STUDENTS JOIN SPIDER-MAN IN ANTI-DRUG EVENT

WASHINGTON -- The drug czar and the super hero were the stars of a big
anti-drug event Tuesday, but Osmel Cuan of Hialeah and five other high
school students brought the most encouraging news: Kids talking to kids
about narcotics can make a difference.

The six students, cub reporters for a cable TV outlet, interviewed other
students on a five-city bus tour that began in Miami and ended this week in
the capital, to coincide with the announcement of new media campaigns to
reach classrooms with an anti-drug message.

Former Gen. Barry McCaffrey, joined by Spider-Man, said the efforts would
use everything from Cable in the Classroom, which reaches about 40 percent
of all teens and preteens, to book covers, comic books, AOL information
centers and basketball backboards in gyms with a "Drugs Do You" warning.

He added that peer pressure might send the most effective message of all.

"We're getting out a believable anti-drug message, not scare tactics,"
McCaffrey said. "But it's youth leadership that can really shape attitudes.
Young people listen to other kids."

To underscore that point, the students talked about listening, and gently
letting other students know that using drugs is not normal, despite some
messages in popular culture.

"I know kids who have used drugs, and what it can do," said Cuan, 16, who
came from Cuba when he was 3, has his own Boyz 2 Men-style musical group and
aspires to be an actor.

Interviewing other kids at schools, malls and rehab clinics, Cuan said he
was surprised by some stories he heard, including kids who were recruited by
a parent to use and sell drugs.

"I think most parents are really trying, talking to their kids more, but
they're not always listening," the Hialeah High junior said.

The students' bus tour, sponsored by MediaOne, will be the subject of a
30-minute video to be seen in schools later this year. Also coming to a
classroom near you: information in Scholastic magazine, Weekly Reader and
Marvel Comics, with Spider-Man handling drug issues in several special inserts.

Clad in familiar red and blue tights, Spider-Man made an appearance at the
press conference, flexed for the cameras and noted that one of his mottoes
fit in with an anti-drug message: "With great power comes great responsibility."

McCaffrey cited recent surveys that show a decrease in drug experimentation
by adolescents, but a slight increase in the 18-to-25 age group, and said
that parents and educators have to reach kids earlier.

He also conceded that Tuesday's event was a first for him: "I've introduced
the President, I've introduced the secretary-general of the United Nations,
but I've never had the honor of introducing a super hero before." e-mail:
fdavies@herald.com