After all, the administration's National Security Council, their National Security Council dropped drugs from one of the top three of priorities to number 29 in a list of 29. That's how important they think it is in this administration. Now, that's dead last and that's dead wrong, and the terrible truth is this new drug epidemic never had to happen. The lives lost need not have been lost.
When the Clinton administration came into office, drug use had been dropping in the previous ten years. Under Ronald Reagan, under Bush, the unambiguous message was, and Nancy Reagan led the charge, Just Say No. And millions of young American's lives were saved and they didn't make that tragic mistake ever to start on drugs.
But when the Clinton administration surrendered, the raised the white flag in the war on drugs and days after taking office, President Clinton slashed personnel at the White House Office of Drug Control Policy by 83 percent, from 146 people to just 24. Then he appointed a surgeon general, rather than reinforcing an anti-drug message, suggested that drugs should be legalized.
Then he cut back on spending for drug interdiction and between fiscal years '92 and '96, the Department of Defense drug interdiction budget declined 53 percent. Defense drug-related flight hours fell by 59 percent over the same period. The use of Navy vessels measured in so-called ship days was reduced by 67 percent. And the lack of Department of Defense resources committed to interdiction efforts has translated directly to the arrival of drugs on city streets all across America, poisoning young people everywhere in America, this area, everywhere in America and it ought to stop and it will stop in a Dole/Kemp administration.
And President Clinton proposed to eliminate hundreds of Drug Enforcement positions. His drug interdiction coordinator was allowed a total of six people, only six people to administer all interdiction policies. His administration failed to prosecute many of those who were caught. The number of new federal drug cases dropped by 10 percent between 1992 and 1995. And what is the result of these policies? As we all know, teenage drug use is up, it's up, it's way up and we've got to turn it around for the sake of America and the sake of your children and the sake of your grandchildren.
Now, one of the most important roles of the president is moral leadership he exacts through the bully pulpit. And here this president has been known not for his eloquence but for his silence. This administration placed, replaced the unambiguous message of Just Say No with this message: Just Say Nothing, and they've done nothing and they've said nothing.
We did a little research, not Bob Dole's figures, and here's what we found out. In the first nine months of 1995, President Clinton was interviewed 112 times by the news media and in all those interviews, he mentions drugs just once. He made 119 statements and mentioned drugs only twice. He had 110 meetings with foreign leaders and drug policy, drug abuse never came up in one of those meetings with foreign leaders.
In the Dole administration, we're going to return to what works.
We're going to replace the president's inattention to dangerous drugs with a clear and forceful policy of zero tolerance. That's zero tolerance. Zero tolerance for drug smugglers, zero tolerance for drug pushers, zero tolerance for drugs in the workplace and drugs in school, and zero tolerance for illegal drugs, period, zero, zero, zero.
We will fully restore the Office of the Drug Czar. We'll redouble efforts to put drug criminals behind bars. We will appoint judges who will make tough, no-nonsense approach to drug offenders. We want tough judges who worry about the victims and not about the criminals. And every single person who works in my administration, from the highest Cabinet officer to the lowest official, will speak with one voice. Illegal drugs are completely and totally unacceptable and will be in a Dole/Kemp administration.
And these standards must begin at the White House, at the top, and spread to every workplace and every school in America, and unlike this president, I will not be afraid to use the power of persuasion to talk about right and wrong, and I know in my heart, just as every American mother and father does, it is wrong, it is just plain wrong for America to abandon its young people to the ravages of drugs. It's wrong, it's wrong, it's wrong, and everybody knows it.
And what was the White House reaction to this report that came out last week? Well, it could be summed up in one phrase: Don't worry, be happy. They said they were satisfied with their efforts to date and to quote a White House spokesman, they said this: "There's no need for a new proposal." I disagree. There's an urgent need for new proposals. There's an urgent need for new thinking. If they don't believe that, there's an even more urgent need for a new administration in the White House.
So just as Bill Clinton said we couldn't do it on taxes, now they say we don't need to do anything on drugs. Well, I think the voters will take a hard look at this administration in November and say, "Your time is done. Your time is done. Back to Arkansas you go." Thank you. And let me tell you very quickly, I know it's warm, but there's a very statement that affects people in your families, in your communities, and let me tell you what I think what else needs to be done and what I will do.
First, every nation has a right to protect and defend its own borders. It is the president's duty to take appropriate steps to do so. We should not tolerate illegal drugs in our society and as president I will not. And that is why as president and commander- in- chief, I will use the capabilities of our armed forces to stop illegal drugs before they can get into our country, before they can get into America.
No prevention program or no treatment effort can work effectively if we continue to allow the supply of cheap and illegal drugs to reach our streets and to reach our children. Now, our nation has a 200- year-old tradition of wariness over the use of the military to address domestic security matters. I always have and always will respect that, but our problem today, our drug problem today is more than a domestic security matter.
The threat comes from abroad and more can be done to fight this threat. And as president of the United States within my first 45 days in the White House, I will work with my secretary of defense and the joint chiefs of staff to seek further ways to use our military power, particularly technical capabilities, to fight the war on drugs. We will come up with a plan that focuses the appropriate military means to augment our federal and state drug enforcement agencies. We will make drug interdiction a priority for our intelligence services, beefing up not just technical operations, but also human intelligence collection.
We will expand our use of military technologies, including reconnaissance and satellites and aerial surveillance and listening posts, to track drug movements toward our borders, and we will expand our use of air capabilities to better know how and where drug shipments are being flown into the United States. The Coast Guard, which used to be under Elizabeth's control, we'd better coordinate it in their efforts to track drugs that come our way by sea routes, and we will renew our commitment to our National Guard drug interdiction efforts.
Working with the governors, we will create designated National Guard units with appropriate training and equipment to provide a rapid response capability as required by our law enforcement organizations based upon improved intelligence available to them. In other words, if we need the National Guard to move in, they'll have the training and they'll work with law enforcement and they'll get the job done. Working with our governors across America, we're going to get it done.
We'll draw up a contingency plan for interdicting drug movements along our Southern border. And why? Because 50 to 75 percent of cocaine passes through Mexico and better than 20 percent of heroin consumed in our country is produced in Mexico. Now, one would hope that such interdiction by U.S. military forces would never need to take place, but just as you ask combat readiness as a deterrent to those who would challenge us in war, so will the knowledge that all the capabilities, I said all the capabilities of our federal government will be used to reduce the flow of drugs across our border if necessary.
That's the message that will go out to the American people, to people in foreign countries who want to poison American children in Chicago and everywhere else in America and we're going to make it tough. We're going to bring together the intelligence capabilities of the CIA and the FBI and DEA and relevant agencies to follow the money, follow the money to the source. And as you can see, there will no mistaking the Dole administration's view on drugs. We will treat drugs for what they are, the moral equivalent of terrorism. That's what drugs are, the moral equivalent of terrorism.
Like the terrorism fanatics who blow up people and highjack planes, the terrorism of drugs destroys our young people and it highjacks America's future and we're going to stop it and we're going to stop it. So my message is, the status quo has got to go, Bill. The status quo has got to go. We've had enough, we've had enough of drug abuse and we're going to win the war on drugs and we're going to restore the American dream and we're going to balance the budget and we're going to cut taxes and we're going to do it because we want a better America. You want a better America.