Opening Remarks
Daniel Schecter
Deputy Director for Demand Reduction (Acting)
Office of National Drug Control Policy
United States
Good Morning. Welcome to the third Bi-National
U.S.-Mexico Drug Demand Reduction Conference.
Many of you will remember two years ago when
we held the first bi-national conference in El
Paso, Texas. This kind of gathering had never
been done before. There were no examples in
history of two
contiguous nations
convening their
experts together to
jointly hold a
conversation on how
to cooperatively
reduce the use of
illegal drugs.
Well, that
conference was a
tremendous success.
In fact, those of you who were there would
remember that on the final day of the
conference, on a Friday afternoon, in the final
moments of the final plenary session, the room
was packed; nobody had left. I think that
speaks to the interest and the commitment on
both sides of the border to find common
solutions to common problems.
A second conference was hosted by Mexico last
year in Tijuana, again, a highly successful
conference. Now, here we are; a third U.S.-Mexico
conference which we hope will be the
most successful of all. And it will be followed, I
am sure, by a fourth, a fifth, and a sixth. The
reason I am so confident of this is because of
the many relationships that have been formed,
collegial relationships among experts from both
countries, working together outside of these
conferences throughout the year in many, many
different settings. You will be hearing about
those collaborations over the next two days.
Although this is the official opening of the
conference many of us have already been
meeting for two days. On Tuesday, we had a
very successful day-long meeting of bi-national
researchers, hosted by the National Institute on
Drug Abuse. Yesterday, we held pre-conference
sessions on prevention, treatment and on
communicating anti-drug messages.
Before we get to our distinguished panel of
speakers, I would like to call upon a very special
young lady to say a few words to us. Her name
is Sofia Magaly Camorlinga; she is twenty years
old, from the State of Colima, and attends the
University of Colima, majoring in Public
Administration. She was a participant in our
first youth forum last year in Tijuana and we are
continuing that youth forum here. As a result of
this conversation, Sofia and others in Mexico
formed a national youth coalition organization
for the prevention of addictions—yet another
tangible example of the benefits of this
collaboration.
Sofia Magaly Camorlinga
Youth Representative
Mexico
Good Morning. First of all I would like to thank
everyone for the opportunity provided us, as
part of the young
people of the
world, to come to
a forum such as
this to express
ourselves. I would
like to convey a
message that was
collectively drafted
by youth
organizations here
present as well as
those who have been working in their
communities. I’m going to be reading the
message in order not to omit any details.
We are here speaking the different views of the
coalition of youth organizations for the
prevention of addiction and critical conditions
associated with it. This is from the organization,
the neighborhood, the rock band, the dance
group, the football team or just the boys and
girls out in the field; in the cities, in the schools,
on the corner of the street; those of us who
undertake different actions to prevent the use
and dependence on psychoactive drugs and
substances. This coalition is comprised of young
people of different ages, ways of thinking,
identities, political affiliations and even with
different beliefs, religious beliefs and sexual
preferences. We have interests as diverse as
the cultural economic and political conditions
that we find in Chiapas or Quintana Roo, in
Mexico City or Morelos, in Tijuana or Ciudad
Juarez.
In spite of our differences, which we assume
with joy in order to enrich each other, we have
been working together, so that in our own small
way we might transcend our local living
conditions. We are a hundred and twenty youth
organizations working throughout almost all of
the states of Mexico. We are most willing to
take action and we have the desire to achieve
much in our coalition.
Today our youth, both in the United States and
Mexico, are here to talk about our concerns and
proposals for continuing the work. We want to
share this with government agencies and non-government
organizations that are also
concerned about the conditions of youth in order
to jointly build public policies that will take into
account our contributions.
We know that the phenomenon of production,
trafficking, distribution and consumption of
drugs is increasingly complex and growing in
both countries. This is related to poverty,
violence, insecurity, delinquency and social
exclusion. It is not merely a legal issue or a
national security issue. The consequences of
drug use concerns youth, the family, the priest,
teachers, police, community leaders and
officials. With their support we strive to put in
place the promotion of prevention programs that
address these issues and the critical related
consequences. We feel that is very important to
promote the distinct efforts and models that
take place at the local level in youth
organizations that are based on the prevailing
local conditions. We know that this can take
place at different levels, but we hope that
efforts will be undertaken jointly so that
governments, institutions, youth organization
and young people can go forward together.
We presented our desires at the second bi-national
conference in Tijuana and you have
been working for us and with us. We want you
to continue working with us. It is our proposal
that we continue working collectively with the
young people of both Mexico and the United
States. We want to build this coalition further.
What we have done thus far has been hard
work and we have run into certain obstacles, but
we realize that we have progressed to the point
where our efforts can transcend any border.
After our participation in the second bi-national
conference where 50 young people attended in
order to build a coalition, we in Mexico decided
to invite other youth organizations so that they
could join our fight. We met at a national camp
that was held in the State of Morelos, and we
also had two regional meetings, one in Ciudad
Juarez, Chihuahua and the other in Tuxtla
Gutierrez, Chiapas. In December we held our
first national meeting in Mexico City with 120
organizations participating.
There we decided on an action plan for this
year. A communication structure was also
created so that we could all keep in touch with
the work that each organization is doing. It
would take a very long time for me to tell you
what every organization has done, but on the
second floor of this hotel, we have a display that
shows the work being done by each
organization.
We youth agree that the drug demand reduction
work requires political, social and economic
support in order to reduce drug use. And we
must not forget the commitment of the last bi-national
conference to create a fund that will
support the projects of youth organizations.
For a long time young people have been
considered as passive role players in the
phenomenon of drug use and abuse. And now
we enthusiastically see that the governments of
both of our countries, Mexico and the United
States, are again demonstrating that they’re
quite open to us by inviting us and supporting
our participation in this event.
Together with the experts and those responsible
for programs, we are capable of collaborating in
this program as well as many others that impact
our young people. The message of
irresponsibility or lack of social awareness that
has for many years been the weight upon the
shoulders of our youth, is now being reversed
through the dynamics and creativity of our
young people.
Together with government organizations, social
organizations, as well as with the help of
researchers and others, we wish to no longer be
part of the problem. We want to become an
essential component for its solution. We know
that our contribution will add up and that this
third bi-national conference will end with
commitments and agreements that the
associations will undertake and live up to.
We invite you to join forces with us and to
commit to working together with us so that we
can reduce the demand for drugs in our
countries. Thank you.
Barry R. McCaffrey
Director
Office of National Drug Control Policy
Executive Office of the President
United States
Thank you for that
introduction. You
know, each year
there’s one part of
the introduction that
becomes more and
more important for
me to hear—the
youngest four-star
General. I cling to
it, and I thank you
Dan for including
that. Let me, if I
may, very briefly make some remarks.
To begin, I want to tell you our corporate sense
of pride, satisfaction and optimism for the future
to see all of you here. The most senior,
engaged, and experienced officials in both of
these huge democracies are here, charged with
the important responsibility of the reduction of
drug abuse in our societies. We have enormous
expectations that what we are doing here is
more of a process than a snapshot in time. We
have committed ourselves to partnership on this
very essential issue of reduction in drug
consumption.
I really thank all of you for the gift of your most
precious personal asset, your time, to come here
from all over these two great nations. Let me
also thank the Mexican delegation leadership.
Quite specifically, we’ve become not only
partners, but also friends. We had a breakfast
among thirty of us this morning; it’s an unusual
relationship. We have some very strong
partnerships in the international community, but
I would suggest that there is almost nothing like
the growing sense of very continuous contact
between our two governments at the most
senior levels.
I thank Attorney General Jorge Madrazo for his
own leadership, for his integrity, for his courage
in facing one of the most violent, corrupting
international criminal threats history has ever
seen. It’s unfortunate Mariano Herrán could not
be here, but he has his representatives here.
We thank them for their commitment to
responding to President Zedillo’s instructions to
see this as a most significant threat facing
Mexico.
We also welcome the Minister of Health of
Mexico, José Antonio González Fernández; we
thank him for the tremendous experience he
brings to this public policy position. He is a
great partner in the last months of our
administrations.
Haydée Rosovsky, who as you know, is the head
of CONADIC, and Dr. Roberto Tapia Conyer—we thank them for their continuing support.
The heavy lifting of this relationship is really
done by those two in many ways.
And congratulations to Jesús Cabrera Solís, the
Director of the Juvenile Integration Institute, on
their 30th anniversary for all they do.
And to the many other Mexican partners we
have come to know, we thank you for the ability
to work with you for three days here in Phoenix.
In the U.S. delegation, there are too many here
to identify specifically, but, Ambassador Jeff
Davidow, our U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, thank
you for your presence here, underscoring that in
the world of diplomacy we understand that the
21st Century has very different concerns than
the 19th Century. And so his own involvement
and indeed that of Secretary Madeline Albright
has been crucial to try and build a new sense of
multinational partnership.
The most important person in our government
in the drug issue is Dr. Nelba Chavez. She’s
here, fortunately, with both Dr. Westley Clark,
who is in charge of our Center for Substance
Abuse Treatment, as well as Dr. Ruth Sanchez-Way,
who monitors our Substance Abuse
Prevention programs, and I thank the two of
them. They’re making spectacular progress in
our own internal domestic challenges.
John Wilson, the Acting Director of the Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention in
the Department of Justice, is here. You should
make sure you get to know him. They’ve been
a very important part in our U.S. effort of
bringing together these two worlds of the
criminal justice system and the chronic offender,
without which, there can be no progress in
dealing with the chronic addict, so we thank him
for being here.
There are many other people. Mr. Dan Schecter
is my principal permanent civilian official in
charge of Demand Reduction. We thank him for
his leadership. He will be here in the next three
U.S.-Mexico Demand Reduction conferences.
I notice we have Art Dean, right over here,
retired general officer, one of the reasons he
looks so good. We thank you, Art, for your
leadership with Community Anti-Drug Coalitions
of America (CADCA). He started with 4,000
community anti-drug coalitions around America;
we’re now up to 5,000.
We’re also working on funding some new
innovative approaches, and both Henry Lozano
and Mary Ann Solberg are here from our
Advisory Commission on Drug-Free
Communities. I thank you for your leadership.
They’re really involved in helping us establish
what have been to date more than 200 new
funded community coalitions. They’ve had
modest amounts of money, a hundred thousand
dollars or less, to let communities begin to pull
together the leadership that counts in this
country.
We often say that our nation doesn’t have a
national drug problem; it has a series of
community drug epidemics. So you can’t
possibly hope to confront these issues unless
data is collected locally. Organizations are local—parents coalitions, the health community, the educators, the local law enforcement—that’s
really what CADCA is doing, as well as the
thousands of anti-drug coalitions.
I hope Sunna Rasch is here. Last night it was a
great treat and a privilege for many of us to see
The Periwinkle Theatre production “Halfway
There.” This group of young people puts on
what is probably the best acted and the most
creative anti-drug play that I’ve seen. They are
trying to communicate with young people the
notion of the terrible destructive potential of
drug abuse in their lives. We thank them for
their involvement.
Let me also, if I may, pay note to two letters
that we are very proud to have. The first is
from my own President Bill Clinton. He has
provided his greetings to this assembly and
takes note of the enormous personal
cooperation between these two Presidents over
the last five-plus years. You know, I am a non-political
officer of government by law and I
helped change the law to make it that way. But,
I personally have to articulate my own gratitude
and respect for these two Presidents to step
beyond domestic politics and to keep us on track
working this common solution. We thank both
of them.
We also have a letter from the United Nations
Drug Control Program Secretary, Mr. Pino
Arlacchi. I hope all of you know about his work
and of him personally. They’re based in Vienna,
of course, and just last week I was very proud
to lead a delegation to New York, to the United
Nations, and to spend some time, first with our
Secretary General Kofi Annan and also with Pino
Arlacchi. We talked about how we will continue
to stress multi-national cooperation.
Now, at every one of these conferences, one
thing I can always count on is Mexican civility.
And so, with your permission let me read a few
words in Spanish. Creo que es importante subrayar
el éxito que se está logrando con la estrategia
nacional para el control de drogas en los Estados
Unidos. En los últimos 20 años, por ejemplo, el
consumo general en los Estados Unidos representa
una reducción del 50 por ciento, mientras que el
consumo de cocaína representa una reducción del 70
por ciento. En los últimos dos años nuestros jovenes
norte-americanos han empezado a rechazar las
drogas. Hemos lanzado una campaña de prevención
historica. No se puede dudar nuestra determinación
para reducir la demanda. It’s a miracle what three
years of West Point Spanish thirty years ago can
produce.
With your permission, a few continuing
comments in English. Some of them perhaps
underscore the general idea that the older I get,
the more that I believe the most important
things in life are obvious and need to be stated.
One of those is that the U.S. and Mexico have
no option but to cooperate. We are sitting in
the same lifeboat. There is almost no frontier
between these two nations. 350 million people
a year cross that two thousand mile border. In
most places, the border is barely marked. This
is not North Korea next to another nation.
These two nations have huge common cultural,
economic, and political interests. We also have
a history of ignorance and animosity toward one
another on an official level, but not on a
personal level. Because when you look at the
impact of these two societies on one another in
food, in art, in music, in religion, in cooperation,
there has always been a tremendous sense of
people-to-people cooperation and warmth over
200-plus years. But now, fortunately, what
we’ve begun to do is to understand that only
through the success of the three of us, Canada,
the United States and Mexico, will our
grandchildren’s futures be preserved.
And so, I would just underscore, it would be
simply remiss for officials in these two nations to
not also recognize that an issue of such
tremendous consequence to our societies such
as drug abuse also deserves to have a response
which is crafted in respectful, cooperative
partnership. That’s why we’re here. Because
we are serving our own self interests by
extending a hand of dialogue, friendship, and
partnership across that border. I think it’s an
easy message to make, given the fact that our
senior leadership, the Presidents and their senior
officials, have publicly continued to say that.
Now the second observation is that bi-national
drug cooperation is really key to either society
hoping to confront the issue. I do not believe it
is possible for the United States standing alone,
nor Bolivia, nor Thailand, nor other nations
which are fundamentally threatened by this
issue, to confront the problem without
mechanisms of cooperation. This extends even
to the most obvious and arguably best
orchestrated part of international cooperation
which is law enforcement. The law enforcement
people do pretty well, almost naturally. Our two
Attorneys General, thank God, have telephones
that go to each other’s direct line
communications. So, in accordance with their
own laws, the police, the intelligence, there is a
continuing dialogue. How could we address
drugs without money laundering, precursor
chemical control, guns going from the United
States into Mexico, the kind of system problems
of crime that we address? It’s a requirement,
we would argue, to have a sense of cooperation.
Clearly, that cooperation also extends into the
21st century. The most important aspect, I
would argue, the most important institutions,
are the legislative bodies. How can we
cooperate on money laundering issues if there
aren’t 21st century laws that allow multiple
systems in the hemisphere to share evidence, to
do extradition, to have wire-tapping authority,
where a Mexican wire tap can be used in a San
Diego trial and vice versa? So I would just
argue again, that any of us who hope to
successfully confront the issue have to
understand that we no longer live in a world of
national concerns; we’re in a global community.
The third point I would underscore is the
dynamic nature of drug abuse. We talked of
this at breakfast. Ambassador Davidow asked
the question, “Now wait a minute, I understand
the past, I hear your programs. What is the
future? Where is this drug problem moving?”
Many of us are still holding old stereotypes of
the problem, both in the national community
and the international community. There’s a
danger that we will continue to work on past
problems. This is a dynamic situation. It has
taken me years to get U.S. officials to stop
saying in their public speeches that the United
States consumes half the drugs in the world.
It’s a curious kind of statement. It’s not only
completely wrong, but it produces an impact in
which policy won’t address the problems that we
face.
Drug data is the worst aspect of this issue; it’s
too soft. If we were dealing with international
economic questions, if we’re dealing with
highway construction problems, you never argue
about facts. You find out what the facts are,
you argue about conclusions.
But in the drug issue we have difficulty with
data; addressing this is another aspect of our
cooperation. I think that’s very encouraging that
Mexico and Argentina and other nations are now
getting in front of the problem in collecting data.
I would clearly suggest, straight out, that when
I talk to the international community I say the
United States has a huge drug consumption
problem, around 6% of the population in the
past month used drugs. In 1979, it was 14% of
the population; in 2007, it will be below 3% of
the population. It’ll be the lowest recorded in
modern American history. That’s where we’re
going.
Meanwhile, Mexico is fortunate to be in a
situation where the culture, the family, the
Catholicism all combined to make your nation
resistant to adolescent drug use. But times are
changing. All of us are being immersed in the
same modern communications and change in
family values, change in how women relate to
the work force. We are converging in many
ways, which is largely good.
And the worldwide plague, the nature of the
drug threat is changing. It’s not just heroin; the
world is submerged in heroin. The increase in
production in the last ten years is unbelievable.
In Afghanistan, now the number one producer
of heroin on the face of the earth, it’s the only
aspect of that society that works. In Myanmar,
we have huge rates of production of heroin.
And then we come to Mexico. Fortunately, it
has reduced heroin production. Thanks to the
Mexican armed forces’ courage, integrity and
dedication, it has gone down by 25%. And yet
the United States, we believe, consumes 3% of
the world’s heroin, so almost the entire
consumption in the U.S. can come from
Colombia and Mexico. It’s a global problem.
What we really fear and what many of us are
looking at is that ten years from now—when my
daughter who is an intensive care unit nurse is
here as the U.S. Drug Policy Director—she will
not be talking about cocaine as the number one
addiction problem. But instead she will talk
about methamphetamines, MDMA, ecstasy, and
GHB and PCP, chemically manufactured
psychoactive substances.
We need to understand this is a global problem.
Mexico has a tremendous opportunity to ensure
that what happened to the United States in the
1970’s will not occur in Mexico. Demand
reduction must be central to our partnership.
It’s great fun to work with Secretary Rosario
Green, Minister Cervantes, and Attorney General
Madrazo. We all have vital national federal
responsibilities and we’ll do them. But at the end
of the day, the people who count are those who
work with youth, and those who deal with the
treatment of the chronically addicted. In many
cases, these are either private non-profit
organizations, or they deal with organizations
that don’t necessarily have governmental
standing. We need to find ways for these
groups to talk to each other, in particular along
that border region. I think that is, of course, the
central purpose of what we are doing here in
the next two plus days.
Finally, let me point to the future. You know
none of us are quite sure how the two political
processes will work out in these two
democracies. But clearly, by next year at this
time, we’ll have two very new political sets of
leaders in place, and what we are making a very
strong argument for is that regardless who has
the honor of temporarily serving as officials in
these two democratic governments, they must
continue cooperation on the drug issue. And
we’re going to make that argument very
strongly. We think we have heavily imbued in
the permanent bureaucracy a commitment to
scientific, medical educational cooperation in
drug treatment communities in the coming
years. I hope that’s the case. I believe,
probably in August, you’ll see us have another
meeting of our High Level Contact Group, and
by then the Mexican election will be over, and
the U.S. system will be in the final weeks of our
election. It’ll be a good statement, I would
hope, that on both sides of the border we see
the problems as continuing and the requirement
to cooperate as continuing.
Again, if you will, let me just share the sense of
pride all of us at the head table, the ministers of
government from both nations, feel in being
privileged to provide a forum in which the
serious professionals in this room can build
concrete cooperation.
Thank you for who you are, and what you stand
for, and God bless you in your work. Thank
you.
Jeffrey Davidow
United States Ambassador to Mexico
Good Morning. Last week I was in Washington,
at the meeting of the Bi-National commission of
the United States and Mexico. And at that
meeting, 16 sub-commissions, led by members
of the cabinets of
both countries,
dealt with problems
relating to health
and education in
the whole range of
topics that unite
and sometimes
divide our two
countries. What
became apparent to
me at that meeting,
and I think we will
see again at the meeting that will be taking
place just one week from today in Washington
between President Zedillo and Clinton, is that
there are various components that have to be in
place to deal with problems. They are, it seems
to me, procedures, systems mechanisms and
people with dedication and vision.
The fact that this is the third meeting of this
group is immensely important. It means that it
is now a tradition and it will continue. It will
continue because it’s a good idea and it’s
productive. And the people who will be running
the government of Mexico next year and the
people who will be running the government of
the United States next year will understand that.
It will recognize that this mechanism must
continue to give you, the experts, the dedicated
people, the opportunity to come together at
least once a year and hopefully more to deal
with this important problem.
But mechanisms, procedures, systems don’t
mean anything without dedicated people. You
know, President Kennedy had a favorite story,
which I’m going to repeat to you because it’s
one of my favorite stories. It’s about a very old
man, even older than me, a man in his 90’s—very wealthy, with a great estate. And one day
he called his gardener, and he said to his
gardener, “Tomorrow, I want you to go to town,
to the little pueblo, to the garden place, the
nursery and buy some seedlings—seedlings of
oak trees. And I want you to plant them over
there.”
And of course the gardener said, “Of course sir,
I will. I will do that. I will go and buy the
seedlings, but let me ask you a question. These
oak trees will take 20 or 30 or 40 years to grow,
and uh, with all due respect, I don’t think you’ll
be here to see them, because you’re already 90
years old".
And the old man thought for a minute and he
said, “you’re absolutely right. I don’t want you
to go to town tomorrow to buy those little oak
trees. I want you to go this afternoon.”
And this is what I mean about people. Because
what is necessary and what that old man had, is
dedication and vision. So governments can help
put together the mechanisms, mechanisms such
as this meeting. But without the dedication and
vision of you people, the mechanisms mean
nothing.
And I am very honored to have been invited to
come and meet you. I am very honored and
very encouraged to see the work that you’re
doing, and I wish you every success.
Thank you.
Nelba Chavez, Ph.D.
Administrator, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Thank you for that gracious introduction. Once
again, I am honored to be here.
And once again, I
bring greetings from
Donna Shalala,
Secretary of the U.S.
Department of
Health and Human
Services, whose
support for programs
to address drug
abuse has been
unwavering during
her service to the Nation.
President John F. Kennedy said, “when people
come together for a common cause, good things
start to happen.” Well, since our countries came
together to develop and implement the U.S.-Mexico
Binational Drug Strategy, we have been
able to speak about drug demand reduction as a
common cause.
Over the past years together, we’ve translated
the theory and reality of drug abuse into a
language we all understand. It’s the language
of family and home, the language of law and
safe community, the language of forthright
national leadership.
And that shared language has allowed us to
create new knowledge, goals, and strategies to
address drug abuse within our countries and
across our borders.
Our shared language has been heard and read
in our agreements to work together, our
tenacity to get over the ticking spots of
disagreement and dissent, and our shared
commitment to do what is right for the people of
both the Unites States and Mexico.
And as a result, those “good things” that
President Kennedy spoke about, indeed, have
started to happen.
We have moved from words to action. The
words contained in Alliance Point 1, to “reduce
demand through information, education and
rehabilitation” have been actualized in a
comprehensive set of performance measures of
effectiveness for demand reduction—PMEs.
The PMEs capture successes in research, public
education and the advance of effective
prevention and treatment programs. And from
the framework of the PMEs have come recommendations—recommendations that are
the very soul of our work together—the
collective wisdom of our insights, ideas and
mutual respect.
Those recommendations affirm, above all, that
substance abuse demand is a public health
problem—a problem not dissimilar from insectborne
diseases or natural disasters such as
earthquakes and floods. After all, when a
disaster strikes, nations come together in shared
purpose—to be of aid to suffering people,
suffering nations.
So, too, it is with substance abuse demand. We—the United States and Mexico—come together to be of aid to suffering people—from children
to elders—caught in the web of substance abuse.
More concretely, those recommendations span
everything from research cooperation and
technical information exchange to community
participation, from public information and
awareness to workplaces and education. And
that’s the public health model in action; that’s
the Bi-lateral Commission in action.
Now it is time to move these recommendations
into our communities, as we promote an
underlying base of self-worth, safety, and
economic security for all.
We know the message must be unified; we
know the message must be ongoing; we know
the message must come from schoolroom and
pulpit, from the circle of family to the
camaraderie of the workplace.
To take that step—as other steps we have
taken together—we need shared
understandings, harmonized data, and
awareness of what works for people at home
where they live.
And today we’re sharing just that knowledge.
What you have found works; what we have
found works—in treatment, in prevention; in
schools, in the workplace, in communities; for
adults, for youth; and across the health, and
justice, and safety systems.
When we close this meeting, we’ll all have more
than take-away messages. We’ll take-away
knowledge that we can apply at home.
We will have the measuring sticks to tell if we’re
doing a good job of it. And we will have the
opportunity for continued collaborations—at
the level of nations and at the level of programs.
I’m reminded of a story from Eastern Europe
before the turn of the last century. Right after
young couples married in the village church, the
old women of the village would hustle them out
of the town and into a forest.
There, the couple was handed a bocksaw—that’s the kind log cutters use, with two handles
and a blade in-between. The old women
pointed to a good-sized tree and demanded that
the new couple cut it down.
So, the couple is struggling to cut down the
designated tree in the woods and they’re
surrounded by a group of village elders.
When the tree finally falls, the old women go
into a huddle. Based on what they have seen,
they will make a prediction on how long this
marriage will likely last.
How do they make their judgment? Not on
whether the couple exchanged loving looks and
hugs and kisses. No. Rather, based on how
well they worked together at a common task.
And what does this tale tell us? What does it
suggest for our future together? Well, from
what I’ve seen, we’ve met the test.
And, as I mentioned earlier, it’s been said that
good things start to happen when people come
together in a common cause.
But, we’ve got to admit, these are challenging
times. At the start of this new century, it’s a
time of transition in so very many ways.
Someone once said that the best way to predict
the future is to create it. And with this
conference, most certainly we’re sharing the
tools to help create a safer, drug-free
environment for the people of both Mexico and
the United States.
Thank you.
Jorge Madrazo Cuellar
Attorney General
Mexico
Very distinguished Secretary of Health, Jose
Antonio Gonzalez Fernandez; my dear friend
General McCaffrey; dear friends from the United
States and Mexico.
I would like to thank
for the invitation to
participate in this
Third Bi-National
Conference on
Demand Reduction,
whose main topic is
the strengthening of
the bi-national
relationship in the
fight against drugs
in the new century.
The relationship between the United States and
Mexico on the subject of drugs is one of the
most ample and varied in the world. The first
attempt made by our countries to develop a
joint outlook regarding the issue began in May
1997 with the presentation by Presidents Zedillo
and Clinton of the report entitled "U.S.-Mexico
Bi-National Drug Threat Assessment", a joint
study and diagnosis which gives a
comprehensive outlook on the joint
phenomenon of drug abuse, drug trafficking,
and related crimes.
The U.S.-Mexico Bi-National Drug Threat
Assessment comprises an acknowledgement of
the challenge posed by drugs for the majority of
modern people and societies, independently of
what their level of development might be and
how this issue has been recognized in most
international forums, such as the United Nations
and the Organization of American States. The
assessment established that the fight against
drugs has to be approached from a
comprehensive standpoint. In other words,
measures to control drug supply will only bear
fruit if we simultaneously set up the necessary
measures that will control demand. It
established the commitment made by both
countries in order to comprehensively fight
against the problem of drugs and posited that
measures to control drug supply will only
succeed if we simultaneously set up the
necessary measures to control the demand of
drugs.
In view of the commitment made by both
countries to comprehensively combat the
problems of drugs, May 1997, Presidents Zedillo
and Clinton signed the Declaration of
Mexico/United States Alliance Against Drugs,
agreeing to establish a bi-national drug strategy
for cooperation. The bi-national drug strategy
signed in February 1998 to complement the
national strategies of both countries has
contributed to direct our efforts towards the
reduction of illicit drug demand. The
strengthening of our cooperation in the different
areas affected by the drug phenomenon has
reached the highest priority in the agenda of
both countries. Bilateral efforts towards demand
reduction are evident. This conference
precisely, is an example and reflection of the
way in which international cooperation with
regards to this subject must operate.
Because of all of this and with the holding of this
third bilateral conference, our two countries
reiterate their commitment to continue
strengthening their collaboration and
cooperation in the fight against drug abuse in
both countries, especially today when the new
century is beginning. As the international
community acknowledged during the
extraordinary meeting of the United Nations
General Assembly, held in order to face the
world problem of drugs, drugs destroy lives as
well as communities and impact all sectors of
society. Above all, the abuse of drugs has an
impact upon the freedom and development of
youth that are, undoubtedly, the most valuable
asset of humanity.
There is no doubt that the problem of illicit drug
use and abuse means a complex challenge for
those of us who are responsible for fighting
against this scourge. The last National Addiction
Survey that was done in 1998 has allowed the
Mexican government to analyze what the trends
of consumption have been, as compared with
similar studies that were done in 1988 and
1993. Drug use rates in Mexico are still rather
low when compared to those of other countries.
Nevertheless, there have been increases in use
trends that are cause for concern, particularly in
urban centers and the northern region of our
country. Marijuana continues to be one of the
main drugs used by different population groups.
Inhalable solvents tend to be reduced, but the
consumption of cocaine, which is a drug that
traditionally had been used by reduced
population groups, has now become popular
among the young people and lower income
groups. The use of heroin, although low at the
national level, has also gone up in the northern
cities of Mexico. Methamphetamine use is not
yet a problem that affects a large sector of our
population; however, among some young
people its use is now a reason for concern.
As I pointed out in the Meeting of Hemisphere
Leaders on Drug Policy that was held in
Washington, from November 3 to 5, 1999, since
illicit drugs are one of our most sensitive
challenges, policies at the national level,
regional level, and global level must be based
upon humanist principles that will inspire us to
face the challenge. In this regard, a humanist
policy concerning illicit drug use is nothing else
but the expression of a general state policy that
has its foundation on a social consensus directed
towards that specific challenge. A humanist
policy against this phenomenon must have as its
base, the conviction of there having to be a pact
between government and society, a
collaboration among the different levels of
government and population, a pact expressed
through concrete actions within the family, in
the school, through the media, and in our
national as well as international society.
Therefore, the Mexican government has decided
to enter into a social pact that will destroy
ideological type barriers and allow us to make
progress in the fight against drug abuse. In this
regard, the General Attorney's Office has
undertaken enormous efforts to create a
network with the different civilian organizations
and agencies. We have also set up coordinating
mechanisms with the different agencies of the
federal and local governments, such as the
Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Public
Education, and the General Attorney's Office of
Mexico City.
Among the most relevant activities within this
framework of collaboration has been the
presentation of talks regarding crime prevention
and drug use and abuse, addressed to those
population groups considered to be at high risk.
That is, talks addressed to our young people
and children. We also have tried to see to it
that parents, teachers, social workers, law
enforcement and public security officials, etc,
assume the commitment of communicating
preventive messages in their homes, school,
work centers and communities with the purpose
of presenting a common front against addictions
and crime.
Since a humanist policy must be based upon the
acknowledgment and defense of human dignity,
we have proposed to care for drug users and
not to treat them as delinquents. Because of
this, together with the Ministry of Health and the
General Attorney's Office of Mexico City, we
have set up a Unit for Assistance for Drug Users.
The objective of this unit is to channel those
individuals with addiction problems who have
been detained and put before the Federal Public
Prosecutor, towards rehabilitation and treatment
centers.
Our efforts must also have a policy basis for
mass media to convey to the population the
consequences of illicit drugs. In this regard, our
Institution has had the support of outstanding
personalities in the world of arts, sports and also
of the very diverse media that have their own
messages and policies to communicate to large
numbers of our population.
Ladies and gentlemen, drug use and abuse is a
problem that presents us with severe challenges
at the beginning of this century. We cannot
consider the possibility of doing away with the
supply of drugs if we do not do away with the
demand. It is among the children and young
people that we must gear our efforts. We
cannot allow for their future to be
overshadowed by the possibility of their
becoming dependent upon drugs. We cannot
hope to have a better stage of development for
our people if we allow for the cancer of drug
addiction and violence that goes hand in hand
with it, to contaminate our youth and our
children. We must share our experiences once
again. We must keep these forums open as one
of the main paths for us to exchange ideas,
projects, and programs regarding how to
prevent the use of drugs, as well as the
treatment for drug users in order to protect the
human dignity and health of our youth.
I would like to comment that one of the greatest
satisfactions I have had in this joint fight that
we have taken up between Mexico and United
States has been the friendship and affection of
General McCaffrey. The Mexican delegation has
been able to share and learn so much from this
valuable citizen of the United States, this
extraordinary fighter against drugs, who has
participated perhaps, in one of the greatest wars
that humanity has ever fought towards the end
of last century and the beginning of this century.
General McCaffrey, I would like to say that as a
public servant of the Mexican government and
as an individual, it has been a great honor and
an enormous privilege to have worked with you.
José Antonio González Fernández
Secretary of Health
Mexico
It's almost afternoon, so I think that I must say,
"Good afternoon."
After these very
weighty
contributions, so full
of content, so
purposeful and
concise, I would like
to say that when
you have to speak
after so many others
who are so
intelligent, you are
at a disadvantage,
but maybe also at an advantage. The main
disadvantage is that everything has been said,
and it has been said very well. One runs into
the problem of what to say in order not to
repeat concepts, to not overtire people. The
main advantage on the other hand is if one is
very brief, people will say he was the one who
spoke the best. I don't intend for you to say
that I was the one that spoke the best, but I do
hope to be the briefest because everything has
been said.
Thank you very much on behalf of the Mexican
government and President Zedillo, who sent you
a most cordial greeting through me. I would like
to show President Clinton our gratitude for his
letter, his comments, and his solidarity with this
meeting. I want to thank also the host
authorities, headed by General McCaffrey,
Donna Shalala, Nelba, Daniel, Jeffrey, all of you.
I thank you for having welcomed us to this third
conference.
With respect to what General McCaffrey said
about how times change, it is a pleasure for me
to see how in fact times have changed—at
times for the better, but unfortunately in certain
things, for the worst. I had the privilege of
working in this great country as part of the
Mexican government some years ago. In 1987 I
came here entrusted by the Attorney General to
open a new office in our embassy in the United
States. I was to open what has become a
reality today, not only in the United States, but
also around other parts of the world. It's a
liaison office between the Attorney General of
Mexico and our own embassy in each of the
countries in which we have an embassy
including the United States, to analyze the issue
of drug trafficking and drugs. I had the
privilege of not only working in this great
country as a representative of my own
government, but in working with an equally
committed and honorable person, a strict fighter
as is Attorney General Jorge Madrazo today,
who at that time was our Attorney General
Sergio Ramirez, a great man that we all love
and acknowledge.
In 1987 there was a great deal of talk about
drug traffic. In 1987 there was an exchange of
many different adjectives between our two
countries. We sort of blamed each other. We
said we produce because you consume; if you
didn't consume, we wouldn't produce but today
I find it very encouraging that these types of
comments are not being put before the table.
Times have changed and we all understand that
only together can we hope to fight these types
of problems. It is a pleasure for me to realize
that not only do we stress, as we did then, the
problem of drug traffic, but that today through
the political will of our two Presidents, President
Clinton and President Zedillo, it has been
possible to hold special meetings intended to
reduce demand in our two countries. It's really
a source of pleasure that times have changed in
that direction. It is also excellent that the
practices in both countries have changed—not
only towards joining our efforts in fighting drug
traffic and reducing drug demand. But it is
excellent that today we can talk about this
subject in an organized way, that coordinates
efforts at an institutional level. For this I thank
the great efforts and tenacity of public officials
in our two governments and I am very grateful
to General McCaffrey, Nelba, Daniel and to
Jeffrey for what they have said. And with all of
the role players at various levels present at this
meeting, we have not only those that can
implement government policies. We also have
those who, because of their personal conviction,
because of their political vocation, because of
their social concern, because of their love for
the families in our two countries, have engaged
in this daily fight in an unpretentious manner.
They have done this for the benefit of our
countries, the families, and the people of our
two countries in order to avoid further drug use.
Fourteen years ago when I worked in the United
States, I never would have imagined that in a
meeting like this we would have youngsters
present. It is a pleasure to know that a girl
from my country, such as Sofia, has come here
to speak. She speaks not because she has
made use of drugs, not because she is a part of
a rehabilitation program, but because she is so
sold on the value of our youth: the young
people of Mexico and other young people who
wish to put forth their efforts on both sides of
our border in order to avoid the use of drugs
among them. And it is also wonderful that
throughout these years we have been able to
witness how people of non-government
organizations, from families, and from private
enterprise have formed groups at the regional,
state, or local level. And people from different
levels of society, no matter what their economic
income or condition might be, have all come
here to try to find new methods to better
coordinate improved and newer strategies so
that those strategies, actions and shared points
of view can bear better fruits. This is the good
news of the time that has elapsed.
The bad news is also there. One item is that
after so many years of dealing with the subject,
in our own country as well as in the United
States, it's a pity that an increase in drug use
has taken place in my country in these last few
years. Certainly, as Attorney General Madrazo
has said, we don't have usage levels as high as
prevailing levels in other countries, but in 1987
we practically had no use of drugs in Mexico.
Back then, the Attorney General at the time
insisted that we had to clearly understand that
the drug traffic and drug use phenomenon
would lead to a situation where in the future we
would all be consumers and producers.
General McCaffrey has been so kind in his
comments and in conversations with him, and
I'm very grateful to him. This morning at the
breakfast sponsored by the Border Health
Foundation whose members we had the
pleasure of meeting, we were saying that today
the United States is a great producer of drugs;
back then it was not. And the good news is that
in the United States they have reduced drug
consumption and use. It's excellent that they
have been able to invest more in new and better
programs, all of this the result of the efforts,
tenaciousness, imagination, greater resources,
and of course people at the governmental level
and at the level of society who are greatly
committed. I am referring here especially to the
Secretary of Health, President Clinton, Nelba,
and General McCaffrey. All their efforts have
helped to truly reduce drug abuse, which has
been so high.
But in Mexico, as the Attorney General said in
the figures and numbers that he has given us,
drug use has been on the rise in recent years.
The trend is a rising one, not a downward one.
That is the bad news resulting from these last
few years. If we don't undertake all these
efforts to clearly understand the phenomenon
taking place in Mexico and to clearly understand
the situation along the border and that of the
United States; if we don't take advantage of this
potential and resources which are so unique
(and our dear friend Jeffrey Davidow said this
very clearly); if we do not take advantage of this
excellent relationship, this great joint effort
being undertaken by these two magnificent
countries and people, I really don't see clearly
how we might achieve successful results and
outcomes.
I am altogether convinced that with the will and
with the effort that we have witnessed here, we
will truly be able to do things that will have
results. For the United States these efforts are
resulting in reduced consumption and use. Also
in Mexico, the use will drop, and in the years to
come we will make this social scourge only a
memory.
Another piece of bad news I am sorry to
acknowledge is something I didn't know before
today—that when we have meetings such as
this we come to agreements and commitments
and sometimes our side doesn't live up to them.
It's a pity that Sofia has said that last year it
was agreed that we would work with them, with
our youth, and that we would have to create a
fund to help our youth with the community
work. I offer that this month of June, you will
have that fund and that we will be working with
youth. As to the future, if we are convinced, if
we have the will, then the future winds blowing
will be most favorable. We certainly have six
months to work jointly under this administration
headed by President Zedillo and which has done
so much in favor of health in Mexico. We have
only a few months left of witnessing what this
government does, where such distinguished
United States citizens have worked such as
Nelba, General McCaffrey, Daniel and many
others. But what really matters is that this
conviction prevails in our people and in our
government so that we can continue moving
ahead at the highest level possible. It's
important that we share information and that we
work together.
I am most pleased then to be able to announce
that President Zedillo together with the Attorney
General, who has done such excellent work in
his position, will announce an extensive program
and strategy, not only to fight drug traffic but
also in developing programs to reduce the
demand for drugs. And I'm very pleased that
Jorge Madrazo and I are here together today.
In any case, the President of Mexico will
announce a program through an official
standard that will compile the different
standpoints and views in a way similar to that
taken up in the United States. President Zedillo
will announce a creation of a higher level office
entrusted with fighting drugs. I think truly there
must be a commitment to assign greater
resources, not greater bureaucracy, a greater
amount of will and greater resources so that
practices will be taken up that will truly convince
and encourage our society, so that whatever the
government does will truly permeate the
different levels of our community.
The United States has already done this. They
have created this special office. General
McCaffrey has presided over it, and we hope to
do the same in order to have greater
possibilities in our fight against the traffic and
the reduction of demand. So Mexico will also
have a high commissioner that will do
everything possible to reduce drug demand in
the forthcoming months. This is the reason I
share Jorge's vision. Together we can do a
great deal in these few months and together we
will be able to do much more in coming years.
Finally, I would like to say, that on behalf of the
Mexican delegation where we have young
people, men and women, working daily in
various organizations to reduce drug demand;
the director of Social Security Institute Maria
Luis Fuentes; Attorney General Jose Madrazo,
myself and many other people with us from
Mexico, that it's a privilege for us today to leave
a testimonial. We would like to present to
General McCaffrey this parchment to remind him
of the acknowledgment expressed by the
President of Mexico for his great talent and
great vision in the fight against drug traffic and
reduction of drug demand in the United States.
Thank you very much.
