DRUG-TAKING IN MOVIES 'SHOULD DEPICT THE REALITY'

Broadcasters and film-makers have been told to make images of drug-taking
less melodramatic.

A study published yesterday claims many young people believe that alarmist
images of drug abuse on television and in films weakens the message against
using hard drugs.

But the report, published jointly by the Broadcasting Standards Commission
and the British Board of Film Classification, also disputed claims that TV
and film have a big influence on drug-taking.

Knowing the Score said the "overwhelming majority" of the 170 people
questioned at length for the study did not feel film and TV had promoted
drug use to them. School, friends and social settings were much more
influential factors, it said. They provided "the example, the drugs, the
enthusiasm and the reassurance".

The study, which focused mainly on people aged 11 to 35 and on those who
used or had sampled illegal drugs, will rekindle the long-running debate
about the power and influence of the mass media.

Early studies by the Health Education Authority and the Broadcasting
Standards Council, the commission's predecessor, found 70 to 80 per cent of
teenagers said the media was a main sources of information on drugs.

But the new report's author, Arnold Cragg, said a "careful balance" had to
be struck between showing the dangers of drug use and recognising that some
people sought "pleasurable effects" and wanted to experiment.

"The sort of realistic portrayal which makes the fear of use well founded
seems likely to best serve the public interest," he concluded. "When
credible, it is less easily demolished by mocking friends and contrary
personal experience."

Robin Duval, the board's director, said the findings would have to be
"carefully considered" during its review of film classifications, due to
end this summer. "The present research shows that simply representing drug
taking in a negative way will not be effective among existing drug takers,"
he said.

But it was a dilemma, Mr Cragg said. Two men in the survey said
Trainspotting, Danny Boyle's film of Irvine Welsh's novel about addicts in
Edinburgh in the early 1980s, persuaded them to use heroin.

One smoked the drug after seeing the film, the other claimed it taught him
how to inject. However, most respondents said the film made drug use look
"dirty".

The characters played by John Travolta and Uma Thurman in the film Pulp
Fiction, made by Quentin Tarantino in 1994, also made drug-taking look
"glamorous". But, although the film "pushed at the limits" of acceptable
portrayals of drug use, most respondents felt the graphic scene where
Thurman's character overdosed turned them heavily against heroin.