Video Attempt At Straight Talk About Drugs Gets Mixed Reviews

*Media: Some L.A. teenagers say White House production should have been
blunter, but teacher says students generally responded favorably.

When it comes to talking about drugs, nothing goes in one ear and out
the other faster than the exhortations of parents and other authority
figures.

If anyone's going to reach teenagers, it's other teenagers, which is the
assumption behind "Straight Scoop: Kids Talking to Kids About Drugs." The
half-hour documentary sponsored by the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy was screened for about 460 Hamilton High School students
Thursday.

Part of the office's $1-billion anti-drug media campaign, the video
represents an acknowledgment that kids don't respond well to
paternalistic lecturing.

As an adult, "you have no standing in their community," said Miriam
Ojeda, a Hamilton High health and biology teacher who helped
coordinate the screening. "They don't look upon adults as mentors.

They look upon each other as mentors."

The project, produced by broad band company MediaOne, involved six
high school students traveling to several Southeastern cities,
conducting candid interviews with teenagers.

The winner of a 1999 Telly Award--given to non-network TV
productions--"Straight Scoop" will air at schools and on local
MediaOne cable channels.

Reviews were mixed Tuesday. In a brief question-and-answer session
with two of the student interviewers--who flew cross country to attend
the West Coast "premiere"--one Hamilton student asked why the
documentary focused on "soft" drugs like marijuana.

The video made no mention of substances like ecstasy or
heroin.

Students also said they wished there had been more graphic depictions
of the consequences of drug use, like a segment in which a boy shows
off the gruesome third-degree burns he received from trying to inhale
Freon, a coolant used in refrigerators and air conditioners.

"I don't care if it's painful to see," said Erica McClellan, 17, a
Hamilton senior. "If kids look at stuff like that, they would think
twice about [using drugs]. They need to show people [overdosing]. They
need to show people dying."

One of the student interviewers said some of the harder-hitting
material was edited out. "There was a lot of shocking, real-world
stuff that I guess they didn't want to put in," said Osmel, whose last
name was not released. He said the target audience included junior
high and elementary school children.

In one scene, the filmmakers talk about the difficulty of getting
teenagers to open up about their own drug experiences, particularly
given the possibility that their confessions might be broadcast nationwide.

That same reluctance was evident during a post-screening discussion
with Ojeda's health class, moderated by NBC-TV reporter David Cruz, at
which a smattering of teachers and parents were also present.

Asked to share some of their experiences, students responded with
silence.

Later, McClellan said students were too conscious of saying the right
thing with all the adult eyes in the room. "They're all saying they're
staying drug-free. I'm pretty sure half the class has tried some kind
of drug," she said. "They're just putting on a front."

"I think if they had been more real in that movie, they would have
been more real in here," said senior Chanel Woods, 18.

The cynicism is understandable, given the reality of teenage drug
use--though as the White House office says in "Straight Scoop," more
than 50% of teenagers say they have never tried marijuana.

"Students are bombarded with temptation. It's all around here. People
drive around [the Hamilton campus] selling drugs to kids out of their
cars," Ojeda said. Nonetheless, she thought that "the kids really
responded favorably to [the video]. They can identify with it."

As one student says in the video, they're tired of adults talking at
them--not with them.

"If parents stopped trying to act like parents and tried being
somebody's friend," McClellan said, "it would help teenagers out a
lot."