Grassley said he will maneuver a modified lawn tractor down Pennsylvania Avenue on Wednesday, September 10, at 12:15 p.m. (EDT), as part of an effort to raise funds for drug-abuse prevention programs, while educating kids about the dangers of using drugs.
The Kmart Family Foundation is a non-profit foundation established in 1996 solely to educate, prevent and fight drug use by youths nationwide. During the first year of this tour the Foundation donated approximately $500,000 to drug prevention charities throughout the country. Money is raised for donations when the Foundation contributes $5 for each child who participates in the races. For the race next week, the Foundation will donate $500 to the drug prevention charity selected by each member of Congress who participates.
According to the Foundation, during 1997, the Kmart Kids Race Against Drugs caravan will visit 38 cities in 25 weeks. Tracks are set-up for these races in the parking lots of Kmart and Super Kmart centers. A new tour is being planned for 1998. The Foundation is sponsoring the Washington, D.C. event with Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, or CADCA. Honorary co-chairs of the Foundation include Paul Newman, Jaclyn Smith, Kathy Ireland, and Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Ireland is expected to attend the race next Wednesday in Washington, D.C., along with boxing legend Sugar Ray Leonard and Washington Wizards basketball player Chris Webber.
In June, Grassley won passage by Congress and the President's signature on a bill he sponsored, the Drug Free Communities Act of 1997. The DFCA will move federal dollars that have been used for anti-drug initiatives based in Washington, D.C. to anti-drug initiatives sponsored by community coalitions with proven track records of success in the fight against teenage drug use.
Specifically, the DFCA will use $10 million of money previously spent for drug control by federal agencies to fund a matching grant program through which community-based coalitions can qualify for grants of up to $100,000. To qualify for a grant, a community coalition must demonstrate a long-term commitment to addressing teenage drug use by having a sustainable coalition that includes representatives from a wide variety of community activists. A community coalition making application must have been in existence for at least six months before applying for funds provided for in the DFCA. A coalition is eligible to receive support only if it can match the grant dollar-for-dollar with non-federal funding.
Beyond the new grant program, Grassley is working in Iowa to form the first-of-its-kind statewide anti-drug coalition to help individual communities fight drug abuse by young people. Grassley said his coalition project will bring together the people who are having success in their efforts to fight drug abuse and the people who want to learn more. The Iowa senator is organizing meetings which enlist members of the business community, parents, youth, clergy, social workers, educators, medical professionals, law enforcement, and other concerned citizens from around the state to share ideas and tactics on how to fight drug use.
"I want to support the efforts of community coalitions and drug prevention groups in the war on drugs. With a common goal of preventing and treating illegal drug use, we can make a difference one child, one parent, one worker, one person at a time," Grassley said.
Last year, Grassley won the President's signature on an initiative he co-authored with Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California to control the chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine.
This week, the Iowa Department of Education released results of a study regarding youth drug use in Iowa in 1996. The study revealed an increase to 12 percent of high school seniors reporting regular use of marijuana. This figure is up from eight percent in the study conducted three years ago. The drug survey also found that three percent of high school seniors said they regularly used methamphetamine, the same level as 1993, and two percent of high school seniors in Iowa regularly use cocaine; that's up from one percent in 1993.
Grassley serves as chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control and a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee.