MINDLESSNESS ON DRUGS

After spending two and a half years examining Britain's drug laws, a
quasi-official committee is about to issue a report that will recommend the
decriminalization of marijuana.

Currently, pot possession in Britain is punishable by up to seven
years in prison.

Concluding that this is far too severe, the committee will propose
that possessing small amounts of the drug be subject to nothing more
than a fine or other civil penalty.

The committee will also recommend easing the penalties for other soft
drugs such as Ecstasy.

Unfortunately, the government of Tony Blair is unlikely to accept
these recommendations. With a general election approaching, it doesn't
want to look soft on drugs.

Still, the fact that a panel of prominent citizens could propose
decriminalizing pot suggests a degree of openness on the issue totally
absent here. The Clinton Administration's drug policy, led by Gen.
Barry McCaffrey, has been a disaster.

On issues ranging from needle exchange to medical marijuana, from
foreign intervention to treatment dollars, the White House intimidated
by Republicans in Congress has taken an unrelievedly hard line.

News organizations have done no better.

Consider, for instance, the recent flap over the White House's policy
of reviewing TV scripts in order to encourage anti-drug messages.

The arrangement, whereby TV networks that incorporated such messages
into entertainment shows could earn financial credits that freed them
from having to air costly public service announcements, was widely
panned as allowing undue government interference in TV programming.
And rightly so. For federal officials to review TV scripts and
encourage the airing of certain types of messages seems uncomfortably
close to news management.

At no time, however, did commentators bother to scrutinize the
substance of those messages.

Thus, the Washington Post, while chiding broadcasters for allowing
themselves to be manipulated by the White House, noted that "in this
case, we happen to agree with the spin, and the idea of sitcoms and
television dramas carrying anti-drug themes seems healthy." And, on
NPR, Matthew Miller said the only thing wrong with the White House
policy was the secrecy surrounding it. "Surely everyone can agree that
it's a good thing for Hollywood to dramatize the fact that drugs wreck
lives:' he said. "Just as Humphrey Bogart did far more than the
Marlboro Man to glamorize smoking, George Clooney and his colleagues
can help teach millions of fans that the clean life is cool."

A closer look at the plot lines engineered by the White House,
however, would have revealed a deeper intent than simply educating
kids about drugs. As reported by Salon, which broke the original
story, the segments included a Chicago Hope episode on which young
revelers suffer drug-induced death, psychosis and a two-car wreck; a
Wayans Bros. installment featuring a pot smoker freaking out; a Drew
Carey Show involving blanket drug tests at work; and a 7th Heaven
segment featuring a young teen who enlists as an undercover drug
informant after a minister suggests this to his parents. This is Just
Say No come to prime time.

The script-review policy is part of a billion-dollar, five-year
program to combat drug use among young people.

At the core of the campaign are those bizarre Love Is the Antidrug ads
appearing on television, in newspapers and on billboards. From a
public-health standpoint, the ads fail on three counts. First, they
make no distinction between hard and soft drugs; overwhelmingly, the
ads focus on marijuana the least harmful of illicit drugs. Second, the
ads rarely mention alcohol the substance most abused by young people.
(The liquor industry threatened to raise hell if its products were
targeted.) And finally, the ads do not generally include a phone
number that families can call if one of their children actually does
get into trouble with drugs a key component of any public-health campaign.

Instead, the ads -- and most of the scripted references on television
- -- hew to the old line that toking on a reefer can make you crazy.

The failure of the news media to explore this point shows how
thoroughly the Just Say No mindset has taken over.