[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 7 (Monday, February 18, 2002)]
[Page 223]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message to the Congress Transmitting the 2002 National Drug Control 
Strategy

February 12, 2002

To the Congress of the United States:

    I am pleased to transmit the 2002 National Drug Control Strategy, 
consistent with the Office of National Drug Control Policy 
Reauthorization Act of 1998 (21 U.S.C. 1705).
    Illegal drug use threatens everything that is good about our 
country. It can break the bonds between parents and children. It can 
turn productive citizens into addicts, and it can transform schools into 
places of violence and chaos. Internationally, it finances the work of 
terrorists who use drug profits to fund their murderous work. Our fight 
against illegal drug use is a fight for our children's future, for 
struggling democracies, and against terrorism.
    We have made progress in the past. From 1985 to 1992, drug use among 
high school seniors dropped each year. Progress was steady and, over 
time, dramatic. However, in recent years we have lost ground. This 
Strategy represents the first step in the return of the fight against 
drugs to the center of our national agenda. We must do this for one 
great moral reason: over time, drugs rob men, women, and children of 
their dignity and of their character.
    We acknowledge that drug use among our young people is at 
unacceptably high levels. As a Nation, we know how to teach character, 
and how to dissuade children from ever using illegal drugs. We need to 
act on that knowledge.
    This Strategy also seeks to expand the drug treatment system, while 
recognizing that even the best treatment program cannot help a drug user 
who does not seek its assistance. The Strategy also recognizes the vital 
role of law enforcement and interdiction programs, while focusing on the 
importance of attacking the drug trade's key vulnerabilities.
    Previous Strategies have enjoyed bipartisan political and funding 
support in the Congress. I ask for your continued support in this 
critical endeavor.
                                                George W. Bush
 The White House,
 February 12, 2002.