Nixon, Seymour & Keller on Drug enforcement and United States Attorneys

6:52Takk for ating med.
7:41Donald Hunter, Buffalo, New York.
8:09Dick Swinburne, Pittsburgh, Kentucky, Colorado, Los Leones, Arizona, Jerry Sahl, Anastasia, New York, John Briggs, Maryland, Newport, John Stokes, Atlanta, Texas, Iowa, Hollywood, Texas,
8:26I remember many, many years ago, before I was in...
8:56I had all of you come all over the country here in December.
9:20First, while you actually have a chance of washing it off, and get your latest orders.
9:22Are you as mean as people say?
9:22Very nice, we got you.
9:35Anyway, uh, we, uh, we say that, uh, that you should put Kleineese in his place.
9:43He's the nice guy, and Kleineese is the mean guy.
9:46That's true.
9:47On a relative basis, that's true.
9:48How is Martha?
9:49Well, John and I, I think both of you are working for Martha, so... Well, and, um, you're coming here, of course, so...
10:01It's something you've done before, but you're coming here on this occasion.
10:03It's frankly for the purpose of getting him free to work on all the rest.
10:05But we also want to hypo what we can, an issue that we believe deserves it.
10:22a lot more public attention as far as what we're doing.
10:24I noticed, in studying this problem, everybody says it's the best problem, it's the number one law enforcement issue without any question.
10:33If you put down the various domestic issues in the present time, naturally, you run into economic issues like unemployment and cost of living.
10:50But if you come down then to those drugs, which are always matters of great concern to people, the next two important issues, and that's on what's in the afternoon, is that there are dangerous drugs and musk.
11:15Now,
11:16The busing issue is one that is likely to become, as the months go on, much, much more and all the clients and personnel here, particularly the buses, keep bringing those suits to force busing over here.
11:20It's a great day for me to be here.
11:39You better stand where I stand.
11:40I never could stand a bus, you know.
11:58The nature of drugs issue is one that, regardless of the up and down, must go up and go down, depending upon the latest decision in the community in which you live.
12:23I saw something in the news, in 1967, in the old station of, I guess it was 1965, in fact, it's been almost six years, in the old station of...
12:45People of high school and college students, 10% admitted that they had used or had one pack or another marijuana.
12:48The figure is not 51%.
13:01Now, uh, we all know that, uh, our agent is part of heroin, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
13:10Second thing is, I guess, when they go for marijuana, let's just say, you know, whatever the case might be, that, you know, we do know that that, that is an indication of the problem.
13:23Now when you see that figure, 51%, 51% of people, of young people below 21, that is 51% use marijuana.
13:37What impressed me about that number was not 51%.
13:40I'm not surprised at that.
13:42I mean, you know, it was corn silk, the old days, cigarettes, you know, the various things.
13:48You went through some marijuana, maybe used a little worse, and maybe the jury's still out as to what the penalties ought to be, and so forth and so on.
13:58Although, my strong conviction for the reasons that I...
14:02I will not detail here today is that we do not legalize them, as some would add to these, because my view is that I can see that there are no useful social purposes, a lot of people believe that there are no useful social purposes, but I also believe that there are.
14:23But let's come down to that point of legalization, whereas 51% of young people have used marijuana at one time or another.
14:35We have all recently, I say we, and this has been done by both the Democratic National Committee and other national committees, 78% of the people of this country across the board are against legalizing marijuana.
14:50Now what does this cause?
14:52It tells us far more about the parents than it does about the children.
14:57It tells us far more about heroin and LSD than it does about marijuana.
15:03What it tells us is that all food blocks, a great number of...
16:16that they, of course, should be more consistent with what the crime is, and that would mean certainly not having some of the more out-of-the-way companies.
16:22And, on the other hand, they feel involved in these crimes, strong convictions, because...
16:42But, when we look at the people, the people that you work with, the people that you serve, the people in your dishes, what you have to realize is that not over 50%, but three-fourths of all the people, including the majority of the Republicans, a majority of the Independents, a majority of the Democrats, a majority of the Blacks, a majority of the Whites, a majority of the Mexicans,
17:10Indicate that they're concerned about this dangerous drug problem.
17:16Indicate it by saying, don't legalize marijuana.
17:19That's just the way that you do it.
17:21But if you ask them about the problem, they would say, we're not doing enough.
17:26This administration has done a great deal in this field.
17:30We've asked for legislation, and a lot of them have done it.
17:35We've had a lot of administrative action.
17:38We have, of course, the Jaffee office here dealing with prevention.
17:44And also with the treaty handings once they're going to enter the Murray line office.
17:50We've got a lot in the foreign policy field.
17:52in the church, now working with the Franks, and so forth and so on, cutting off the sources of blood.
17:58We've done some of the educational deals, for example, those ads that used to interrupt the football games, the baseball games, the basketball games, that's a direct result of the presidential meeting in this room, with the networks, and the advertising council, and the national government, and the basketball league, and the rest of the country, and they were getting affected, because as I said to the group of athletes, I said, you know,
18:20It's interesting that you can reach people that you can't.
18:22You can reach people that are preachers, or a teacher, or a politician who can't preach, because now the people look at you, and they respect you, and they want to be like you.
18:31If you get out and say, I'll take a trip on a drug that has an effect on anything good, that's part of the educational pattern.
18:38Not that they have to listen to a U.S. attorney who gets out and has an effect on you.
18:44That's another subject.
18:45What we're here, of course, today to emphasize is the enforcement side.
19:05But on the other hand,
19:33To the average person, this doesn't move anything right, totally.
19:38But it does show that we have to move on.
19:41The question is enforcement.
19:44They say if somebody pushes, somebody's a peddler, why don't we do something about it?
19:49I have said, and I thoroughly believe this, that anybody who is a pusher or a peddler is guilty of the most reprehensible crime that I can think of.
20:00Murder is terrible, but murder sometimes can happen for, where shall we say, reasons of emotion, reasons of mental balance, many reasons of grief, whatever the case might be.
20:16Murder can happen all the other times.
20:20This one, this one, where people prey upon young people, prey upon them, make money instead of destroying their lives, this one is totally inexcusable.
20:34And it's for that reason that I think the penalty should be added, but the prosecution must be relentless.
20:40And I want the federal government to set the examples so that local governments will come along.
20:45Now, we all know the problems you're going to have.
20:48Some police departments are infected.
20:50Some are not going to be able to cooperate.
20:54You've got problems with that.
20:58We have gone forward on cutting off the social supply, we've gone forward on the treatment project, we've gone forward on permission, we've gone forward on education, and now, this year, we
21:21We need to go forward more effectively, and we need to get our story across more effectively, that we are out to prosecute those that are engaged in this issue.
21:33Prosecute and pick them.
21:36And I would like for each of you to carry that back to your districts, that we care about it here.
21:42And just to show you what the problem is with public relations.
21:47As much as we have done, no administration has shown us racism.
21:51There are not only the appointments that we made, the legislation we supported, the speeches we made, but as much as we've done, polls indicate that a solid majority
22:06solid majorities of the American people, 60-65%, believe that our program against dangerous drugs is inevitable.
22:19They believe that almost many other candidates who might be involved may take a conversation with me, quite essentially.
22:29Well, one involves what we do, and second, of course,
22:36Thank you, John, for the publicizing what we do.
22:41Now, every U.S. attorney, why you must deny this if you're ever asked is a hard politician.
22:51And he's a publicist.
22:52I'm not asking you to go out and sell something that you're not doing.
22:55I don't think any of you should do that.
22:56I mean, you, above all, are good lawyers.
22:57You're good at enforcing the law.
22:58I really think we have a quite good, despite my written thing I use here, not only fine judges, a lot of you will be judges someday.
23:02Don't hold me to that.
23:14Thank you for watching!
23:46I followed after all New Yorkers who remember Tom Dilley.
23:50He was a hell of a prosecutor.
23:52And boy, he was a hell of a publicist, too.
23:55Everybody who was doing it.
23:58Now, just let me say that I want all of you here after this meeting to know what we're doing.
24:03I want you to believe in it.
24:04I want you to know the conviction we have in it.
24:07But also, I think you have a responsibility.
24:10I'm not speaking for the politics alone.
24:13That is part of it.
24:14But you have a responsibility to go back and reassure your constituencies.
24:20I think too that you, and this has got to be subtly done without getting their sensitivities too badly bruised,
24:48You've got to bring the local police forces and the sheriff's offices and all the rest of the line.
24:53Give them and take them out.
24:54And move them off if they need to be.
24:57And I believe that in doing this, that all of you will have, of course, rendered a very great service to the country.
25:06I am totally aware of the fact that no matter how much we do, the number of users is probably going to go up.
25:14No matter how much we do, the problem is going to be solved.
25:18Because as long as there's a demand, people are going to use the stuff.
25:22And the demand is there, education, to a certain extent, and get it mitigated for the rest, but it will never solve it.
25:31That's why there will always be crime.
25:34That's why there will always be, of course, the problem of nature's drugs.
25:38But while we're here, in the brief time that we're here in office, that you're in office and the rest, let's be sure that you've said that we did everything that we could possibly do on the law enforcement front to deal with this crime.
25:57I would like every person here to feel that he has a personal desire and a personal direction to put this number one on your agenda when you go back.
26:08Number one on prostitution, and number one too on education.
26:13All of you on education, all of you.
26:15And we'll get the materials to you.
26:18We've got some great materials in the state.
26:23But the line is going to be strong, it's going to be tight.
26:26And frankly, in your communities, try to get across the idea that people can have faith that their government, at the national level at least, is aware of this problem and is doing everything it possibly can to fill it.
26:42That's what we'd like to get across.
26:44And there may be some around here who saw players who missed issues, like my days, but I just want you to know that.
26:56By the way, I do appreciate your time.
27:02Those Trumpets you just heard, those ambassadors, that's one of the problems in the world.
27:09They change ambassadors a lot.
27:13But all I can tell is the United States.
27:16So, we'll see.
27:22I tried to get them to present their credentials to the vice president.
27:31But in any event, many of you already have these presidential couplets.
27:37But I can't give you anything more valuable than that because of our little price for each of those.
27:47I'll just get you another pair.
27:48I often say you don't have to report them.
27:49I can also tell you too that you're fine.
27:50I want us to see that you already have a pair of eyes.
27:51Give it to some rich contributor.
28:20You don't want to be a judge, do you?
28:37Laugh Laugh Laugh Laugh Laugh Laugh Laugh Laugh Laugh
29:20Thank you for watching!
30:20What you've just received, this is Bud Krug, who's been an assistant to the President, and has been coordinating the President's full-time contracting program.
30:24This is Dr.
30:24Bud Krug.
30:24What you've just received is a statement by the President of the League...

Nixon, Seymour & Keller on Drug enforcement and United States Attorneys

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Nixon Library Finding Aid

Also recorded on February 7, 1972

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