And he said treatment remains a goal of the National Drug Control Strategy, pointing out that chronic drug users in the United States tend to be employed and stable, and view treatment as a stigma. We've got 5 million chronically addicted Americans. The moment we believe ourselves victorious and drop our guard, drug abuse will resurface in the next generation. McCaffrey said he is confident the incoming Bush administration is aware of the importance of treatment. Illegal drug trafficking inflicts violence and corruption on our communities.
Law enforcement is the first line of defense against such unacceptable activity.
The Labor Department said Friday that private payrolls rose by just 49,000 last month, the smallest increase since a gain of 17,000 in August. Manufacturing continued to suffer huge losses and the construction industry was hurt by unusually cold weather in December. Overall employment was up by 105,000 last month, but more than half of that reflected increases in government jobs. For the last three months, payroll growth has averaged just 77,000, a sharp slowdown from gains of average gains of 187,000 jobs during the first nine months of the year. Even with weak job growth, the 4 percent unemployment rate was better than many analysts had been expecting, given a rash of stories in recent weeks about thousands of job cuts at some of nation's biggest companies that reflected efforts to cope with a rapidly slowing economy.