DEBATE OVER ANTI-ALCOHOL PUSH HEATS UP

Washington - Here's a commercial certain to grab attention during a break
in Dawson's Creek. Teen-age Bobby shows up at the door to pick up date
Jennifer and for the first time meets Dad, who politely asks where the kids
are heading. "I thought we'd go to party at a friend's house, have some
beers," answers Bobby. "Then on the way home there's a good chance I'll
date rape your daughter."

The jaw-dropping spot closes with this kicker: "Face brutal truth about
underage drinking." That is the message that some lawmakers and others
concerned with underage drinking and its link to drug use and similar
social problems would like to see transmitted as part of the national
anti-drug campaign. At present, the almost $1 billion, five year effort -
best known for its famous "your brain on drugs" ad - is silent on the
subject of alcohol.

"We are talking about an illegal, illicit drug that affects our young
people at a rate six times greater than all the other illegal, illicit
drugs combined," said Karolyn Nunnallee, president of Mothers Against Drunk
Driving, which produced the public service announcement featuring Bobby and
Jennifer.

Yet the nation's drug czar, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, and leading members of
Congress are opposed to including alcohol in the drug ads, saying it would
water down the effort to steer youngsters away from hard drugs such as
cocaine and heroin. They hold the upper hand in the wake of last Thursday's
Senate vote prohibiting spending any drug campaign funds on an anti-alcohol
push.

"Adding underage drinking to the drug czar's portfolio will only stretch
his resources even further and force him to take on another tough fight,"
said Rep. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., as the senate decided 58-40 against including
alcohol in anti-drug advertising.

A key House committee faces a similar choice when lawmakers return next
week from the Fourth of July recess to wade into the second major liquor
fight to break out in Congress this year. Members of Congress are also
wrangling over Internet sales of alcohol.

Officials of the National Beer Wholesalers Association, which has led the
fight against including alcohol in the drug ads, believe they can bottle up
the idea for now. "It is about tying beer with heroin," said David Rehr,
senior vice president of the group. He called the proposal the work of
"neo- Prohibitionist" determined to turn U.S. culture against alcohol.

"And one of the ways to do that is send messages to people through taxpayer
- -paid ads that there is not a lot of difference between crack cocaine and
wine," Rehr said. John DeLuca, president of the Wine Institute, said, "It
confuses a legal product that causes beneficial health effects with illegal
street drugs. They should not be commingled and not be confused."

Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., a chief proponent of the alcohol ads,
said their purpose is not to disparage drinking by adults, but simply to
force both parents and children to focus on underage drinking as a
"gateway" to other drug abuse.

And, Surgeon General David Satcher urged McCaffrey to reconsider, writing
him on June 11 that "no comprehensive drug control strategy for youth can
be complete without the full inclusion of underage alcohol use and abuse."