INTRODUCTION

The government alone cannot stop drug abuse.

The epidemic in our city and in our country is the result of millions of individual choices. The first and most important truth about the war on drugs is that it is waged by and against individual people, not by the government. The war will be won only if and when the people decide they will no longer accept drug abuse.

The "war," then, is really about changing attitudes. The actions outlined below are designed to change attitudes of addicts by giving hope; of pushers, by introducing stringent, certain punishment; and of the vast majority who know drugs are dangerous but feel drug use is a matter of private choice.

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But even if the government cannot solve the problem, its role is an important one. The government should help those who want to break the chains of chemical addiction. It should educate the people on the dangers of the product. And it should punish the drug dealers who would enslave others with their wares.

Most of all, the government has a duty to safeguard the nation's young

protect.

not merely to warn and to educate, but to

They are our future. If the war on drugs is ever to be won, it will be won when today's "Just Say No" generation translates the gradeschool slogan into lifelong adult behavior.