Proclamation 3981—Drug Abuse Prevention Week, 1970

The past decade has seen the abuse of drugs grow from essentially a local police problem into a serious threat to the health and safety of millions of Americans. The number of narcotics addicts in the United States is estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands and the effects of their addiction spread far beyond their own lives.

Statistics tell but part of the tragedy of drug abuse. The crippled lives of young Americans, the shattered hopes of their parents, the rending of the social fabric—as addicts inevitably turn to crime in order to supply a costly habit—these are the personal tragedies, the human disasters that tell the real story of what drug abuse does to individuals and can do to our nation.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week beginning May 24, 1970, as Drug Abuse Prevention Week.

I call upon officials of the Federal government, particularly in the Departments of Justice and Health, Education and Welfare, to join with educators and administrators of the academic community at large in establishing meaningful programs for the promotion of drug abuse prevention among young people. I urge State and local governments, as well as business, professional, and civic groups, to cooperate in such programs and to exercise their initiative in exploring new methods by which the potential dangers of drug experimentation can be communicated to the entire nation. The communications media can provide invaluable assistance in this regard, and I request their full support of this endeavor.

I encourage members of the clergy, and all those whose activities interrelate with young people, to make a special effort during this week to discourage drug abuse, to end drug experimentation, and to eliminate illegal drug traffic.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-eighth day of April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and seventy, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and ninety-fourth.

RICHARD NIXON