Remarks by President Trump at Grant Announcement for Drug-Free Communities Support Program | Eastern North Carolina Now

Press Release:

    Roosevelt Room  •  August 29, 2018  •  2:40 P.M. EDT

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, thank you very much. It's an honor to be here today with community leaders from across our country whose incredible work is helping young Americans live a drug-free life. So important. And I want to congratulate the people in the room - done an incredible job. Nothing is easy, right? Nothing is easy, but you've done an incredible job.
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    Today, my administration is providing a record $91 million to support the Drug-Free Communities initiative. Grants will be awarded to more than 730 community groups in all 50 states -that's a lot of groups, that's a lot of people - impacting more communities than ever before. We've never done anything to this extent. We've never done anything this large, or where we reached out to so many people. Great people.

    The Drug-Free Communities program is a proven success, cutting alcohol and prescription drug abuse by an average of nearly 20 percent among high school students and participating communities. That's a 20-percent reduction, which is pretty much at the top of the pack. Incredible what they have been able to do.

    You should all be extremely proud of your life - really, this is going to be a life's work, and a very important life's work. So great going.

    I also want to thank Deputy Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy - somebody who really takes it to heart and very strongly. We speak, and he is in love with what he does because of the results that he's getting. And that's Jim Carroll.

    Jim, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

    MR. CARROLL: Thank you, Mr. President.

    THE PRESIDENT: Countless Americans are affected by the dangers of substance abuse. Many of us have a friend, a colleague, or a loved one who has struggled with dependency. I have. I had a brother who had a very big alcohol problem. He was a great guy. A great life - great potential. The best-looking person. I have to admit, he was much better looking than me. (Laughter.) But he was the best-looking guy. Had the best personality. But he had an addiction to alcohol. It's all an addiction. And it really - it really destroyed his life. It was very tough - a very tough thing for our family.

    Sadly, in 2017, an estimated 134 Americans died each day from opioid-related overdoses - 134 people a day.

    My administration supports ongoing bipartisan efforts to pass legislation to combat the opioid crisis. We are dedicated to ending this crisis. And we will end this crisis, or at least we will get it down to a level, Jim, where we can do things and maybe go from there. But we're getting it down to a level that's a lot lower than people thought possible at the time.

    In one year, we reduced high-dose opioid prescriptions by 16 percent. We increased funding by $6 billion to combat the opioid crisis. That's a record. We got that approved just last year, and the money is now starting to flow through the system.

    We declared a public health emergency, and launched a nationwide public awareness campaign. We are expanding treatment and recovery support services.

    We are holding drug traffickers accountable for their crimes. We are really going after the traffickers; I have always said that's the biggest thing. And, frankly, the punishment is getting stronger and stronger. Maybe, at some point, we'll get very smart as a nation and give them the ultimate punishment.

    In few moments, we're going to hear directly from the incredible coalition leaders and youth representatives that are with us today. But, first, I'd like to ask a great friend of mine who has been with us for a long time, and somebody that's really done a beautiful job, Deputy Director Jim Carroll, to say a few words.

    Jim, please.

    MR. CARROLL: Thank you Mr. President. It's a great honor to serve as the head of National Drug Control Policy for you. What is also a great honor is being able to work with the communities, and to work with these community leaders throughout the country.

    I go around the country, and, in fact, I go around the world with some of the programs that you are putting in place. And what we are seeing is, quite frankly, people who are a biy surprised by the level of commitment that you have shown.

    And quite frankly, it's not just the financial commitment that we are talking about today - with the record number of dollars being put toward these resources, the record number of communities. Sixty million people are living in a drug-free community.

    But, candidly, Mr. President, I think that they have been overwhelmed by your personal commitment, by your passion and compassion on this subject. When I'm out on the road, that's what I hear our people have really taken to heart: the words that you have given them, in addition, of course, to the resources. But they really understand.

    So I'm very eager for you to meet 6 of the 731 today, led by General Dean.

    THE PRESIDENT: That's right.

    MR. CARROLL: And so thank you for allowing me - you told me, at the beginning, to be relentless. And you meant it across all three: to be help with - relentless on education and prevention, relentless on making sure people get treatment, and, of course, be relentless on interdiction and on stopping the drugs.

    And thank you for your support. We're doing all three.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Jim. It's beautiful.

    General, how about saying a few words, please?

    GENERAL DEAN: Thank you, Mr. President. It's an honor to be here. Thank you for your commitment, and for honoring us by announcing these grants today.

    Since I left the Army, I have been serving and have had the pleasure to serve as a chairman and CEO of Community Anti-Drug Coalition of America. It's been 20 years come this Friday.

    In that fight, we have built and have funded, through the drug-free communities program, over 2,000 coalitions, of which there are 731 actively now. Working with the Office of National Drug Control Policy, we've had this program - CADCA took this concept to ONDCP and to Congress, and got it enacted into law.

    And over the last 20 years, working with previous administrations and yours, we have kept it funded. And we are so excited to see that the dollars, now, are nearly approaching $100 million.

    I would say to you, Mr. President, that, as you cited, the results that these coalitions that are represented here today are achieving are exceptional. I can think of no other grant program in Washington that can achieve so many results for the amount of dollars that are put into them.

    I would say to you also that we have kept these coalitions through our training and through our Coalition Academy. And I would say that, if you look at the country - and you know this well, Mr. President - there are more than 3,000 counties in the United States - about 3,300 counties.

    We currently, over the 20 years, have built 731 of these coalitions. And CADCA's goal - would to be to have one of these multi-sector coalitions in every county in America. And I would like to work with you and your administration so that we can continue to have every county in America having one of these coalitions that are going to help them build down their substance abuse rates. And we know that's possible, and we thank you for your leadership.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, General. That's very nice. And we will be working together for a long time.

    GENERAL DEAN: Thank you so much. Thank you.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you.

    GENERAL DEAN: We look forward to it. Now I want to introduce a young lady who is sitting to your right. She first met us when she was a freshman in high school. She came to our National Youth Leadership Academy where we train over 2,000 young people every year -

    THE PREDISENT: Good.

    GENERAL DEAN: - to take this fight back to their community.

    Because we were impressed with her, we asked her to become one of our trainers. She did that. She just graduated high school. She is headed off to Loyola College.

    THE PRESIDENT: Good. That's a good school.

    GENERAL DEAN: She's traveled with me internationally, as well. And she is a great example of what young people are doing in their communities to fight this issue. And I wanted her to give you a short summary of what she's doing.

    THE PRESIDENT: Great. Go ahead.

    MS. PATI: Thank you, Mr. President. So my name is Ananya Pati. I'm from Chicago, Illinois. And I've been working with our coalition for approximately four years now. And they have been DFC-funded for a majority of those years.

    And with them, we have been able to see a statistical decrease in the use of alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco. And through CADCA, as General Dean mentioned, I have the ability to collaborate with youth across the country who, likewise, have been funded by the DFC grant.

    And together, we are able to notice that you are giving us the power to work truly in our communities from a bottom perspective going up.

    So, this March, I actually had the opportunity to go to Vienna, Austria, as the U.S. youth delegate for the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs. And there, I was able to collaborate with youth from across the world. And I was comparing and contrasting different ways of prevention that's done across the world.

    And truly, the ONDCP's DFC grant is one of kind because we are giving power to the local communities to do what they deem necessary.

    And so I truly wanted to thank you for giving all that power and trust to the local communities to deal with these local problems.

    THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. That was so beautifully done. Wow, I almost want to applaud. (Laughter.)

    Well, see, now, with all of these people, you're going to become very famous. And you'll probably end up being a television star, and you'll forget all about me. Right? (Laughter.)

    Thank you, darling. I appreciate it. Really beautifully done.

    MS. PATI: Thank you.

    THE PRESIDENT: Would you like to say something?

    MR. HUGHETT: Oh -

    THE PRESIDENT: That's a tough one to compete with. (Laughter.)

    MR. HUGHETT: You've have a point there, Mr. President. My name is Jacob Hughett, I'm from Scott County, Tennessee.

    THE PRESIDENT: Good.

    MR. HUGHETT: And I'm honored to be here. I have to tell you, I'm the least deserving person to be able to represent my county. For the past five years, I've wanted to do nothing but help my community. And without organizations like STAND and CADCA, and the people like Mr. Carroll and General Dean, it wouldn't have been possible. STAND altered my life.

    My family, they have a long history of drug and alcohol abuse. And my parents, they were the exception. And I've kind of realized that the good life I've had, they weren't able to.

    My grandpa, he was in World War II. He got wounded and he coped using alcohol for his PTSD. It was nothing for him to wake up in the middle of the night and think he was in a warzone, and try to escape from the house. And he'd (inaudible) to make it.

    On my dad's side, he wasn't encouraged to go to school. He has an eighth-grade education. And the life that my parents made for themselves - my dad is a maintenance man for the local school system, and I'm proud of him.

    THE PRESIDENT: Good.

    MR. HUGHETT: And my mother is a teacher with three degrees. And my entire life, my dad has pushed me and encouraged me to get an education, and my mom has taught me how to use it.

    And, I have to tell you, without - if a coalition like STAND had existed when they were children, their lives would have been way different. And I will not stop advocating for my county until every child has the same opportunities that I've been blessed with.

    I want to thank you for your time.

    THE PRESIDENT: Well, I have to tell you, I think he maybe did just as well. (Laughter.)

    MS. PATI: I agree.

    THE PRESIDENT: And he had no idea this was coming. (Laughter.) You had a little idea, he had - he had no idea. That was a great job. Thank you very much, and say hello to everybody, okay? Tell them we're proud of you. That's a beautiful job.

    How about you?

    MS. COONEY: Hi, okay, I am Savannah Cooney. I'm from Raymond, New Hampshire. That's in southeastern New Hampshire.

    I'm with the Raymond Coalition for Youth, and my biggest - if I could give you one thing - my experience being in a coalition and the work I've done, is that the youth voice is vital if we're going to try to work on prevention.

    Youth are just naturally going to listen to other youth more than they're going to (inaudible) to adults because they can connect to their peers. So by empowering and educating those youths that are involved with the coalition, also getting more people involved in the coalition through community events and such, those things are so important because then we're able to give to our peers who may not have been involved with the coalition.

    And we can break social norms and we can tell them, you know, drinking and marijuana use is not just a rite of passage that we have to go through; there are so many other options.

    And, coming from New Hampshire, we do have a - and the whole country does have an opioid crisis. And I - although we are working directly with that, we are very certain that, if we keep working with the alcohol and marijuana prevention with teens, that is really where we're going to find - that's the start that then becomes an opioid crisis.
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