All the research and experience tells us that education begins in our families of matters of right and wrong, health and safety, and responsibility.

The great lie about Ecstasy is that it is safe, it's fun, it's harmless and it's fashionable. It is a danger because of both supply and attitudes are going in the wrong direction.

However, if we are to continue the progress we have made in reducing drug use among young people, we must explore other ways to bring drug use down.

In order to drive it down further, we have to deal with today's substance abuse reality, and today's reality is, girls have been using at higher rates than boys in critical areas.

In 2001, President Bush asked me to become Director of National Drug Control Policy, a Cabinet-rank position that coordinates federal drug programs.

I know President Alvaro Uribe is committed and so is President Bush. Obviously we all want this process to go faster, and we're working toward that.

They barely got the money out the door to recruit, train and deploy these individuals. It takes too much time for this to have had an effect, ... That's what's absurd about the White House claim.

They are more likely to be influenced by peer pressure, even when they have been told and accepted that these behaviors are risky for them.

It will not take all of the provisions exactly, but it will take many of them and make them nationwide.

That is an enormous gift to the country as well as an enormous gift to the state.