For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
February 12, 2002
Message 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.
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