 
|
| Home | Documents | Information Exchange Services |
Special Topics |
Resources | State Information |
Online Resources |
|
This page contains links to external Web sites. March 12, 1997REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT IN "STRAIGHT TALK ON DRUGS" ABC RADIO TOWN HALL WITH CHILDREN11:06 A.M. EST
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
______________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release March 12, 1997
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN "STRAIGHT TALK ON DRUGS" ABC RADIO
TOWN HALL WITH CHILDREN
The East
Room
11:06 A.M. EST
MR. JENNINGS: Good morning, everybody, and welcome to
Washington, D.C., and the home of the President. We are in this
special place today at the invitation of the President, in part
because I think, as the people who are with us in the East Room know,
a lot of people in the country are hurting as a result of drug abuse.
More kids are using it; more kids appear to be tolerating drug abuse
in the country. And so, wherever you are listening to this
broadcast, we hope you will join us and stay with us for an hour, and
perhaps we will all learn something from one another.
With us here in the East Room are a lot of kids who are
drug-free, but also with us this morning are some kids who have tried
drugs. But the point I think we want to try to make in this hour is
that so many of our kids in the country are certainly at risk -- 2.4
million kids had some exposure, tried drugs this year alone.
So at home, on the radio, whether you're a parent
listening to this, or whether by chance you're a kid not in school
today, and you think you have a problem about drugs or you might face
one, stay with us. And as I said, it's not an awful long time, an
hour, but it's perhaps something for us to learn from.
Now, we're here, of course, because the President has
been gracious enough to let us come into the East Room. Good
morning, Mr. President.
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning, Peter.
MR. JENNINGS: Thank you for being with us, sir. The
President has already had a chance to talk to the kids here just a
little bit. Tell the folks at home why you think it's important for
them and you to be here together.
THE PRESIDENT: I think it's important because we know
that while overall drug use in America is still going down, drug use
among people under 18 is, in fact, going up. And that's a very
troubling thing because all of you represent our future. And I'm
concerned about what happens to you as individuals and I'm concerned
about what happens to your communities and what happens to our
country.
And ABC has been good enough not only to do this little
town hall meeting for us, but also to run a public service campaign
with ads telling our young people and telling their parents and their
friends and their mentors that, in effect, we have to talk about
this, that silence about this problem is like accepting it. And I
think that we all owe ABC a debt of gratitude for good citizenship
here. And I appreciate what they're trying to do. We're here
because the number one goal of our antidrug strategy is to persuade
young people to stay away from drugs in the first place.
And I just want to thank especially our Olympian,
Dominique Dawes, who is here with us today, who has agreed to be the
spokesperson for our Girl Power campaign. And she's taped a lot of
public service radio ads telling young girls to go for the gold, to
stay off drugs, to make the most of their own lives. And that's why
we're here and I'm glad we are. I'm glad you're here, too,
Dominique.
MS. DAWES: Thank you, President Clinton. It's great
being a positive role model for all of you youth. We just want to
get you guys busy. I mean, it's going to be really hard to avoid
drugs because they're everywhere, but get yourselves busy and prevent
yourselves from getting on them because they're not going to help you
in the future.
MR. JENNINGS: Thanks, Dominique. Glad you're here with
us. Dominique, by the way, is a member of the U.S. Olympic Gymnastic
Team of 1996, am I right?
MS. DAWES: And '92.
MR. JENNINGS: And '92. It's really nice to have you
here.
MS. DAWES: It's nice to be here.
MR. JENNINGS: One of the things we've discovered, Mr.
President -- I know you know all the statistics and I think the kids
know them, too -- is that drug use among kids is going down in that a
lot of kids who are younger -- we used to associate drug use with
teenagers, but now it's getting into middle school level.
We have with us this morning, Mikisha Bonner (phonetic).
Mikisha is in the 8th grade at Garnett-Patterson Middle School here
in Washington. Mikisha, give us some sense of your own -- not
personal exposure to drugs but what you go through at high school
--or at school every day.
MIKISHA: Well, I don't really go through drugs, but we
do have, like, this drug market across the street from our school.
And when I come down that way in the morning, people, they be dealing
with drugs or using or something. And when I come back to go home in
the afternoon, the same people still be there. And I feel that I
shouldn't have to go through that every day.
In our school we do have these dogs that come to our
school and come, like, if there are drugs in a locker or anything,
they will go and the person will get taken out of our school that
have the drugs.
MR. JENNINGS: What do you think of that, Mr. President?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, Mikisha, are these drug sellers in
the same place every day?
MIKISHA: The same place every day.
THE PRESIDENT: And how long have they been there?
MIKISHA: Since I've been going to school there.
THE PRESIDENT: And have the school officials asked the
police to move them?
MIKISHA: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Get rid of them, to arrest them? Have
they ever been arrested?
MIKISHA: I don't really know. I just see them every
day.
THE PRESIDENT: I'll see what I can do about that.
MR. JENNINGS: Talk to the President after the -- he's
very good, I've seen him do this before. (Applause.)
THE PRESIDENT: I'll see what I can do about that.
That's not right.
MR. JENNINGS: But even though this is radio, I want to
try a show of hands. How many of you have seen drugs being traded --
THE PRESIDENT: Or sold.
MR. JENNINGS: -- or sold around your school? We've got
maybe 30 kids with us here, for those of you at home, and we've had
more than a dozen kids go up.
There are, by the way, so many drugs for kids to abuse
it's almost mind boggling at times. But again for you at home, to
get some sense of what we're talking about here, here briefly is
ABC's Jim Hickey to tell us what is available for kids to abuse.
(Video is shown.)
MR. JENNINGS: Of course, Jim, the ultimate price -- Mr.
President -- we all know this, is death. And I want you to meet
somebody we've already met -- someone who came very close to losing
his life a couple of weeks ago. His name is Brandon Power. He's
right over there. Brandon, put up your hand for just a second so the
President can see you. Brandon was at a high school or rather a
middle school dance in Woburn, Massachusetts, where a classmate had
stashed a large bottle of pills. Brandon and 13 of his friends ate
about 80 of those pills -- enough to make them collapse into a coma.
It made a lot of news around the country. All 14 kids, boys and
girls, have recovered now -- right, Brandon? The pills were
prescription muscle relaxants that one of the kids apparently stole
from the mail of an ill neighbor.
I'm sure the President has a question for Brandon, but I
have one. What on earth were you doing taking that pill and what
were you thinking at the time?
BRANDON: Generally, I think it was everyone feeling
very comfortable, being all friendly, friends in a big group. And it
wasn't seeming to be anything real big like cocaine or something like
that -- so feeling very comfortable taking them. And she said to
take just a few, and nobody was feeling anything, so they kept on
taking more and more at times.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, let me ask you this. Did you know
they were muscle relaxants when you took them?
BRANDON: Nobody really knew exactly what they were, but
not like anything big.
THE PRESIDENT: Was there one person who had them all
when then gave them to the rest of you?
BRANDON: Yes, there was one girl that had a bottle
of them.
MR. JENNINGS: Under some pressure, do you think,
because the other kids were taking them?
BRANDON: I don't think it was really pressure, but in
some cases -- I can't speak for everyone -- but there were other
groups of kids that, like, I'm not totally friends with that may have
felt pressure. But I didn't at all.
THE PRESIDENT: Do you believe that in this case that if
people had understood how dangerous they were that they wouldn't have
done it?
BRANDON: I don't really know, but I think that if they
had found out about what would have happened and how they could have
died and how close they came, they wouldn't have taken them.
THE PRESIDENT: This is a big problem for us. This is
why it's so important that people talk about this and that we educate
children at a very young age about what it can do, because it's not a
bad thing to have legal drugs being shipped through the mail. It
helps a lot of senior citizens, for example, who are not mobile, who
have a hard time getting around. If they have a legal prescription
and they can get it through the mail, that's a good thing, it makes
their lives easier and better.
Inhalants -- virtually everything people inhale is legal
and performs some sort of function in our society. And I think what
you're saying is kind of another important piece of evidence for me
that we need to have more conversations just like this in every home
in America, in every school in America. We need to talk about it
because those muscle relaxants are -- if you think about, I don't
know if you've ever had a muscle spasm, but I have. If you ever had
a muscle spasm, it takes something pretty powerful to unlock that
muscle. And so if you -- even someone as big as I am, you can't take
more than a couple of those pills within a period of time without
having an adverse reaction.
MR. JENNINGS: You've got a question for the President,
Brandon?
BRANDON: I wanted to ask him if he is going to be doing
something about the mail and making it secure -- like security for it
being like -- she just took them from the neighbor without any
problems. And I think that he needs to do something about that.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I don't know what we could do
about that because she probably took it out of the neighbor's mail
box. And so, once that happens, I don't know what we could have
done. There may be something can be done to label them more clearly.
Now, we do have -- the postal service is on the alert
for illegal drugs being shipped in the mail. That also sometimes
happens. But when you've got a legal prescription drug, about all I
can think of you can do is maybe have the post office try to deliver
it to the door. Maybe that's one thing you could do and maybe not
leave it in the mail box. And I'll talk to them about it and see if
there's anything else we can do.
MR. JENNINGS: Do me a quick show of hands again. How
many of you can imagine yourselves being in the same position that
Brandon was -- taking something you didn't know anything about?
Nobody, Brandon. I'm not sure whether they're all
telling us the straight facts, but I gather it's something you ain't
going to do again.
BRANDON: No, never.
MR. JENNINGS: All right. Now, Eric, you wanted to say
something, I think. Do you think he's crazy?
ERIC: No, I do not think he's crazy, but I was thinking
about what we can prevent from getting drugs -- the prescription
drugs stolen from the mail. You can have maybe like special
deliveries for prescription drugs to door to door, sort of like
Federal Express or somebody that can deliver it straight to the door,
so you know there won't be no interference during the mail. That
should be --
THE PRESIDENT: I think that's a good idea.
MR. JENNINGS: Can I get you to save your answer for one
half-second.
THE PRESIDENT: Sure.
MR. JENNINGS: We've got to take a break. We'll be
right back.
* * * * *
MR. JENNINGS: Welcome back to our conversation with the
President, and at the moment a conversation between two kids --
because, Antoine, you wanted to ask Brandon a question, who took the
pills.
ANTOINE: Right. If you didn't know what kind of
pills they were, why would you think to take any of them?
BRANDON: I took them because, like, it was a friendly
person that I had known and I didn't think that she would have been
distributing anything like poison or something that could have harmed
me in any way to the point of death.
MR. JENNINGS: Antoine.
ANTOINE: But you should have checked what kind of
prescription they was, who did they belong to -- unless she tore the
paper off. Even though she was your friend, you should still check
and see what kind of drugs -- I mean, what kind of pills they are
because you shouldn't just take no pills and don't know what you're
taking.
MR. JENNINGS: Antoine, you raise a good question. The
President picks up on it. Go ahead, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: I was just wondering -- I see someone
has got a comment back there -- but I was wondering -- this raises a
question about what obligations young people have to each other,
because no matter how -- let's assume that we can fix this mail
problem and say, okay, you'll have certain dangerous drugs, or
potentially dangerous and they'll only be delivered direct to people.
There will always be some opportunity -- you can't get all the
inhalants off the market because they're legal. What obligations do
you all have to each other? If you have a friend you know is doing
drugs, what do you do about that? What are your obligations to each
other?
MR. JENNINGS: That's a very good question.
Dan, let me try that question on you, if you know
somebody is doing drugs.
DAN: Well, me, now as a recovering addict I feel I have
the obligation to preach to them. And I tell him the ways, if he
feels like stopping, because, in a way, to get off drugs if you're
hooked you have to want to stop, you know what I mean? You have to
show yourself if you don't stop on your own that I'm not getting
anything -- it's not gratifying, you don't get anything out of drugs,
and everything, the negative. So it depends on how long it lasts.
MR. JENNINGS: But how many if you're in a group think
-- and drugs are being used, say, and thought it would be cool to go
and tell somebody not to do it? A show of hands again.
Yes, Chris here in front, what are your thoughts?
CHRIS: Well, what I -- I would just tell, if I had a
friend who was doing drugs, I would just tell him or her that they
should get off it because they'll either get, like, serious brain
damage or they'll die because of some lung-blackening deal.
MR. JENNINGS: Lauren.
LAUREN: I don't think when you tell somebody that they
should get off drugs, sometimes they listen and sometimes they don't.
Because they think it's cool and they think it just makes them
special and they'll get more attention. And sometimes it's because
of attention or lack of attention.
THE PRESIDENT: Do people believe it's dangerous? You
had your hand up back there.
DAN: Some drugs that make people high, they -- you
know, if they're driving or something, they actually can hurt other
people. Whereas other drugs, like tobacco, they're really only
hurting themselves except for secondhand smoke. So some drugs, you
really do have an obligation to convince people not take them because
they're going to hurt other people besides themselves.
MR. JENNINGS: But how tough is it at a party -- you're
at a party and it's going on, and how tough is it to go and --
Alyssa, here in front, how tough is it to tell the kid next to you,
you're not being cool?
ALYSSA: Well, it's probably really hard because they
might think that you are -- you're not being cool and that it's just
cool to do that.
THE PRESIDENT: What about these guys? Michael, what
were you going to say?
MICHAEL: I think -- like, at my school -- I got to a
school in the suburb of Springfield, and drugs like marijuana have
become so accepted that it seems like they have more arguments
against you that you can bring to them. And no matter what you say
to them, they're going to fire something back to you like the
medicinal use of marijuana. So it's like almost anything you can
say, they come back twice as hard and they throw you back down with
the information that they have.
THE PRESIDENT: You said -- this is very important
because the biggest increase in drug use among children under 18 by
far has been marijuana. You believe it's because they simply don't
believe it's dangerous or they don't believe it will hurt them?
MICHAEL: They do not believe it's dangerous. They look
at the generation before them who did it, and there was no problem.
No matter what DARE program you put out, no matter how bad you tell
them it is, they believe -- especially when California passed the
medicinal -- when it was okay for it to be used as medicine, if you
can use something as medicine, then that was the best thing in the
world. And they come -- they tell the teachers, they tell the DARE
instructors, it doesn't matter.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, Brandon can prove that's not true.
MICHAEL: Exactly.
MR. JENNINGS: Fred?
FRED: Well, I come from California -- from Los Angeles
and my theory is -- we have a big drug problem, and it's like
everywhere you go, if you look on the street corner you know who's,
like, doing drugs. Even if you don't use them yourself, you already
know, like, the stereotype where they stand on the corner. And it's
not even that hard to find it. Like, ever since what he said about
the law passing about for the medical use of marijuana, it's like
everybody you know accepts them -- like, think, you know, well, I'm
not going to go to jail for using. They think that just because the
law passed that they could use -- some kids, like, all the way down
to 13 they think it's, like, cool to use drugs.
MR. JENNINGS: You were a user, right, Fred?
FRED: Yeah, I also used when I was around 14. And I
used up until when I was about 15-and-a-half and I went to -- they
arrested me, the cops arrested me. And they were going to put me
into jail and they gave me an option, if I wanted to go to counseling
and be on probation. And at that point I got, like, I was scared
because I didn't want to go to jail. Being from a gang -- well, I'm
an ex-gang member now -- but I had known a lot of friends who went to
jail and they spent a lot of their time, and when they came out all
they did was go back to jail. And, you know, I think that jail might
have hardened them up, so they wanted to come out -- like, if nobody
cared about them.
So for myself I had to go to counseling. And at first I
didn't want to go to counseling. But, like, the first time I went I
thought it was dumb and everything, because my friends told my, oh,
don't go to counseling. And at first I used to listen to them, but
then that's when I almost got violated for probation. And I'd go.
And I had to think about myself, that what I was going to do with my
life. So when I went to counseling. That's what the counselors
helped me with, realize that there's other things in the world
besides just your immediate area.
THE PRESIDENT: Had anybody tried to talk you out of
using drugs in the first place, before you did? At home, at school?
MR. JENNINGS: You ask a very good question. I know a
little bit about Alfredo. Tell the President -- your parents were
using, weren't they?
FRED: My parents used. Like, for me it was, like, an
every day thing. Well, not every day, but I saw it around the house.
In ways, you know, I kind of accepted it. I felt, like there was
nothing wrong with it because my Dad, like, he wouldn't really hide
it really, you know, on the weekends when he would do it, even though
he did it on the weekends. And then my family, they're all from --
they were gang members, too. So it's like I kind of was grown up in
the wrong environment in ways. I got like -- I had to accept it.
MR. JENNINGS: Matthew, I think you've probably got
similar experience, don't you?
MATTHEW: Yes. Like, I think maybe instead of taking
marijuana and the high and everything and having people in gangs and
all that stuff -- like, we should have them resort to something. And
if that doesn't work we should have them -- have their parents talk
to them about it. Instead of that --
MR. JENNINGS: Matthew, tell the President about your
own experience. Matthew is Matthew McGarry. He comes from Detroit.
MATTHEW: I overdosed on alcohol.
MR. JENNINGS: At how old?
MATTHEW: At 10. I tried marijuana. I've seen a lot of
acid around my school, many drugs.
MR. JENNINGS: Why did you start?
MATTHEW: Experimenting. I didn't think it would hurt
me. I didn't believe any of the commercials that I saw on TV.
MR. JENNINGS: How come?
MATTHEW: A lot of them overdid it, like, this is your
brain, this is your brain on drugs -- you never believe that. I
mean, you just -- I never believed that. I didn't believe that drugs
fried your brain. I didn't think they would kill you. I didn't
think they could do anything really bad and I didn't believe any of
the commercials.
THE PRESIDENT: So how can we be more effective about
this? Let me just give you one example, because you talked about
this. We know a lot about marijuana, for example, we didn't know 20
or 30 years ago. We now know that it is roughly three times as toxic
as it used to be, number one; and, number two, that it does have bad
health effects on your heart, your lungs, and your brain. And
specifically, for young people -- this is very important for young
people -- sustained use of it makes it more difficult for people to
concentrate, to learn, and to retain. It has a -- we know this now.
So how can we -- you may be right, Matt, maybe we've
overdone it. But what can we do to communicate it in a way that's
effective.
MR. JENNINGS: Very good question. We'll come back to
that in just a moment. Mr. President, you already know, 90 percent
of illegal drug use in America is marijuana. We'll be right back.
* * * * *
MR. JENNINGS: While we've been on a break, the
President and the kids here in the East Room have been talking about
advice to and from one another. And they've been talking -- you've
were talking to the President about marijuana, and the President's
been saying that one of the things that worried him about the
referendums in California and Arizona recently about people approving
of the medicinal use of marijuana was that if it's okay for parents,
it's okay for kids.
Now, I want to come to this whole question of parents
and kids, but a lot of you don't think you're getting a message from
your parents accurately. Is that right?
Alyssa, do you want -- or Lauren?
LAUREN: I have heard a lot about it from TV and my
parents, but we're also -- it's a health unit in school. And so, I
think that helps a lot.
MR. JENNINGS: Who had some advice to the President
about how to communicate this to kids a little better? Ryan?
RYAN: I think it's a lot easier if you have -- not to
do drugs if you have someone to look up to that's not doing drugs, so
that if you got caught or anything, then you would feel real bad
inside because you have someone to look up to.
THE PRESIDENT: And tell me -- give me an example.
RYAN: Well, I don't have any examples because I don't
do drugs. But a lot of my friends do, and they do a lot of pot. And
they have -- that's the most -- the worst thing they've done. But
they don't have anyone to look up to.
THE PRESIDENT: So like somebody in the Big Brother/Big
Sister program.
Q Yes. Or a mentor.
THE PRESIDENT: Or a mentor of some other kind.
MR. JENNINGS: Kirsten.
KIRSTEN: Well, I think what he's saying is exactly
right, and I think it's really important when you can actually look
up to a peer, when it doesn't necessarily have to be an adult. I
know ever since I've been in high school I've been struggling with
how to be a clean person with friends who do drugs, with friends who
I think are wonderful people who are involved with drugs -- but how
to make myself a strong presence. And there are so many times I've
turned the other shoulder when I've walked into a party and seen
marijuana. And I regret that.
But now, I mean, I think that basically people who stay
sober have two obligations. One is to -- and particularly who are
teenagers. One is to make themselves -- is to demonstrate that you
can be a strong person. Basically things like marijuana are easy. I
mean, it seems fun but they're not necessary. And the second is that
I always thought it just wasn't cool to preach. He was saying that
now, after his experience, Dan was saying he would preach. And I was
recently talking to a friend who's a recovering addict, and she said,
as annoying as it was for you to preach to me, that's exactly what I
needed because it was a reality check.
MR. JENNINGS: Mr. President, we were all talking with
Chelsea before you got here. She recently turned 17. When did you
start talking to her about drugs, and what did you talk to her about?
THE PRESIDENT: I think probably when she was probably 7
years old, 6 or 7, something like that, very young. And then she had
-- she went through the DARE program at her school -- which is one
thing I think Philip mentioned -- the DARE officer. She loved her
DARE officer. He had a profound effect on the young people.
But we began when she was very, very young, talking to
her, basically saying that this is wrong, this can cause you great
damage, it can wreck your life, it can steal things from you. It
costs money, it costs you your ability to think, it costs your
self-control, it costs you your freedom in the end. So we talked to
her about it quite a lot when she was very young.
MR. JENNINGS: A lot of people at home know we have a
baby boomer President, and a lot of people in the baby boomer
generation are nervous, apprehensive. Some even think it's
hypocritical to talk to their kids because of their own experience.
What did you tell her about yours?
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I basically told her what I've
told everybody in America, which is when I was 22 years old in
England and I thought there were no consequences, I tried marijuana a
couple of times. But if I had known them what I know now about it, I
would not have done it. And I think that -- I feel the same way Dan
does. I think that if you have done something that you're not
especially proud of, but that you know more about it, you have almost
a bigger obligation to try to prevent other people from getting in
trouble.
I think this business about how the baby boomers all
feel too guilt-ridden to talk to their kids is the biggest load of
hooey I ever heard. They have a bigger responsibility to talk to
their children. Most of us did not -- (applause) -- most of us --
first of all, most of us were much older when the experimentation
started. And secondly, we did not know what we know now. We have no
excuse. We have a greater responsibility, not a smaller one. So it
hasn't bothered me to tell her that she shouldn't make the same
mistakes I did.
I think all parents, by the way, hope their children
won't make the same mistakes they did in many areas of life, not just
this. And so that's part of what being a parent is all about.
MR. JENNINGS: You said something earlier, you mentioned
very briefly earlier, inhalants. And all you have to do is look
under the kitchen sink in anybody's house these days, and you're
going to find something to inhale. I want you to meet George
Marguaritas (phonetic) here. George is currently a patient at
Baltimore's Manor Mountain Treatment Center.
George, I think we're only becoming really aware now of
these inhalants. Tell us your experience, would you?
GEORGE: Well, with me, started off trying to be cool.
Inhalants are really easy to get, you know what I'm saying. You can
just go to the Western Auto store and just buy a spray can of spray
paint or anything, or go to Hechingers and get some paint thinner.
I would have friends that would buy and I would go down
to tracks with them and sniff. I noticed after a while I would start
to slow down, you know what I'm saying. I couldn't remember stuff.
I would have mood swings, you know. I would yell and scream at my
parents and my little brothers. I wouldn't go to school. It was
slowing me down.
MR. JENNINGS: Do you remember why you did it? What was
going on in your life at the time?
GEORGE: Well, why I did it was because I had problems
at home, you know what I'm saying, with my mother. She used to drink
all the time. She used to take her anger out on me. I used to be
hurt by that, so I was, like, well, I'm going to get her back, you
know what I'm saying -- I'm going out and use drugs and stuff.
But now I know that I didn't need to do that, you know
what I'm saying. I could have talked my problems out with her.
Although, it might not have helped, but it could at least took
something off my chest. I'm a recovering addict now, you know what
I'm saying. I'm willing to help anybody who needs help. I know now
that I've got to take my recovery one day at a time.
I been at Mountain Manor two times. The first time I
come, you know, I got so used to it I just started playing around,
you know what I'm saying. And I told everybody that I wasn't going
to use any bigger or badder drug. Because when I first went in there
I started out on marijuana and alcohol and inhalants. But then when
I got out the second time -- I mean, the first time, I tried to
change people, places and things, but the people, places and the
things I was changing was even worse, you know what I'm saying.
I tried to go with the -- I was going with this girl.
And at first, she was cool and everything, and then, I come in her
house one time, and she was smoking crack. And it was like, man.
And then, I was like, what are you doing? But then, in my head, I
wanted to try. So I was like -- I was like, well, if she is doing
it, I can do it. She ain't getting hurt by it. So I tried and then
I got addicted to it.
MR. JENNINGS: What if somebody -- I'm sorry to
interrupt -- what if somebody said to you at the time, it wasn't
cool, would you listen to them? If one of your friends said, don't
do this, you're going to mess up your mind?
GEORGE: No, I wouldn't listen to them. But now I
would, though, because I know now that you don't have to use drugs to
get by in everyday life.
THE PRESIDENT: Do you think that you can have an impact
on other people because of what you've been through?
GEORGE: Yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Can you talk to other people and get
through to them in a way that someone else couldn't because of what
you've been through?
GEORGE: Yes. We've got -- it's called H&R meeting
where people from Mountain Manor, they come in and sometimes the
people in Mountain Manor do a special meeting to talk to other people
in their community and tell them your story. I think some people
touche people. Just as long as I touch one person, I'm all right
because I know that I share something with them that they have been
through.
MR. JENNINGS: Mr. President, Dan -- is also here, right
over here, from Phoenix House in New York who we heard from a little
earlier. Dan was a crack addict.
How tough was it to get off it?
DAN: It was tough only because I made it tough. I
didn't follow the techniques and rules that I learned in my first
in-patient rehab. But after you apply it, it works. But it only
works if you want to work it. So stress came upon me and I wound up
relapsing, which is using drugs again. And it wasn't that hard to
relapse because I wasn't in the right state of mind, I wasn't
thinking clearly. I was doing the normal things that I normally did
-- if I got mad at something or stressed out, I'd just go out and
use, and that's what I was used to doing. So when problems came
around I went out and used. And being on drugs, you can't think. So
stopping right at that moment wasn't my first priority, it was just
more, more, more. That's the only state of mind I had at the time.
MR. JENNINGS: Where's Michael? Michael, you come from
New York, am I right?
MICHAEL: Yes.
MR. JENNINGS: Bayside Queens, I think?
MICHAEL: Yes.
MR. JENNINGS: I know you were talking to Dan earlier,
and you also had a question for the President about this.
MICHAEL: Well, I just wanted to say I think the United
States is so strong and so brave. And our biggest enemy, drugs, I
think we're letting it kill our community and our whole United
States. And I think we should put sanctions on the countries that
sell drugs to the United States and not sell any of the goods that we
sell to them ,and maybe they'll learn something to stop the bad guys
from doing what they do.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, let me tell you a little about
that. Let me just talk for a couple minutes.
First of all, I agree with that. We require countries
where drugs are grown to cooperate with us in trying to destroy them
and arrest the people who are selling them, if they want to keep
getting any kind of aid or any help with trade from us. And I think
that's a good thing.
But let me tell you what they say. I'll tell you what
they say back. They say, okay, we have a poor little country here
and I'm a little farmer and I can grow cocoa to make cocaine, or I
can grow bananas and pineapples and I'll go broke if I do that, and
I'll make money if I do the other thing. The police officers in
these poor countries where the drugs are shipped through -- last year
we know there was something like $500 million spent in Mexico alone
to make payments to police officers that like tripled or quadrupled
their annual salary. And so these countries that try to help us that
are poor, where the drugs are grown, they say if the Americans didn't
buy -- the American people have five percent of the world's
population and buy 50 percent of the world's drugs. And if they
didn't want the drugs and weren't willing to pay these outrageous
prices for them, we wouldn't have a market and we'd have to go do
something else for a living.
In other words, I think you're right. We have to be
tougher on them. And last year we had record numbers of destruction
of drugs in foreign countries and arrests and all that. But as long
as there is as much money as there is, and as long as Americans are
just dying to have it, it's going to be impossible to completely
eradicate. And we need to do more.
But all of us have to take responsibility, too. If we
didn't have a drug problem in this country, they would go broke and
they would go do something else. Now, I'm not saying we shouldn't do
more in other countries, but we have to take a lot of responsibility
here, too.
MR. JENNINGS: A show of hands -- radio, again -- a show
of hands from the kids only, is he convincing? Well, you didn't do
too badly. Okay, we'll continue in a just moment.
THE PRESIDENT: It's better than I did in the election.
That's great. (Laughter.)
MR. JENNINGS: We'll be right back.
* * * * *
MR. JENNINGS: By the way, I forgot to tell those of you
at home, in case you've got a pencil handy, that you can raise
drug-free kids. And we have a lot of people here today who prove
that. And actually at ABC maybe we can help because we have a
booklet which the network has produced called, "How to Raise
Drug-Free Kids." And if you call the following number, you can get
it: 1-800-ABC-3329, 1-800-ABC-3329.
Now, I'm not sure I'm right here, but maybe some of
these kids might have some ideas about the media. There's a big
controversy about whether they're all getting the right messages in
the media or whether we're contributing to a sort of notion that
drugs are okay. So I'm going to start with Eric and then come to
Brandon.
Eric.
ERIC: The media does play a big factor on young kids
today because we tend to look at a lot of TV shows. And some shows
play a big part in life, some doesn't. You have to have a leeway to
know which ones play a real factor in your life and not the drug
commercials. If you're serious about knowing and knowing knowledge
about drugs, you will listen.
MR. JENNINGS: Do you think the President should do
anything about that?
ERIC: I think he should keep on increasing more of
those --
THE PRESIDENT: More of the antidrug commercials?
ERIC: Antidrug commercials.
MR. JENNINGS: But now somebody said earlier --
THE PRESIDENT: What about what Matt said --
MR. JENNINGS: -- there were too many of them.
THE PRESIDENT: -- that if you overdo it, people won't
believe it? What's the answer to that -- Matt?
MATTHEW: A lot of kids are -- they don't believe it --
you know, it's just not the right message.
THE PRESIDENT: So what is the right message? Go ahead.
MR. JENNINGS: Kirsten.
KIRSTEN: Well, I think the media, a lot of TV shows,
they promote drug use. Some characters might be into drugs and it
drags on over the weeks. You see, sometimes there is a little bit of
change in the character, but pretty much the character is the same as
when they started out, so kids are like, well, oh, they're on drugs,
but they haven't changed. I mean, well, I can use drugs, and I'll be
the same. Nothing will happen to me.
MR. JENNINGS: Right beside you.
Q Yes, and I also -- I saw a show a couple of nights
ago where somebody got high on -- I think it was like muscle relaxing
pills or something, and I think that might send a message to kids
that it --
MR. JENNINGS: That was sitcom or the news?
Q No, it was a sitcom. And I think that that might
send the message to kids that it's okay or that something funny will
happen because they made a joke out of it.
MR. JENNINGS: Brandon.
BRANDON: I think that the commercials that they have
are sometimes false in many ways, because I know that they've got
cartoon oneS out saying, oh, it's dumb to do drugs. But most kids in
my classes in the school that I know -- my grade -- would think that
this is some joke. And they show them trying to give away marijuana
to the kid, trying to get them started for free, but that's totally
untrue.
MR. JENNINGS: Right behind Brandon -- Hillary.
HILLARY: As far as the media saying, "Just say no to
drugs," I don't think it hurts anything, but really, I think most
kids just ignore it. The most important thing would be to set an
example. I think if kids see other kids and peers and other adults
not getting involved in anything at all, and coming down harder in
the community, then it would be more effective than the commercials.
MR. JENNINGS: All right. Now, I hate to tell you -- I
told you at the beginning, an hour was going to go awful fast.
Mr. President, we're going to give you a couple of
minutes here. It's your house -- it's our house, but you're living
in it. Thank you for having us.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I'm going to give you back the two
minutes. I'm going to give you two minutes to tell me anything
specific you think I could do to help more kids stay off drugs.
MR. JENNINGS: Okay. You're going to have to make it
very quick.
THE PRESIDENT: Very quick, though. Real quick. One
line, everybody.
FRED: What you need to do is make more mentorship
programs, more after-school programs where a kid could keep himself
busy right after school.
GEORGE: There should be more treatment centers and more
education.
MICHAEL: People who are in jail should have more
learning while they're in jail, and not just getting out and learning
more while they're in the system.
ANTOINE: You should have more police officers out on
the street, make sure nobody is selling drugs.
DAN: I think you need more of a firsthand look from
people who have experience with this problem to -- that's it.
CHRIS: I think you should cut back on the cartooning
commercials and make there be more live-action commercials that get
to the point about drugs.
THE PRESIDENT: Give evidence.
LAUREN: More education programs for kids and younger
kids about the harmful effects.
ALYSSA: Well, I think that the cartoons they really
don't believe because it's just -- if they do it then they think it's
cool anyway.
PHILIP: I also think that you should open up more
after-school programs where kids have sports to do after school, keep
them active.
ALLY: I think the parents need to get really, really
involved with their kids, not matter how many times their kids try to
make them stay away from them.
MR. JENNINGS: Boy, don't you wish you could get such
fast, cogent advice from your Cabinet members? (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: It's great, and I think -- first of all,
I agree with the after-school arguments, the mentoring arguments, the
treatment -- all the things you have said. But I think it's a good
thing that we ended with Ally, because we know that children that
have parents who work with them and deal with this issue are much
less likely to be in trouble.
MR. JENNINGS: Mr. President, thank you very much for
having us here to the East Room in the White House. Thank you, kids,
you've helped us a lot.
I'm Peter Jennings. Have a good day, everybody.
Good-bye from Washington. (Applause.)
END 12:00 Noon EST
Contact Us | Site Map | Privacy Policy | Accessibility Home | Documents | Information Exchange Services Special Topics | Resources | State Information | Online Resources Last Updated 11-7-02 |