Address to National Leadership Forum
Several years ago at a gathering such as this, I began my speech with the following quote from the Atlanta police chief:
“70% of all the crime in this city is due to cocaine.”
I went on to say that:
“The eighties saw the highest rate of cocaine consumption in our history. Cocaine-related violence and crime spiraled out of control. As a result, during that decade, our cities became battlegrounds; our hospitals filled with cocaine addicts desperate for treatment.”
Everyone nodded politely, but this was not exactly earth-shaking news.
But the fact is, that the Atlanta police chief’s quote comes from 1914 and the decade I was describing was not the 1980s, but the 1880s.
I tell this story because it is too easy for all of us to be discouraged by the difficulties of fighting drugs. We should learn from our experience a century ago, when we confronted a drug epidemic, worse on a per-capita basis than today’s — and we beat it.
And we beat it with a pretty simple prescription — enforcement was a part of it, but prevention and education were equal partners — so much so, that by 1914, most states (many more than today) had mandatory drug education in the public schools.
And it worked so well that by the thirties, our first national “drug czar” — Harry Anslinger — concluded that because we had driven drugs from our national landscape, that to teach kids about the dangers of drugs would only “encourage” them to try drugs.
The chief lesson we can take from the first drug epidemic is that prevention and education work to keep kids off drugs.
The second lesson is that we can beat drug abuse once it starts.
Let me offer a more recent example — it was only a very few years ago, when no one thought we could do anything about violent crime. But in 1994, we started getting smart — we did it all — more police, more prisons, more treatment and more prevention.
And, what was unthinkable just a few years ago has happened — just look at the most recent FBI data: murder has fallen to the lowest rate since 1970.
Folks, I believe that we can do the same against the drug epidemic: if we are smart, if we are committed to solving the problem, if we stop the simplistic sloganeering.
But, you on the front-lines know better than anyone what barriers lie in our way:
Not only do too few believe we actually can reduce drug use. In addition, our “Puritan ethic” gets in the way of putting in place the drug prevention and treatment programs we know are in our self-interest.
Perhaps because of that, when push comes to shove, despite all the speeches I hear from all corners of the political debate about the need to do “something” about drugs — we won’t spend the money.
Another barrier — one that too few recognize — is that the fight against drugs actually has some very powerful enemies –
That was put in stark relief for me when I started fighting two years ago to slap the maximum federal controls against “row-hip-nol” — the “date-rape” drug — and the “club drug” “ket-a-meen,” known as “special k.”
I was stunned when my efforts against “row-hip-nol” were beaten back by the concentrated political muscle of a foreign drug manufacturer worried about losing drug profits overseas if we targeted this illegal drug here in the United States.
Just last week, even our own DEA was backing away from their unequivocal statements offered only 20 months ago that the “date-rape” drug should be subject to the toughest treatment possible under federal law.
You all had the same experience in 1995 — when the liquor industry with the help of Congress went after the budget of Center for Substance Abuse Prevention — your voice — and bragged about it to the Wall Street Journal. Let me quote their lobbyist:
“This is our response: we want to cut their funding, stop their lobbying and basically end the use of that structure [he meant you folks] to bash the beer industry.”
“Bash the beer industry?” — all I have seen you do in my home state of Delaware is try to stop kids — underage kids — from drinking!
These are the key challenges we must surmount if we are to make more progress against the scourge of drugs –
Of course, the challenge facing every member of this Coalition America is, how can we change public attitudes? How can we increase society’s “moral disapprobation” against drugs, without unleashing the unproductive “moral righteousness” of our Puritan ethic past?
This is the over-arching challenge you must meet every day, in literally every conversation you have with the people of your neighborhoods and communities.
But, I respectfully suggest, that in the next several months, our national drug policy will be advanced — or diminished — in four or five very important, very specific debates.
I further suggest, that the involvement of you and every member of the coalition will be key to what is decided here in Washington on each of these specific debates.
First, will our powerful enemies win — or, will Congress adopt my proposal to crack down on the “date rape” drug “row-hip-nol” and the “club drug” ket-a-meen?
We reversed epidemics of quaaludes and steroids in the 1980s with the controls I now propose for “row-hip-nol” and “special k.”
We should learn from our successes and pass this legislation as soon as Congress returns next year.
Second, what about the youth violence legislation pending in Congress? Will we focus solely on the roughly 100,000 kids who have already become violent criminals?
Or, will we expand our focus to include the more than 600,000 children who are just now becoming susceptible to crime and drugs ?
Will we give the millions of at-risk children the after school supervision they need if we are to prevent so many of them from turning to drugs and crime?
We must also face the implications of the fact that America now has 39 million children younger than 10 years old. The implications of this “baby-boomerang” — the largest number of young children since the 1960s — are potentially devastating.
Consider just one fact: even if the percentage of drug use among young people stays the same, we will have 250,000 more 8th graders using drugs in 2005 than we do today, simply because there will be so many more 8th graders.
The recently released pride survey on drug abuse pointed out that 88% of fathers — and 63% of mothers — have full-time jobs. In other words, even though it is clear that parents hold the key, our economy is now structured so that there will be nobody home when millions of children get out of school this afternoon.
If we really want to keep kids away from drugs and drugs away from kids, we should pass the youth violence bill now before Congress — but not before we include in that bill $100 million to give 1 million kids after-school supervision.
Third — will Congress re-authorize the drug director, or will this effort fall prey to partisanship — which will leave but one result, a return to the days when no one was in charge of the fight against drugs.
Too many take it for granted today that we have General McCaffrey around to lead the fight against drugs — no one should.
Perhaps because crime is no longer an issue that can be used to partisan advantage — the bill to re-authorize the drug director may become mired in partisanship which could end up costing us the very existence of the drug office.
I fought from 1980 to 1988 — nearly a decade — for a drug director for one simple reason. You know that reason, because you all remember how many administrations made the drug issue a national priority before we had a drug director: not a single one.
But, mark my words, the day we no longer have a drug director in the cabinet, is the day we begin unraveling our national commitment against drugs.
And, this will be exactly the situation you all will face unless Congress gets its act together and passes legislation to keep the General’s office in place.
I have been working with General McCaffrey and my colleagues in the Senate, and I believe we will ultimately agreeing on a bi-partisan bill.
But I am worried about the House of Representatives. Because of the partisan way this issue is being handled in the House the continued funding for the drug office is in doubt and the entire operation of our national drug effort is in danger.
To be absolutely frank, unless you all — the folks who are listened to on the drug issue in every congressional district in the nation — insist that the House of Representatives resist the temptation to let this issue descend into partisan politics, that is exactly where this debate will go.
And, fourth, will we take advantage of the $195 million Congress appropriated for General McCaffrey’s anti-drug media campaign to reduce drug abuse among our children?
Jim Burke, as the Chairman of the Partnership for a Drug-free America, I suspect that it will be your efforts which answer this question — perhaps more than anyone else here.
With all the folks here, and the thousands more watching us via the satellite hook-ups provided by the National Guard, it is clear that the national media campaign will be supported by the words and deeds of community leaders around the country.
Now is the time to turn to our work — and let’s get this job done.
The costs of delay are too great to bear because they are measured in nothing less profound than the lost futures of children who turn to drugs — and that piece of our nation’s future which is lost with each one of these children.
Thank you.