T: There's a longer-run solution. We know from our research that if you get a child through age 21 without getting into this stuff, that child is virtually certain to be home free for the rest of his or her life. And when you say a drug-free society - and there will always be drugs being used - what you're really talking about is that population of children - and that's parents, that's schools, that's people that are dealing with that. And they've got to get focused on it.</s>T: : Is the U.S. serious enough about the war on drugs?</s>T: : Let me give a comparison. AIDS was a social curse. In a matter of three...</s>T: : AIDS, you're talking about?</s>T: : You know, when I was secretary of HEW, I went after smoking. I started the anti-smoking campaign. Everybody said, my God, it will never happen. It's all smoke and no fire. Look at the country today. If we get some leadership, we'll have a real impact. And this is the country's biggest disease, the biggest cause of cancer, strokes, accidents, murders, violence. We've got to do something about it.</s>T: : Joseph Califano, thank you very much for coming in to talk to us.</s>T: : OK, been great.</s>T: : That's Joseph Califano. He is the former secretary of Health, Education and Welfare. He is now director of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse; that's at Columbia University.
Michele Norris speaks with Joseph Califano, founder and chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, about the appetite for drugs in the U.S. and what's being done to curb it.