Campaign against drugs

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32637, 19 June 1971, Page 17

Campaign against drugs

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) WASHINGTON,

June 18.

President Nixon has declared all-out war on drug addiction, and has asked Congress for an extra SUSISSm to deal with the problem, which he now describes as a national emergency.

The extra requested would bring to SUS37Im the amount to be spent on fighting drug abuse.

About SUSIOSm of the additional money would be used for the treatment and rehabilitation of drug addicts, a growing number of whom

are in the United States forces in Vietnam.

An estimated 30,000 American troops in Vietnam are believed to be heroin addicts, and Mr Nixon has asked Congress to pass legislation permitting the armed services to retain for treatment narcotics addicts due for discharge. The President says that he proposes to establish a new office within the White House which would, for the first time, co-ordinate all Federal programmes dealing with drug prevention, education, treatment and research. Mr Nixon has also announced a drive to reduce drug supplies from abroad and to take action against drug-pushers, although the new office will not be directly concerned with these

aspects of war on drug addiction. Government health experts have estimated that there are about 250,000 hard-drug addicts in the United States, and that the number is growing steadily. In his special message to Congress, Mr Nixon says that in the city of New York alone last year, more than 1000 people died from drug-taking—more than five times as many as in 1960. “A tide of drug abuse has swept America in the last decade, and heroin has become a deadly poison in the nation’s lifestream,” he says. “The problem has assumed the dimensions of a national emergency, and I intend to take every step necessary to deal with it,” he said.