TV Talk to Stress Commitment to Fighting Narcotics : Reagans to Give Joint Drug Speech

SANTA BARBARA â€”  President and Mrs. Reagan will deliver, side by side, a nationwide television speech from their White House living quarters a week from Sunday in an effort to carry their campaign for a drug-free society into all walks of American life, the White House said Thursday.

“They wanted to do it together--from their home to our homes--as parents and friends as well as ‘the first couple,’ to stress the importance of all segments of our society pulling together in a common, determined effort to get rid of drugs,� White House spokesman Larry Speakes said.

Legislation Pushed

The speech will reflect the Administration’s new emphasis on action against drug abuse, which Speakes called a “crisis� in the nation. Indeed, Republicans and Democrats alike recently have turned to the subject with sudden vigor, pushing ahead with legislation that in many cases had been dormant in as many as 11 congressional subcommittees for several years.

Six task forces are at work within the Reagan Administration, preparing a variety of proposals that will be studied by the Domestic Policy Council next week. According to a senior White House official, the panel may produce some new proposals for the President to announce in the address, which will be delivered at 5 p.m. PDT Sept. 14.

Speakes described the speech as “an unprecedented event� because it is apparently the first time that any president and his wife have delivered a joint nationwide television address. He said that the Reagans will carry their message “into every home, every school, every college campus, every locker room, every corporate board room, every office, every studio.�

Not a ‘Passing Fancy’

“The Reagans will make it clear that their commitment to making ours a drug-free society is not some passing fancy--it is something which they take as seriously as anything on the national agenda and one which they are determined to win,� the spokesman said at a briefing for reporters.

He said the President and his wife began work on the speech together last week when they visited Los Angeles, before returning to their ranch northwest of Santa Barbara.

The Reagans “want everyone to join in the effort to help their fellow citizens give up or stay away from drugs,� Speakes said in an unusually lengthy statement announcing the speech.

Speakes said that the President’s program concentrates on removing drugs from the workplace and schools, calling for more information on drugs, greater international cooperation in suppressing drugs, tougher drug penalties and greater public awareness of the dangers of drugs.

On Monday, however, Speakes had said that Reagan will not endorse Vice President George Bush’s support of the death penalty for convicted large-scale drug dealers. The White House spokesman said that Reagan “does not want our drug policy to be sidetracked� by such a position, which would probably provoke an emotional debate.

Debate on Drug Tests

Senior White House aides have voluntarily undergone drug testing, as did the President, officials said. But consideration being given to requiring testing for a majority of the nation’s civilian government employees has brought about a certain amount of debate.

In recent months, the drug issue has turned into a political prairie fire on Capitol Hill, with members of both parties rushing to pull together long-ignored pieces of legislation to present a major anti-drug package for Reagan’s signature before Congress adjourns in October.

And, as the House and Senate pushed ahead, Reagan aides reported that the President was interested in making the fight against drug abuse, on which Mrs. Reagan has concentrated her attention in recent years, a central theme of his final two years in the White House.

Would Double Funds

The congressional package, scheduled to be taken up later this month, would allocate $3.75 billion for the nation’s fight against illegal narcotics use and trafficking--more than twice the current federal budget for such efforts.