Hearings, Reports and Prints of the House Committee on Education and Labor

ties of the educational system. In other words I think we have to look at it in the context of the increasing number of suicides in our young people, the increasing number of dropouts both at the college and high school level. They are dropouts both literally and figuratively because many of us at the college level see young people who literally sleep 18 hours a day. I mean they are physically present on the campus, but they have actually dropped out.

And so we would hope that the new innovations in drug abuse education will take all of these factors into account. And finally, we hope that greater coordination can be developed among the drug abuse education programs. As I meet people from coast to coast they are so confused that they really don't know which way to turn.

It has been our experience that there are now so many groups running in so many different directions, that it is often producing, at worst, more confusion than help and, at best much duplication of efforts.

Mr. GRIFFENHAGEN. The first place to start with coordination of drug abuse education efforts seems to us to be at the governmental level. How are we going to convince the public that coordination is needed when we are presently confronted with many overlapping and sometimes contradictory governmental programs in drug abuse prevention?

Several of the Congressmen this morning have emphasized this point. We must candidly admit that while we support the objectives of H.R. 9312, we do not see how it will aid in resolving the needed coordination with Government. The bill would seem to assume that HEW and Justice were the only Government agencies involved in drug abuse education.

But there are other agencies involved very much in drug abuse prevention outside of HEW and Justice. The Department of Defense has an active, on-going program with an interdepartmental drug abuse control committee, consisting of representatives of the Army, Navy, and Air Force. They have publications; they have produced films; they use the services of the Armed Forces Information Service to not only educate servicemen, but their dependents as well as the communities around major military installations.

The Office of Economic Opportunity is involved in funding programs which include drug abuse education, rehabilitation and treatment, and they have produced a drug abuse education film. The National Academy of Science and National Research Council has long been involved in narcotic addiction prevention and treatment programs.

In recognition of this problem, the American Pharmaceutical Association at its annual meeting in May 1969, officially went on record stating that "if the Government does not consolidate its educational programs on the use and abuse of drugs in one agency, then some interagency committee must be established to provide a unified program." Because we recognize that many governmental agencies are involved in drug abuse education, they were all invited to membership in the National Coordinating Council on Drug Abuse Education and Information, Inc., and most of these agencies are current members of the Council.

But better intergovernmental coordination is needed and it is needed now. Our Coordinating Council was faced with the problems resulting

from a lack of intergovernmental coordination when we considered a proposal for a nationwide advertising campaign on drug abuse for submission to the Advertising Council.

Fortunately, through Charles B. Wilkinson, Special Consultant to the President, a joint proposal for an advertising campaign has been submitted and accepted by the Advertising Council. The nationwide campaign will be coordinated under the direction of the White House, with one representative each from HEW, Justice, DOD, and our National Coordinating Council reviewing all material.

Since drug abuse educational programs, whether using the mass news media, literature and audiovisual programs or most important local resources, must be developed on a systematic and coordinated basis, we recommend that H.R. 9312 be modified so that all Government agencies involved in drug abuse education be brought together working as an intergovernmental body, and that the proposed Advisory Committee on Drug Abuse Education be constituted so that it will be advisory to this intergovernmental body.

We hope that the Members of Congress will see the wisdom of developing a unified attack on the problem which confronts us rather than parceling programs out to a variety of different agencies, each of which are more likely than not to move in different directions, or duplicate efforts.

As we stated at the outset, we are not here as official representatives of the Council, but we feel certain that the Council will support and cooperate with any reasonable efforts to provide the needed coordination.

Mr. BRADEMAS. Thank you very much, Dr. Nowlis and Mr. Griffenhagen. We very much appreciate your very professional statement on this measure.

I would like to ask unanimous consent that there be inserted in the record of the hearings the Directory of the National Coordinating Council on Drug Abuse Education and Information as well as the document to which you referred, "Drug Abuse and Education *** a Guide to the Professions."

(The documents referred to follows:)

DIRECTORY

National Coordinating Council on Drug Abuse Education and Information

National Coordinating Council
on Drug Abuse Education and Information

P.O. Box 19400, Washington, DC 20036

$1.00

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Charter

Alcoholism & Drug Addiction Research Foundation

American Academy of Pediatrics...

American Association for Health, Physical Education and Recreation

American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy.