until 
their children are using drugs to talk about them, and with all the 
teachers, the coaches, the mentors, the community police, the health 
care workers and, of course, the religious leaders, making up what the 
First Lady always calls the village, that have to help raise our 
children.
     And finally, I'd like to say that young people should not ever 
minimize the impact they can have not only on their own lives but on 
their friends and their siblings. In every school in America there's a 
young person who is a good kid but just a little lost or confused, who 
can be reached by a friend, very often who can be reached by a friend 
more than the President or any other figure in apparent authority.
     So I say to all of you, first, thanks, and second, let's keep 
going. Together, we can give every single child in this country a chance 
to grow up in a world where the only limits are the outlines of their 
hopes and dreams. Not every child can be a skateboard champion like 
Andy, but every child can fly.
     Thank you, and God bless you.

Note: The President spoke at 10:57 a.m. in Presidential Hall (formerly 
Room 450) in the Old Executive Office Building. In his remarks, he 
referred to Andy Macdonald, professional skateboarder, who introduced 
the President; James E. Burke, chairman, Partnership for a Drug-Free 
America; and Peggy Conlon, president, Ad Council.