June 8, 1998
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT TO THE SPECIAL SESSION OF THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(New York, New York)
______________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release June 8,
1998
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
TO THE SPECIAL SESSION OF THE
UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY
United Nations
New York, New York
10:50 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Secretary General, President
Udovenko, Executive Director Arlacchi, distinguished fellow
leaders. Today we join at this Special Session of the U.N.
General Assembly to make common cause against the common threat
of worldwide drug trafficking and abuse.
Let me begin by thanking my friend, President
Zedillo, for his vision in making this session possible, and for
his courageous resolve against drugs. And I thank all the
nations represented here who are committed to fight for our
children's future by fighting drugs together.
Ten years ago, the United Nations adopted a
path-breaking convention to spur cooperation against drug
trafficking. Today, the potential for that kind of cooperation
has never been greater, or more needed. As divisive blocks and
barriers have been dismantled around the world, as technology has
advanced and democracy has spread, our people benefit more and
more from nations working and learning together. Yet the very
openness that enriches our lives is also exploited by criminals,
especially drug traffickers.
Today we come here to say no nation is so large and
powerful that it can conquer drugs alone; none is too small to
make a difference. All share a responsibility to take up the
battle. Therefore, we will stand as one against this threat to
our security and our future.
The stakes are high, for the drug empires erode the
foundations of democracies, corrupt the integrity of market
economies, menace the lives, the hopes, the futures of families
on every continent. Let there be no doubt, this is ultimately a
struggle for human freedom.
For the first time in history, more than half the
world's people live under governments of their own choosing. In
virtually every country, we see the expansion of expressions of
individual liberty. We cannot see it all squandered for millions
of people because of a perverse combination of personal weakness
and national neglect. We have to prove to the drug traffickers
that they are wrong. We are determined and we can make a
difference.
Nations have shown that with determined and
relentless efforts, we can turn this evil tide. In the United
States, drug use has dropped 49 percent since 1979. Recent
studies show that drug use by our young people is stabilizing,
and in some categories, declining. Overall, cocaine use has
dropped 70 percent since 1985. The crack epidemic has begun to
recede. Last year, our Coast Guard seized more than 100,000
pounds of cocaine. Today, Americans spend 37 percent less on
drugs than a decade ago. That means that over $34 billion
reinvested in our society, rather than being squandered on drugs.
Many other nations are making great strides. Mexico
set records for eradication in 1997. Peruvian coca cultivation
has been slashed 42 percent since 1995. Colombia's growing
aerial eradication program has destroyed tens of thousands of
hectares of coca. Thailand's opium poppy growth is steadily
decreasing, this year alone down 24 percent.
The United States is also a partner in global law
enforcement and interdiction efforts, fighting antidrug and --
funding antidrug and crime training for more than 82,050*
officials last year. In 1997, Latin America and Caribbean
governments seized some 166 metric tons of cocaine. Better
trained police, with improved information sharing, are arresting
more drug traffickers around the world.
Joint information networks on suspicious financial
transactions are working in dozens of countries to put the brakes
on money laundering. By the end of the year 2000, the United
States will provide assistance to an additional 20 countries to
establish and strengthen these financial intelligence units. We
must, and we can, deprive drug traffickers of the dirty money
that fuels their deadly trade.
We are finding strength in numbers, from the
Anti-Drug Alliance the Western Hemisphere forged at the recent
Summit of the Americas, to the steps against drugs and crimes the
G-8 leaders agreed to take last month. The U.N. International
Drug Control program, under Executive Director Arlacchi's
leadership
# 8,250 officials
is combatting drug production, drug trafficking and drug abuse in
some of the most difficult corners of the world, while helping to
make sure the money we spend brings maximum results. I applaud
the UNDCP's goal of dramatically reducing coca and opium poppy
cultivation by 2008. We will do our part in the United States to
make this goal a reality.
For all the achievements of recent years we must not
confuse progress with success. The specter of drugs still haunts
us. To prevail we must do more, with dynamic national
strategies, intensified international cooperation and greater
resources.
The debate between drug supplying and drug consuming
nations about whose responsibility the drug problem is has gone
on too long. Let's be frank -- this debate has not advanced the
fight against drugs. Pointing fingers is distracting. It does
not dismantle a single cartel, help a single addict, prevent a
single child from trying and perhaps dying from heroin. Besides,
the lines between countries that are supply countries, demand
countries, and transit countries are increasingly blurred. Drugs
are every nation's problem, and every nation must act to fight
them -- on the streets, around the kitchen table, and around the
world.
This is the commitment of the United States. Year
after year, our administration has provided the largest antidrug
budgets in history. Our request next year exceeds $17 billion,
nearly $6 billion of which will be devoted to demand reduction.
Our comprehensive national drug control strategy aims to cut
American drug use and access by half over the next 10 years,
through strength in law enforcement, tougher interdiction,
improved treatment, and expanded prevention efforts. We are
determined to build a drug-free America and to join with others
to combat drugs around the world.
We believe attitudes drive actions. Therefore, we
wage first the battle in the minds of our young people. Working
with Congress and the private sector, the United States has
launched a major antidrug youth media campaign. Now, when our
children turn on the television, surf the Internet, or listen to
the radio, they will get the powerful message that drugs are
wrong and can kill them.
I will be asking Congress to extend this program
through 2002. With congressional support and matching dollars
from the private sector, we will commit to a five-year, $2
billion public-private partnership to teach our children to stay
off drugs.
Other nations, including Mexico, Venezuela, and
Brazil, are launching similar campaigns. I had the pleasure of
talking with the President of Brazil about this at some length
yesterday. I hope all our nations can work together to spread
the word to children all around the world -- drugs destroy young
lives; don't let them destroy yours.
The United States is also working to create a
virtual university for the prevention and treatment of substance
abuse, using modern technology to share knowledge and experience
across national borders. We will launch this effort next month
in New Mexico, with an international training course on reducing
drug demand. Government officials and other professionals from
Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras will work with experts on drug
abuse and gang prevention from the U.S. The course will be
linked via satellite to the U.S. Information Agency's Worldnet
system, so that anyone with access to Worldnet can tune in.
Our National Institute for Drug Abuse in the United
States, which funds 85 percent of global research on drugs, will
post on the Internet live videotapes of its drug prevention and
treatment workshops. This means that anyone, anywhere, with
access to a computer and modem -- a parent whose child is
addicted to drugs, a doctor trying to help, a researcher looking
for a cure -- anyone will be able to obtain the latest, most
advanced medical knowledge on drugs.
Such sharing of information, experience and ideas is
more important than ever. That is why I am especially pleased to
announce the establishment of an international drug fellowship
program that will enable professionals from all around the world
to come to the United States and work with our drug fighting
agencies. The focus will be on the priorities of this special
session: demand reductions, stimulants, precursors, money
laundering, judicial cooperation, alternative development, and
eradication of illicit crops.
These fellowships will help all of us. It will help
our nations to learn from one another while building a global
force of skilled and experienced drug crusaders.
Together we must extend the long arm of the law and
the hand of compassion to match the global reach of this problem.
Let us leave here determined to act together in a spirit of trust
and respect, at home and abroad, against demand and supply, using
all the tools at our disposal to win the global fight against
drugs and build a safe and healthy 21st century for our children.
Thank you very much. (Applause.)
END 11:06 A.M. EDT