Pubdate: Mon, 31 May 1999
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Page: 16A
Copyright: 1999 Houston Chronicle
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Forum: http://www.chron.com/content/hcitalk/index.html
Author: Christopher S. Wren, New York Times

AMENDMENT WOULD ADD ALCOHOL TO NATIONAL ANTI-DRUG CAMPAIGN

Evidence abounds that beer is more popular with adolescents than
marijuana. Yet while the government is spending $195 million this year
on its national media campaign to dissuade adolescents from using
illicit drugs, not a penny of the appropriated tax dollars goes to
warn about the dangers of drinking.

So this month, Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., introduced an
amendment to include underage drinking in the advertising campaign's
targets. Her effort has not pleased beer wholesalers, some other
members of Congress or even the White House's Office of National Drug
Control Policy.

"We are neither endorsing nor opposing that proposal for inclusion of
alcohol in the media campaign," said Robert Weiner, the spokesman for
Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the director of national drug policy.

Teen-agers' wider use of alcohol over drugs has been documented in the
annual survey of adolescent drug use by researchers at the University
of Michigan. In 1998, the survey reported, 74 percent of the high
school seniors sampled said they had drunk alcohol in the previous
year, and nearly one-third said they had gotten drunk within the last
month. In comparison, 38 percent of the seniors said they had smoked
marijuana during the previous year.

McCaffrey has expressed concern about alcohol use by youth. "It's the
biggest drug abuse problem for adolescents, and it's linked to the use
of other, illegal drugs," he said Feb. 8.

But a month later, McCaffrey told a House Appropriations subcommittee
that he lacked the authority to spend federal money on anti-alcohol
messages in the media campaign.

The law passed by Congress creating the anti-drug media campaign does
not define "drug." But the earlier law creating the White House
national drug control office limits its authority to combating
controlled substances, thereby excluding alcohol.

Roybal-Allard, a subcommittee member, said she was upset enough by
McCaffrey's remarks to put forward her amendment, which may be voted
on next month. "They're not getting at the root of the problem, which
is underage drinking," she said.

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., joined Roybal-Allard as a co-sponsor. "You're
finding more young people dying of alcohol-related problems than of
drugs," Wolf said.

But the White House drug control office says it does not want to
tinker with the campaign's efforts to change youth attitudes about
drugs, and possibly dilute the message about drugs.

Charles Blanchard, the chief counsel for McCaffrey, said that media
outlets had been asked to match the federal funds they get for running
the anti-drug ads by supplying additional public service announcements
or programming. He estimated that 15 percent of these would address
underage drinking.

Even if these anti-alcohol messages appear, critics say, they would
account for little more than 7 percent of the advertising messages in
the campaign.

Karolyn Nunnallee, the national president of Mothers Against Drunk
Driving, accused the White House drug office of ignoring the problem
of underage drinking. "To say that MADD is a little upset over Gen.
McCaffrey and the direction he has chosen to take would probably be an
understatement," she said.

The American Medical Association, the American Public Health
Association, the American Society of Addiction Medicine and other
medical, church and community groups also support the amendment.

Opposition in the House is forming around Rep. Anne Northup, R-Ky.,
who promises to kill the amendment when it comes up for a vote.

"I think everybody appreciates Ms. Roybal-Allard's concern," Northup
said. But, she added, "there are a number of people that believe that
drugs are unique and we shouldn't confuse the messages and diminish
them."

"The message about drugs is don't ever do it, not at any age and
type," Northup said. "That is not the message about alcohol, just like
it's not the message of sex."

Tamara Tyrrell, the director of public affairs for the National Beer
Wholesalers' Association, said the amendment "is not the proper way to
solve the problem" of underage drinking. Beer wholesalers already
spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on alcohol awareness programs,
she said.

"We feel that the drug czar should be focused on illegal drugs,"
Tyrrell said, "and alcohol is a legal product and, when consumed
responsibly, it has even healthy benefits for certain people."

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America, a coalition of advertising
and public relations professionals that is coordinating the antidrug
media campaign, has also found itself in the awkward position of
opposing the amendment.

"You can't simply assume that the anti-drug campaign can be widened to
include something as huge as underage drinking," said Stephen
Dnistrian, the partnership's spokesman.

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