TO THE CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES
I am pleased to transmit the 2003 National Drug Control Strategy, consistent with the Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 1998 (21 U.S.C. 1705).
A critical component of our Strategy is to teach young people how to avoid illegal drugs because of the damage drugs can do to their health and future. Our children must learn early that they have a lifelong responsibility to reject illegal drug use and to stay sober. Our young people who avoid drugs will grow up best able to participate in the promise of America.
Yet far too many Americans already use illegal drugs, and most of those whose drug use has progressed—more than five million Americans—do not even realize they need help. While those who suffer from addiction must help themselves, family, friends, and people with drug experiences must do their part to help to heal and to make whole men and women who have been broken by addiction.
We know the drug trade is a business. Drug traffickers are in that business to make money, and this Strategy outlines how we intend to deny them revenue. In short, we intend to make the drug trade unprofitable wherever we can.
Our Strategy is performance-based, and its success will be measured by its results. Those results are our moral obligation to our children. I ask for your continued support in this critical endeavor.
THE WHITE HOUSE
Last Updated: October 31, 2003
