[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 45, Number 2 (Monday, January 19, 2009)]
[Page 78]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Message to the Congress Transmitting the 2009 National Drug Control 
Strategy

January 15, 2009

To the Congress of the United States:

    I am pleased to transmit the 2009 National Drug Control Strategy, 
consistent with the provisions of section 201 of the Office of National 
Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2006.
    My Administration released its first National Drug Control Strategy 
in 2002 with the commitment to turn the tide against a problem that 
truly threatens everything that is good about our country. As we prepare 
to pass this noble charge to a new team of leaders, we can look back 
with satisfaction on what we have achieved together as a Nation. From 
community coalitions to our international partnerships, we pursued a 
balanced strategy that emphasized stopping initiation, reducing drug 
abuse and addiction, and disrupting drug markets.
    The results of our efforts are clear. Together we have helped reduce 
teenage drug use by 25 percent since 2001. This means 900,000 fewer 
American teens are using drugs. The Access to Recovery program alone has 
extended treatment services to more than 260,000 Americans. Through law 
enforcement cooperation and international partnerships, the United 
States has caused serious disruptions in the availability of drugs such 
as cocaine and methamphetamine, reducing the threat such drugs pose to 
the American people, while also denying profits to drug traffickers and 
terrorists.
    Our work is by no means complete--we must build on these efforts 
both to further reduce drug use and to rise to new challenges. I thank 
the Congress for its support and ask that it continue to support this 
critical endeavor.
                                                George W. Bush
 The White House,
 January 15, 2009.