CADCA ENDORSES GOVERNOR BUSH’S PLAN FOR INCREASED INVESTMENT IN COMMUNITY ANTI-DRUG COALITIONS

Alexandria, Virginia – Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) Chairman and CEO General Arthur T. Dean (Retired) issued the following statement in response to Governor George W. Bush’s announcement of his anti-drug policy agenda, which includes a proposal to provide $350 million in funding for the Drug-Free Communities Act, a federal program designed to promote the growth and creation of community anti-drug coalitions:

“There are some problems in this country that require Americans of all backgrounds to come together and work in earnest to solve.  Substance abuse among our young people is one such issue.  This morning presidential candidate George W. Bush is offering a plan that would help America solve its drug problem through expanded investment in solutions applied where the problem exists – at the community level.  Governor Bush’s plan to invest $350 million in the Drug-Free Communities Act will help and expand the existing grassroots network of community anti-drug coalitions that have taken responsibility for making their communities safe, healthy and drug-free.  We at CADCA welcome this proposal and hope that it will initiate in the presidential campaign the kind of thoughtful debate and consideration that America’s number one social problem clearly deserves.”

“In assessing the merit of our approach to drug control policy, it is important that we place our resources where they have been proven effective in the past.  Four years of funding through the Drug-Free Communities Act, legislation that has enjoyed broad, bipartisan support in Congress, has taught us that dollar-for-dollar, community anti-drug coalitions represent America’s best hope of preventing and reducing substance abuse and drug-related violence – one community at a time.”

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