HOLLYWOOD PUSHING NEW AWARENESS OF DRUG ABUSE

If Hollywood had a message in the last year, it could be found in the
1970s-era rock 'n' roll movie "Almost Famous." "Don't take drugs!"
pleads Frances McDormand as a nervous mother who drops off her
15-year-old son at a Black Sabbath concert.

"Don't take drugs! Don't take drugs!" mocks a chorus of concertgoers.

From gritty dramas such as "Traffic" and "Requiem for a Dream" to
thoughtful comedies such as "Wonder Boys" and "Almost Famous," some
of the better films of 2000 touched on lives and careers ruined by
addiction. All of those films received Golden Globe nominations and
could fare equally well at the Academy Awards.

Many filmmakers say Hollywood has begun escalating its own war on
drugs. What's seen on screen, however, can sometimes seems at odds
with a subculture traditionally known for bacchanalian excess.

Federal drug-enforcement officials note that Hollywood has a
checkered history in depicting drugs' consequences.

"But it looks to us like they're trying hard to do a better job
showing an accurate portrayal of the damage drug abuse does," said
Bob Weiner, spokesman for the White House office of National Drug
Control Policy.

"There were some positive messages about the need for family
involvement and positive work of drug enforcement agents," he added.

"There's less ambiguity now. With movies like `Trainspotting,' I had
trouble telling whether the message was pro or con."

Film-industry analysts say substance abuse is no longer considered glamorous.

"It's kind of out of style, and that makes it time to capitalize on
the anti-drug message," said Robert Bucksbaum of Reel Source Inc., a
firm that tracks the box office.

No one making a movie wants to be preachy, but many say they have
weathered too much damage from drug abuse to stay silent.

"I don't know a single person who hasn't smoked pot or tried some
sort of drug," said Stephen Gaghan, the "Traffic" screenwriter. "At
some point, it becomes hypocritical not to address it."

Gaghan said he initially named a character after a friend as an
inside joke but then changed it when he found out the friend had died
of a heroin overdose.

"There's a lot of personal experience in this one," Gaghan said. "I
hope it seems truthful."

Benicio Del Toro, who plays a Mexican drug officer who finds he has
unwittingly aided a cartel in "Traffic," said he wanted to create "a
conversation piece" about how the U.S. war on drugs doesn't solve the
problem of addiction.

"People (in Hollywood) are starting to know the power they have in
cutting (drug use) down somewhat. We can show the bigger picture of
the problem."

The balance between entertaining and lecturing, however, can be precarious.

"Requiem for a Dream," for example, presented such an unrelentingly
grim portrait of four junkies that it was hard for mainstream
audiences to endure.

"It's a difficult movie, and my only worry is that not enough people
will get to see it," said "Requiem" star Ellen Burstyn, who plays an
aging housewife destroyed by a diet-pill addiction.

"People will go to great lengths to avoid reality, and over the years
our addictions have changed and become much more lethal. I think that
if movies like this encourage people to stay in their reality, we
will have done a service."

Such cautionary tales frequently have come from Hollywood --
including gritty dramas such as "Lost Weekend" (alcoholism), "The Man
with the Golden Arm" (heroin) and "Less Than Zero" (cocaine), and
sometimes silly propaganda such as "Reefer Madness."

Those movies typically show drug users coming to no good. "Blow,"
scheduled for April release and based on a true story, ends with
Johnny Depp's character doing hard time after flying high for years
as the top coke smuggler for Colombia's Med-ellin cartel -- a
one-man, $35 billion-a-year conduit.

Even comedies such as "Arthur" and the "Cheech & Chong" movies depict
their alcohol- and marijuana-dependent protagonists as hopeless
bumblers who can't function in regular life -- even though they're
having fun (or think they are).

The high-caliber of filmmaking dedicated to recent movies dealing
with addiction illustrates how important anti-drug messages have
become in the entertainment industry. ("Traffic" was even able to
persuade real-life politicians Sens. Orrin Hatch and Barbara Boxer to
appear in cameo roles.)

Filmmakers say the star power and budgets allocated to such movies
are a sign that Hollywood is taking its ability to fight drugs more
seriously than ever.

"Drugs are a big problem in any society, including Hollywood, and the
presence of the problem is not to be denied," said "Wonder Boys"
director Curtis Hanson.

"Wonder Boys" plays like a farce, with Michael Douglas as a
dope-smoking professor whose professional and personal lives spin out
of control over the course of a weekend.

"His character avoids dealing with very important issues, and
self-medication that he indulges in allows him to not come to grips
with it," Hanson said.

"When he comes to realize that, he can make some hard choices and is
better for it."

The message is especially poignant, he said, considering the movie
co-stars Robert Downey Jr., whose career has been sidetracked yet
again by a drug arrest.

Downey, also a Golden Globe nominee for a series of guest spots on
the Fox comedy "Ally McBeal," is someone many people can relate to,
Hanson said.

"The reality is that a lot of people, even outside the entertainment
industry, have family members suffering from addiction," he said.

Television, too, has tried to show the ravages of drug abuse.

"The West Wing," which won a record-setting nine Emmys in September,
has tackled the subject of substance abuse with the character of
White House chief of staff Leo McGarry, who has battled pills and
alcohol.

"It's finally coming out of the closet as a health problem, not a
criminal problem," said the show's creator, Aaron Sorkin.

"I think that as people become more aware of that about addiction,
they find there are interesting ways to tell stories about it."