Remarks at the Opening Session of the Governors' Conference at the Department of State.

Ladies and gentlemen:

It is my pleasure to welcome all of you, also, and to make one other presentation. We presented the First Lady and Mrs. Agnew, and I think the first lady of the Governors' Conference, Mrs. [John A.] Love, also ought to stand and be heard later. She will represent all the first ladies from the various States who are here.

This Conference is an unusual one, as you have heard, because not only are the Governors in attendance but their wives and their families.

I would like to tell you how this Conference came about. We had a presentation in the Cabinet, which, I think those present agreed, was one of the most impressive and certainly one that had greater effect on our thinking than any that we have had.

We had the same presentation for Members of Congress. I happened to sit by Speaker McCormack that day on the one side, and Mike Mansfield, the Democratic leader, on the other side. Each individually told me that in all of the years they have attended bipartisan conferences at the White House, that presentation on narcotics and dangerous drugs was the most effective that they had ever heard.

For this reason, the fact that this presentation had been so effective before the Cabinet and before the legislative leaders, we thought it also should be made to the Governors. It should be made to you also, because if we are to do what needs to be done, we not only have to do it at the Federal level, we need of course, State cooperation, city cooperation, county cooperation, government volunteer activities at all levels.

Now the presentation itself will cover in more specific terms the general points I would like to make.

First, with regard to the magnitude of the problem--and I am going to use statistics that are deliberately cautious but which certainly can be sustained by any reasonable objective observer: The number of people in the United States who use marihuana is 8 million; the number of people who use heroin--and when they use it, that means they will not be able to get off its use--is 180,000.

But now putting it in another dimension, the number of people of college age who use marihuana or have used it, is one-third of all the college students of the Nation. The number of students of high school age who have used marihuana is 16 percent.

Now let's look at where those various groups break down. There has been sort of a general thought that so far as drugs were concerned, we find them in the ghettos, among the deprived, those who are depressed and turn to drugs as a last resort. That may have once been the case. It is not the case today.

The primary use, as far as drugs are concerned, has moved to the upper middle class, those families who have better opportunities than others who have less of this world's goods. Consequently, we see that the problem is not limited to any region of the country, it isn't limited to any segment of the society. It hits the young as well as the old and is indeed a national problem.

Now, what is its effect? Here we get some arguments. There are those who say marihuana has perhaps as little effect as alcohol has, and, of course, that all depends on the quantity in either case. There are others who point out that when we start with marihuana, then the inevitable result is to move on to LSD or whatever provides the bigger thrill, until eventually the individual moves to heroin or the so-called hard narcotics from which there is virtually no recovery. But we do know effects in terms of hard statistics.

I notice that Mayor [Walter E.] Washington is here from Washington, D.C., who has major responsibilities--we were talking about this problem the other day, the problem of robberies in the city, and it is interesting to note that over half of the robberies in the city of Washington are committed by people who are addicted to drugs, which indicates either cause or effect, or both. Whether one leads to the other or vice versa is not really material to the point. There is a direct relationship in one way or the other.

We can also go further in terms of that effect. In the city of New York alone, I was looking at some statistics that were presented by Mr. Moynihan, and in 1 week 100 people died in the city of New York alone because of overdoses of drugs--heroin, or some other types. This is an indication of what drugs can do.

But let's put it in other, certainly broader, more important dimensions. When we look to the history of civilizations we find that those civilizations that have turned on a broad, general basis to drugs, and particularly when that affliction reaches the leader classes of those civilizations, those civilizations inevitably lose their spirit. They go down. They are destroyed. This is what happens.

The question is, is it going to happen to America? We have many problems in this country--material problems, problems we will deal with in this Conference when we meet again in February, and which we will deal with in Washington, and you will deal with in your State capital, problems of the environment and other problems that can be dealt with in a material way. But when the spirit of the people is destroyed, it is almost impossible to restore that spirit.

There is not any question but that when drug addiction becomes a national malady, affecting all segments of the population, that there is the danger that the spirit of a nation may certainly be impaired.

These are some of the factors we have to have in mind.

There is one final point which will indicate a personal commitment. You will hear later from Art Linkletter, who will put this in very personal terms, as he put it to us when he spoke to the Cabinet and the legislative leaders.

Shortly after my nomination last year, I received a number of letters as you might imagine. I received one that was unsigned, by a girl in San Diego, who said she was

19 years of age. She told me her story. She came from a good family. She went to Sunday school and church as a little girl. She started on marihuana and then went to LSD, and she was now hooked on heroin and she was in some hospital for whatever therapy could be provided in order to restore her to some degree of health.

It was a letter which moved me emotionally, as it would have moved anyone here. The concluding paragraph of that letter was this. She said: "Mr. Nixon, I think you are going to be elected. If you are, as President, will you try to do something to see that what happened to me does not happen to other young people across this country?"

I am going to keep my promise to that young girl, and I want all of you to help me keep that promise, not because I personally have a stake in it, in the sense of politics, just as you personally would not think in those terms, but because we have a national responsibility--a national responsibility to all of the young people of this Nation to see to it that they have a chance to grow up, to grow up without having their spirit destroyed and their health destroyed by turning to drugs.

Then I would add this final point. I have learned a lot in these presentations. I must say that when they first started, I thought the answer was more penalties. I thought that the answer was simply enforce the law and that will stop people from the use of drugs. But it is not that.

When you are talking about 13-yearolds and 14-year-olds and 15-year-olds, the answer is not more penalties. The answer is information. The answer is understanding.

It is very important to be quite precise, to distinguish between marihuana and LSD and heroin so that we can all know what the effect of each is and so that we will be able to make the case against each, if the case is to be made against each on the facts as they are, rather than on the facts as we thought they were before we received the knowledge which we are going to receive in this briefing today.

We are glad that all of you are here, the Governors, their wives, and particularly their children, so that we can get the facts, and so that all of us can go back to our communities and be able to wage a campaign--a campaign of information and education that will reach all of the people in the States of this Nation, because that campaign of education and information, in my opinion, is probably more important than the criminal penalties that we will be talking about later in this session today.

That is part of the process. But when you get to the point that you have to apply criminal penalties to the users and dispensers of drugs, then the damage has already been done. What we are trying to do is get at it before they reach that point. We ask your assistance in that.

Now the presentation will go on, and you can judge for yourself whether you agree with the Congressmen and the Cabinet and the Senators about the importance of this Conference, and whether you think, in your judgment, this trip to Washington by the Governors and their families was worthwhile.

Thank you.