The Nation - News from March 1, 1988

Nancy Reagan said that casual users of drugs are an “accomplice to murder” because they help finance traffickers willing to commit brutal crimes. Kicking off a White House Conference for a Drug-Free America, Mrs. Reagan dramatized her “just say no” campaign with a speech focusing on those whose lives have been ruined by drugs. With President Reagan serving in the unusual role of warm-up speaker, the Reagans talked about the importance of ending the demand for drugs. Mrs. Reagan called attention to several people in the audience who lost loved ones because of drug abuse and cited the murder of Colombia’s chief prosecutor, Atty. Gen. Carlos Hoyos. The government blamed his death on the Medellin cartel, which U.S. officials say controls 80% of cocaine entering the United States. “The people who casually use cocaine are responsible,” Mrs. Reagan said, “because their money bought those bullets. They provided the high stakes that murdered those men, plus hundreds of others in Colombia.”