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REMARKS BY: DONNA E. SHALALA, SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES PLACE: Monitoring the Future Survey Press Conference Washington, D.C. DATE: December 15, 1995
Today, I want to ring that alarm bell faster and louder and send a message to every parent in this country:
Your children are at risk. We have a generation at risk.
The Monitoring the Future survey shows that over the last year, teenage tobacco and drug use continues to climb, and alcohol use -- while level -- remains unacceptably high.
Let me be clear: Use levels have not returned to the peak levels of the 1970s and 1980s ...
... but the trends for marijuana and cigarette use are unmistakably headed the wrong way.
Home by home, block by block, community by community, we need renewed intensity in the war against drugs and children's tobacco use ....
We need parents and grandparents, siblings and teachers, clergy and coaches, business and government, the media and the entertainment industry ... all working together ....
We need a broad national effort to reach young people and give them safe passage through the teenage years ....
... or else, in a few years, we're going to find ourselves right back where we were in the old days -- when children and teenagers viewed drug, alcohol, and tobacco use as perfectly normal and accepted behavior.
Today, as a part of National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month -- proclaimed by President Clinton --
-- Americans all across the country are turning on their headlights to symbolize the need to keep impaired drivers off our roads.
In that spirit, I want to issue a challenge all parents and all caring adults -- including those who experimented with drugs when younger:
To America's parents, I say, "All of you should be concerned about the findings we are releasing today ... and I hope your concern translates into frank talk in living rooms all across this country."
"Use the holiday season to gather your families together and set young people straight about the dangers of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco use."
"The myth is that children won't listen to you. The reality is that there's nobody who influences them more than you."
Now, I'd like to talk in more detail about the Survey.
The tobacco increases show that the national concern about children's smoking is warranted.
From 1994 to 1995, the percentage of high school seniors who smoked within the last 30 days increased from about 31 percent to more than 33 percent ...
... and the percentage of seniors who smoked daily jumped from more than 19 percent to nearly 22 percent.
Smoking among 10th graders also continued to climb: Nearly 28 percent of our 15- and 16-year-olds report smoking in the past month, up from more than 25 percent ...
... and the percent of 10th graders who report daily smoking increased from about 14 percent to more than 16 percent in 1995.
Among the youngest members of our Survey -- 8th graders who may be as young as 13 -- daily and past month smoking has also increased between 1991 and 1995.
This is a four-year trend of increased smoking among American youth -- a trend that in the long run will cost this country thousands of precious lives and billions of dollars in health costs.
The tobacco numbers also show that an American success story is beginning to erode: In recent years, we have been able to report a lower percentage of African American youth using tobacco than other American teenagers.
That is still true -- but the Monitoring the Future Survey shows that we are losing ground fast among 8th, 10th, and 12th grade African-Americans -- in all categories of tobacco use.
For example, past month tobacco use by African American 10th graders jumped to 11.5 percent in 1995 -- almost double the rate from four years ago.
Make no mistake, tobacco use is a pediatric disease: It is an American tragedy affecting all of us.
That's why the President has proposed the boldest initiative in American history to prevent children's smoking -- and this Survey shows the wisdom of his leadership.
Moreover, the Survey's findings on teenage drug and alcohol use underscore the importance of the President's determined leadership in that area.
Though illicit drug use among young people is far below the peak levels of the 1970's and 1980's, it is still far too high.
The survey shows that 39 percent of high school seniors reported using an illicit drug at least once in the past year -- up from 35.8 percent last year.
And, for the third consecutive year, we found increases in the percentage of 10th and 12th graders using marijuana within the past year.
These marijuana increases are particularly significant ...
... and they are tied to the increasing perception among young people that these substances are not harmful.
For example, we found a sharp decline in the percentage of 8th, 10th and 12th graders who believed there was a "great risk" in trying marijuana.
No wonder.
Marijuana continues to be glorified in popular culture as a "soft drug."
That couldn't be further from the truth.
Our research at the National Institute on Drug Abuse shows that marijuana damages short-term memory, distorts perception, impairs judgment and complex motor skills, alters the heart rate, can lead to severe anxiety, and can cause paranoia and lethargy.
Its use by young people is disproportionately associated with increased truancy, poor school performance and crime.
These are the facts, which our children need to hear from all of us -- especially those who know them the best and love them the most ... parents, grandparents, older siblings, and other family members.
After seeing last year's increase in marijuana usage, at HHS we stepped up our efforts to help parents protect their children from the resurgence of marijuana.
We increased our marijuana research agenda at NIDA.
We designed new materials for parents and teenagers to promote discussions about marijuana around the kitchen table.
We worked with the Partnership for a Drug Free America and other drug prevention groups to develop public service announcements targeted directly at marijuana.
In fact, I just taped a new set of radio PSA's for parents that provide an information hotline where they can get drug prevention resources. That number is 1-800-729-6686.
These steps are valuable -- and we will increase them -- but government action alone cannot change children's behavior, or anybody else's. I wish it could.
Instead, it's going to take every single one of us, locking arms and challenging young Americans to be hooked on hope and too strong for wrong.
The Clinton administration stands side by side with parents in the great moral task of helping the future of our country make safe passages into young adulthood.
That's why we proposed the Children's Tobacco Initiative -- to ensure that children get their information about tobacco products from their parents and other caring adults -- not Joe Camel.
That's why, to stop drug use, we have a tough, comprehensive anti-drug strategy that is working on all fronts -- everything from interdiction to more police on the streets to a powerful commitment to prevention.
At the Department of Health and Human Services, this means leading a major research agenda to understand the effects of all drugs and the best prevention and treatment strategies.
It means creating partnerships with hundreds of community groups that have teamed up with more than 30,000 local businesses and non-profits.
It means working with the media and entertainment industries to promote programming that de-glamorizes drug use and other risky behaviors.
And it means sending the strongest possible signals all across the country that we will never, ever support the legalization of marijuana.
... This Survey also heightens the importance of an upcoming White House Conference on Youth, Drugs and Violence that the President is holding next month.
Our bold approach is the right way -- the common sense way -- to help families and save futures.
Unfortunately, there are some in Congress who disagree.
They want nothing less than to retreat on our commitment to the health and well-being of all young people -- our nation's future and most precious resource.
This is not -- I repeat -- not the time to cut hundreds of millions of dollars for substance abuse initiatives.
This is not the time to slash HHS prevention and treatment efforts -- and curtail the leadership that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration has brought to this fight.
This is not the time for drastic cuts in the Safe and Drug Free Schools program, a program that helps some 23 million students.
This is not the time to pull back -- as the Republican budget is doing --
-- when the monsters of drugs, tobacco, and alcohol are reaching out their long arms to snatch away our young people, their health, and their lives.
Our job as policymakers, as parents, as teachers, as employers, as clergy, and as members of the media is to be the long arm of life and health.
Our job is to keep sending a clear and consistent message to young people: "It is illegal, dangerous, and wrong for you to use tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs."
Everywhere our young people turn, they must see and hear that message: Where they live and where they work, where they study and where they hang out.
It must be loud and clear.
It must be a steady drumbeat.
It must come from parents and older siblings and other family members.
And it must come from all of us.
Monitoring The Future is a call to action: It says to parents: "Your future is now, and your future is at risk."
We must roll up our sleeves and go to work -- and get the job done.
Thank you.
And now I'd like to introduce the President's Drug Policy Coordinator --
-- someone who for nearly three years has provided the Clinton Administration and the American people with real leadership, toughness, and vision.
All of us have benefitted from his outstanding career in law enforcement and his unique understanding of the health aspects of the drug issue, ...
... and he will certainly be missed as he returns to private life, ...
... my good friend, Lee Brown.
Dr. Brown ...