Pubdate: Fri, 14 Apr 2000
Source: Independent, The (UK)
Copyright: 2000 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Contact:  1 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5DL
Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/
Author: Severin Carrell

DRUG-TAKING IN MOVIES 'SHOULD DEPICT THE REALITY'

Broadcasters and film-makers have been told to make images of drug-taking 
less melodramatic.

A study published yesterday claims many young people believe that alarmist 
images of drug abuse on television and in films weakens the message against 
using hard drugs.

But the report, published jointly by the Broadcasting Standards Commission 
and the British Board of Film Classification, also disputed claims that TV 
and film have a big influence on drug-taking.

Knowing the Score said the "overwhelming majority" of the 170 people 
questioned at length for the study did not feel film and TV had promoted 
drug use to them. School, friends and social settings were much more 
influential factors, it said. They provided "the example, the drugs, the 
enthusiasm and the reassurance".

The study, which focused mainly on people aged 11 to 35 and on those who 
used or had sampled illegal drugs, will rekindle the long-running debate 
about the power and influence of the mass media.

Early studies by the Health Education Authority and the Broadcasting 
Standards Council, the commission's predecessor, found 70 to 80 per cent of 
teenagers said the media was a main sources of information on drugs.

But the new report's author, Arnold Cragg, said a "careful balance" had to 
be struck between showing the dangers of drug use and recognising that some 
people sought "pleasurable effects" and wanted to experiment.

"The sort of realistic portrayal which makes the fear of use well founded 
seems likely to best serve the public interest," he concluded. "When 
credible, it is less easily demolished by mocking friends and contrary 
personal experience."

Robin Duval, the board's director, said the findings would have to be 
"carefully considered" during its review of film classifications, due to 
end this summer. "The present research shows that simply representing drug 
taking in a negative way will not be effective among existing drug takers," 
he said.

But it was a dilemma, Mr Cragg said. Two men in the survey said 
Trainspotting, Danny Boyle's film of Irvine Welsh's novel about addicts in 
Edinburgh in the early 1980s, persuaded them to use heroin.

One smoked the drug after seeing the film, the other claimed it taught him 
how to inject. However, most respondents said the film made drug use look 
"dirty".

The characters played by John Travolta and Uma Thurman in the film Pulp 
Fiction, made by Quentin Tarantino in 1994, also made drug-taking look 
"glamorous". But, although the film "pushed at the limits" of acceptable 
portrayals of drug use, most respondents felt the graphic scene where 
Thurman's character overdosed turned them heavily against heroin.
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