IMAGES TO JOLT A NATION

The Federal Government will broadcast shocking images to the nation tonight
in a bid to force Australians to confront the drugs menace.

They come from a series of prime-time TV commercials that portray the
innocence of childhood and how, just a few years later, those children are
destroyed.

It is a deliberately hard-hitting campaign designed to shatter mainstream
Australia's apparent apathy to a problem out of control and runs in
conjunction with advertisements in major newspapers.

One commercial depicts an 18-year-old prostitute lying on a bed, staring
blankly. She folds some money and sticks it into the wasteband of her
pants. We hear her voice when she was seven:

"When I grow up I want to be a teacher in a high-school. I think I'll teach
English. I'll get married and have three children."

In another scene, a teenage boy rifles through a stolen handbag in a hotel
toilet. Desperation turns to despair when he realises it is empty.

Then his childhood voice: "I reckon it'd be great to be a fireman. You get
to drive the engine, you go into burning buildings and save people and stuff."

A 16-year-old girl is shown screaming at her mother who is trying to stop
her leaving. The girl strikes her mother across the face, sending her
reeling backwards. The mother sobs. The girl leaves.

Then the girl's voice from nine years ago: "I help Mum make scones and
cakes so when I grow up I'm going to have a restaurant. All my friends will
come there, and my mum and dad."

One of the most confronting scenes is that of a young face, eyes full of
innocence and promise.

Then the image of a bodybag zip and a paramedic's hand shutting out the
light and the world. Another young addict dead on the pavement.

As the paramedic zips up the bodybag, the teenager's haunting childhood voice:

"I'm in the under 9's and I'm a forward. I usually score a goal every
match. One day I want to play for Australia if I'm good enough." The
campaign was developed in consultation with the Australian National Council
on Drugs and tested extensively on focus groups. The Prime Minister was
closely involved.

Mr Howard favored a prevention strategy designed to stop young people
experimenting with drugs in the first place by teaching them about the
consequences and promoting healthy family life.

In a booklet to be sent to more than six million homes, Mr Howard says he
believes the best drug prevention program in the world is a responsible
parent sitting down with their children and talking with them about drugs.

He says 71 per cent of 15 to 17-year-olds questioned in a national survey
said their parents could influence them not to use drugs.

"This is a good reason to sit down and explain to young people the
consequences of using drugs and the importance for all of us to take
personal responsibility for our own actions," Mr Howard says. "If we don't
talk to our sons and daughters about drugs you can be sure that our
children will hear the wrong message from someone else."

The first stage of the campaign has the theme "drugs destroy families" and
targets parents. The second is still being developed but will be directed
at teenagers.

Australians are dying at the rate of more than 1000 a year from illicit
drug use, with about 700 of them aged between 15 and 34. The consequences
of illicit drug use costs the community an estimated $1.7 billion a year.