Pubdate: Thu, 13 Jul 2000 Source: Santa Barbara News-Press (CA) Copyright: 2000 Santa Barbara News-Press Contact: P.O. Box 1359, Santa Barbara, CA 93102 Website: http://www.newspress.com/ DRUG WAR: ANOTHER BATTLE President Clinton's drug czar, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, outlined a plan this week to members of Congress that involves "leveraging" the drug war into movies. Apparently, the general has already successfully done that in the TV industry. It was disclosed earlier this year that McCaffrey's Office of National Drug Control Policy had been quietly giving major TV networks millions of dollars in financial credits for getting producers to include anti-drug messages in popular, prime-time shows, among them "E.R." and "Beverly Hills 90210." The idea, of course, is that such shows are popular with young Americans, who are the highest risk group when it comes to using illegal drugs. McCaffrey's office reasons that if producers and network officials incorporate anti-drug messages, it could help reduce drug use among young people. Now he wants to start a similar program within the movie industry. We admire McCaffrey's dedication to his mission -- reducing drug use in America -- but there are two distinct problems with his methods. First, the messages being transmitted through prime-time TV shows don't seem to be having any measurable effect. In fact, since the financial credits program began, the number of illegal drug users 12 years and older in America has remained about the same. Second, we are uncomfortable with a situation in which the government is directly influencing the media on the nature of its content. It's just a little too close for comfort to George Orwell's vision of government's role in society. And a bit too close to censorship. Clinton administration's anti-drug efforts are being pointed in the wrong direction. McCaffrey has authorization to spend about a billion dollars a year on anti-drug messages in the media -- including the TV and possibly now movie industry credits -- and that is money substance abuse experts say could be put to better use in community education and treatment programs. Anti-drug messages are good; direct-contact programs are better. Paying off the media is not the most effective means of spreading the anti-drug message. The News-Press editorial pages have carried the anti-drug message for years because it is the right thing to do -- not because a government agency is offering cash incentives for doing so. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D