[Title 3 CFR 7180]
[Code of Federal Regulations (annual edition) - January 1, 2000 Edition]
[Title 3 - Presidential Documents]
[Proclamation 7180 - Proclamation 7180 of April 8, 1999]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]


3Presidential Documents12000-01-012000-01-01false7180Proclamation 7180Presidential Documents
Proclamation 7180 of April 8, 1999

National D.A.R.E. Day, 1999

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program, founded in 1983 
by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Unified School 
District, helps children across our Nation develop into the bright, 
talented, and healthy individuals they have the potential to become. The 
D.A.R.E. curriculum is designed to give children in kindergarten through 
12th grade the skills they need to avoid involvement in drugs, gangs, 
and violence. Taught by community police officers who have the special 
training and experience necessary to address the difficult issues facing 
young people, the D.A.R.E. program reaches more than 26 million students 
each day in nearly 75 percent of our Nation's school districts, 
encouraging young Americans to resist peer pressure and to lead lives 
free from the shadows of drugs and violence.
D.A.R.E.'s mission is a crucial one. Drug abuse costs our Nation more 
than 14,000 lives and billions of dollars each year. A recent study by 
the Department of Justice confirms that drug use continues to be a 
factor in crimes such as burglary, auto theft, assault, and murder, and 
that one in six offenders commits a crime just to get money for drugs. 
Because of alarming statistics like these, we must focus our efforts not 
just on those already addicted to drugs, but on all our young people, so 
that we can reach them before they are exposed to these illegal 
substances. Working in partnership with parents, teachers, and 
communities, the D.A.R.E. program conveys to children at an 
impressionable age a strong message about the dangers of substance abuse 
and strives to give them the tools and motivation they need to avoid 
those dangers.
Expanding on grassroots efforts like D.A.R.E., my Administration's 1999 
National Drug Control Strategy provides a comprehensive approach to move 
us closer to a drug-free America. An important part of this long-term 
plan is our emphasis on educating children. We know that when children 
understand the dangers of drugs, their rates of drug use decline. Our 
National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign and the Safe and Drug-Free 
Schools program focus on helping young Americans reject illegal drugs 
and violence. In addition, in recent years, we have protected and 
increased the funding of the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program. Coupled 
with programs like D.A.R.E., these efforts offer us real hope for 
freeing America's communities from the tragedy of substance abuse and 
the crime and violence they spawn. By doing so, we will give our 
children the safe and healthy future they deserve.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the United States of 
America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and 
laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 8, 1999, as National 
D.A.R.E. Day. I call upon our youth, parents, educators, and all the 
people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate 
programs and activities.
 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this eighth day of 
April, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety-nine, and of

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the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 
twenty-third.
                                                    WILLIAM J. CLINTON