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REMARKS BY:      DONNA E. SHALALA, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN  
                   SERVICES
PLACE:           Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America 	      
                 National Leadership Forum, Washington, D.C.
DATE:            November 3, 1995

And thanks to you, Jim Copple, for your extraordinary leadership at CADCA.

Your hands-on advocacy for a drug-free America has translated into big gains for this organization and the communities that you serve.

I am honored to join all of you today.

Each and every day you work on the frontlines -- transforming bright dreams into bold futures for citizens and communities all over America.

I'm talking about heroines like Jennie Escoto, a 17-year-old from Orange County, California, who -- with the support of her parents -- steered away from drugs and gangs and is now reaching out to other young people and inspiring them to do the same.

And heroes like Dan Buie, of Austin, Texas, now celebrating 20 years of recovery from substance abuse -- his own life story a message of hope and triumph as he leads a campaign called Texans' War on Drugs.

I'm talking about leaders like Rev. Wesley Williams, whose "Restoring Streets to Live In" program in Boston has helped bring together local churches to empower families to take back their communities.

I'm talking about citizens like Dorothy Silvey, who is making sure that every single middle school student in Hamilton, Missouri has a caring adult serving as their friend and mentor.

And I'm talking about activists like Christina McGrinson, whose fifth grade students in Michigan encouraged their community to replace a beer billboard outside their school with one promoting the local Boys' and Girls' Club.

The Clinton Administration is proud to join you front and center in the fight to save our children, our communities, and our country.

That's why President Clinton announced he is convening a White House Conference to counter messages that tell children it is cool to drink or get high.

And that's why he stood beside you yesterday to help spotlight the faces behind our drug crisis -- the faces of young people who will never graduate from high school and parents who will never experience the joy of walking their children down the aisle.

To stop the tragedy and heal the pain, we believe that our job in the federal government is to be the catalyst -- and the glue -- for community action.

Our job is to lay a strong foundation for you -- so that you can succeed day in and day out, year in and year out.

Unfortunately, that foundation -- that partnership -- is being eroded today.

I'm talking about the reckless budget cutting frenzy now underway on Capitol Hill.

When some in Congress propose slashing hundreds of millions of dollars from prevention and treatment programs that you know work, we must say "no."

When they call for cutting the heart and soul out of the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, we must say "no."

When they try to roll back our commitment to keeping America's schools safe and drug-free, we must say "no."

And, when they try to take police officers off your streets and drug courts out of your communities, we must say "no."

Make no mistake about it. The extremists in Congress think drug prevention is pork and tobacco is a vegetable!

Obviously, they don't see the lives you save, the families you reunite, the streets you clean up, and the corner drug markets that are now safe places for children because you've pushed away the pushers.

At a time when marijuana use among teenagers has increased each year since 1992 and methamphetamines are making their deadly effects increasingly felt, what we need right now is courage and vision -- not a full-scale retreat by Congress.

In fact, cutting drug prevention and treatment funding reminds me of the old saying that the only difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.

We cannot stand by idly and allow the Republicans to use these budget cuts like a jackhammer to demolish a foundation of partnership between community drug coalitions and the federal government.

Together, we must stand up -- and speak out -- to rebuild lives and rebuild communities.

As the President said yesterday, "We cannot walk away from the fight against drugs...we have to walk right into it."

And that's exactly what our Administration is doing.

On the supply side, that means working with our international partners to deter and catch traffickers who want to bring their poisonous wares to our shores.

It means stiff-arming the cartels and their street-level dealers long before they can lure our children with their poison.

And it means sending the message loud and clear to foreign source countries: Either get tough on drug production and trafficking, or risk losing foreign aid and international loans.

But that's not all we're doing. As you all know, any real drug strategy must focus like a laser beam on prevention.

That's why we're supporting a major research agenda to deflate all the myths that drugs don't cause lasting harm.

That's why we're so proud to work with you to send an anti-drug message out to all Americans: drug use is illegal, dangerous, unhealthy and wrong.

That's why we have sent the strongest possible signals all across the country that we will never, ever support the legalization of marijuana.

And that's why we're challenging the media and entertainment community to help us de-glamorize drugs and re-glamorize opportunity.

We need to find new ways to reach our youth -- where they study, where they work, and where they play -- in words they understand.

You understand what that means.

But I come from a Washington world in which people honestly believe that the only way to communicate with the American public is through brochures.

We can't rely on brochures to reach young people like the 16-year-old boy dealing drugs in New York, who says, "My father would always say 'Stay in school. Don't drop out. Don't drink or do drugs.' But he never did anything about it himself, so what's the use?"

What's the use. In the mouths of our teens, those may be the three saddest words in the English language.

For that young boy and others, we need to build an America in which our young people are hooked on hope and too strong for wrong.

We need to build an America in which our young people are eager for tomorrow because they have achieved so much today.

And to reach that dream -- to build that America -- we have to put power back in the hands of parents and communities -- caring adults who know their children the best and love them the most.

Just yesterday, the anti-drug organization PRIDE released a survey showing that young people are less likely to use drugs when their parents open up and talk to them.

As a society we have to lock arms to help parents have those conversations with their children.

Parents like the mother in suburban Virginia, who said, "I went from wanting my son to win the Nobel prize to wanting him to survive."

We have to put their interests -- our families' interests -- ahead of the special interests.

And that's exactly what we're doing.

We're fighting for a fairer country with a balanced budget plan that gets the priorities right.

We're fighting for a wiser country with a v-chip that will allow parents to control what their children see on TV.

We're fighting for a safer community with the Brady Handgun law and the assault weapons ban -- the first curbs on gun violence enacted in more than 25 years!!

And we're fighting for a healthier country with our Children's Tobacco Initiative, which is ultimately about putting power back in the hands of parents.

And let me express my deepest thanks to those of you who have supported our initiative -- an initiative which, I believe, will go down in history as a giant step for public health.

Some people said we can't afford to incur the wrath of a Goliath-like power like the tobacco industry.

I say, we can't afford not to.

Because, every day in our country, more than 3,000 teenagers light up that first cigarette, starting a slow burning fire in their lungs.

The tobacco culture has essentially functioned as a "third parent" for American children: enticing them with attractive images; playing upon their desire to be glamorous; alluring them with T-shirts and trinkets; and giving them easy ways to obtain cigarettes from vending machines, the mail, and even free give-aways.

Some might say, "Can't parents take care of their children?" The answer is, of course they can.

That's precisely the point -- to make sure that parents -- and not Joe Camel -- are in control when it comes to educating children about an addiction that could snatch away their health -- and maybe even their lives.

We thank all of you for standing up with us in this fight.

Because whether the fight is about marijuana or tobacco, the fact is we can only change minds and lives across this country if every single one of us puts our hearts and souls on the line for change.

It's going to take all of us -- parents, grandparents, and older siblings, teachers, community leaders and other caring adults -- to knock down the dangerous obstacles facing our children -- and ensure "Safe Passages" for all.

This is no time to give up.

This is no time to say it cannot be done.

There is a line from Singing In The Rain that challenges us to stay with it, no matter what, and it goes:

"Don't get hung up on a snag in the stream...Snags alone are not so dangerous -- it's the debris that clings to them that makes the trouble. Pull yourself loose and go on."

Together, let us gather up all our strength and convictions and go on.

Our communities are waiting. Our families are waiting. Our future is waiting. And young people like Jennie Escoto are waiting.

Thank you.