No Excuse for Doctors Abusing Drugs, Mrs. Reagan Tells Medical Graduates
Nancy Reagan warned Georgetown University’s graduating physicians Saturday that there is no excuse for drug abuse in the medical profession, and asked them to be alert for drug problems among their patients as well as their colleagues.
“You can’t buy peace with a pill or a powder,” she said in a commencement speech at the school.
“You have a higher obligation because you are the best and the brightest. You are held more accountable because of the profession you’ve chosen,” she said. “To put it plainly: Doctors should know better and their patients deserve better.”
After her address to the School of Medicine graduates at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters for promoting health through her campaign against drug abuse.
Mrs. Reagan cited a Harvard University report that one in 10 physicians and medical students surveyed admitted using illicit drugs, and a University of Missouri study in which 27% of medical students surveyed classified themselves as marijuana users and nearly 11% said they used cocaine.
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