Proclamation 4251—Drug Abuse Prevention Week, 1973

No problem faced by America is more insidious than the problem of drug abuse. It strikes at the heart of our national well-being, destroying lives, breeding crime, dividing families, and shredding the fabric of mutual trust and concern which is the hallmark of a decent society.

In the past four years, I have given the highest priority to the work of eliminating this danger to our Nation. That effort is now bearing fruit.

Improved law enforcement is reducing illicit narcotics supplies. International cooperation has increased the number of seizures of heroin, opium, and other narcotics. Arrests of drug traffickers and pushers are rising, while drug-related crimes in our major cities have begun to decline. Increased resources for the rehabilitation of addicts have resulted in a decrease in narcotic-related deaths. New treatment facilities are providing for addicts an avenue of escape from the tyranny of drugs.

These indices of progress are heartening, for they demonstrate that we can eliminate drug abuse as America's public enemy number one and that we are on the way to meeting that objective.

But our recent success should not cause us to slacken on our pace in this battle. Rather, it should inspire us to redouble our efforts with a view to achieving final victory.

Now, Therefore, I, Richard Nixon, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week of October 21-27, 1973, as Drug Abuse Prevention Week.

Drug Abuse Prevention Week this year will provide the fourth annual observance of our national commitment to remove drug abuse as a threat to our national life. As the family is the keystone of American life, the theme of Drug Abuse Prevention Week 1973 will be The American Family—A Response to Drug Abuse. I hope that our people will give particular emphasis at this time to the role of the family in strengthening our Nation's moral fiber. And let us remember, too, that lasting success in the battle against drug abuse will come only if all members of our national family work closely together in this historic struggle.

I call upon officials at every level of government, upon educators, medical professionals, and communicators, upon the business community and the civic groups of our Nation, upon the churches and the clergy, and upon all who bear the special trusts of parenthood and care of the young, to rededicate themselves during this week to the total banishment of drug abuse from American life.

I again urge every American to commit himself whole-heartedly, beginning now, to this supremely important humanitarian cause.

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

RICHARD NIXON