CHICAGO,
Sept. 12 /PRNewswire/

Home Box Office and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, in cooperation
with Prime Cable of Chicago and the Mayor's Office of Substance Abuse
Policy will hold a special screening of 27TH AND PROSPECT: ONE YEAR IN
THE FIGHT AGAINST DRUGS, which will be followed by a town meeting and
youth speak out.

The invitationonly event will be held on Monday, September 15, at the
Chicago Historical. It will begin with a 5:30 p.m. reception, followed
by the screening at 6:30 p.m. Jeanne Sparrow, onair personality, WGCI
radio, will facilitate the town meeting and youth speak out.

More than 300 high school students from the community will attend the
event and view the Chicago Historical Society's "Altered States"
exhibit. The exhibit, originating at the Strong Museum, takes visitors
on a journey through the harddrinking frontier days; the temperance
movement; the rise of nineteenthcentury opiate and cocaine use and
addiction; Prohibition; the psychedelic sixties; and the drugwracked
1990's.

According to Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley, "This event provides a
forum for community leaders and high school students to share
experiences; for experts to offer resistance skills for youth when
dealing with peer pressure; and to empower communities to reduce the
tolerance for substance abuse in their neighborhoods."

The town meeting and youth speak out is being hosted by Prime Cable of
Chicago; the Mayor's Office of Substance Abuse Policy, City of Chicago;
U.S. Postal Service; Forest Health Systems; Gateway Foundation; Join
Together; "Just Say No" International; and Ravenswood Substance Abuse
Task Force.

Host organizations will provide literature and resource guides to
attendees. A panel of experts will answer questions from the youth and
provide insight on how community resources can be used to assist in the
fight against substance abuse. The panelists include: Elias Einhorn,
youth representative, Ravenswood Substance Abuse Task Force; Garesa
Commings, Youth Power, Inc.; Scott Bergof, youth representative, FAIR
Program, Forest Hospital; Glouster Mahon, director, CHA CADRE Program;
Wayne Weibel, University of Illinois, associate professor, director of
Community Outreach Interventions; Patricia McPherson Davis, director,
Chicago Board of Education, Safe & Drug Free Schools Program; Dr. Chris
Stout, chief of Psychology, Forest Health Systems; and Father John
Smith, Maryville Academy.

The Chicago event is part of a larger program developed earlier this
year when HBO and The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation joined together to
produce three onehour programs titled, FACES OF ADDICTION. The three
programs are complemented by an extensive $1 million community outreach
effort targeted to reach thousands of America's communities and schools.

The FACES OF ADDICTION series, two documentaries and one docudrama, was
produced with a $3.2 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation, the nation's largest philanthropic organization dedicated to
U.S. health care. All three programs in the FACES OF ADDICTION series
were executive produced by Sheila Nevins, HBO's awardwinning senior
vice president for documentary and family programming.

HBO will screen the third film in the series, 27TH & PROSPECT: ONE YEAR
IN THE FIGHT AGAINST DRUGS. The film chronicles one community's effort
to fight substance abuse on the street corners and in the schools where
drug dealing and use take place. Filmed in Kansas City, the documentary
demonstrates the power of community action against overwhelming odds.
The program was produced by Kirk Simon and Karen Goodman.

The first program in the series, ADDICTED, is hosted by noted journalist
Linda Ellerbee. ADDICTED explores the struggles of more than a dozen
Americans dealing with the physical and emotional consequences of their
drug, alcohol and tobacco use. The impact of their stories is
reinforced throughout the show with a variety of alarming statistics on
substance abuse in our society. ADDICTED was produced by Lisa Jackson.

The second program, FLASHBACK, is a factbased docudrama about a
suburban high school student whose life is torn apart by drug use. As
her life spirals out of control, her mother struggles to help her,
finally forcing her daughter to seek rehabilitation. Later, as the
class valedictorian, she tells her fellow students about her descent
into a drug nightmare. FLASHBACK was produced by Frank Doelger and
Howard Meltzer.

HBO will reair the FACES OF ADDICTION SERIES: ADDICTED, Monday,
September 15th, 7 p.m. CST; FLASHBACK, Tuesday, September 16th, 7 p.m.
CST; 27TH AND PROSPECT: ONE YEAR IN THE FIGHT AGAINST DRUGS, Wednesday,
September 17th, 7 p.m. CST. HBO has authorized cable and satellite
affiliates to make the programs available to their basic subscribers.