FEDS FIGHT DISCLOSURE OF ALCOHOL SALES REPORT

SAN FRANCISCO -- A critical report saying alcohol use increases and
state revenue drops after state-run liquor stores close has sat,
unreleased, in the federal government's drug abuse prevention office
for more than two years.

An anti-alcohol abuse group has sued to get the document released, but
file federal agency is fighting it, saying the report was never
officially approved.

Private health organizations supporting the lawsuit say the real
reason the agency is resisting is because of pressure from the alcohol
lobby, which has worked with some success to exclude liquor from the
government's "war on drugs."

The federal Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, which ordered the
report, and a parent agency "have been under intense political
pressure from the alcohol industry since at least 1992 to cease any
activities that would link the issues of alcohol marketlng and alcohol
availability to the prevention of alcohol-related problems," a
coalition of health groups said in court papers.

Federal officials deny any cover-up or pressure from the alcohol
industry.

A spokesman for the parent agency of the Center for Substance Abuse
Prevention also challenged the notion that the government didn't
address alcohol abuse, noting that they had issued studies on such
topics as teen-age drinking, drunken driving, drinking during
pregnancy and alcoholism.

But because the report was not approved, its release "Would create
confusion as to what the agency's official policy is" said Assistant
U.S. Attorney Patricia Kenney in court papers.

A federal judge in San Francisco upheld the government's decision last
year. The Marin Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Other Drug
Problems, which has sought the report since April 1997, has appealed
to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The contents are no secret, however.

The Marin Institute said it obtained a copy of the 35-page draft
report from an anonymous source. The report, by a University of
Minnesota epidemiologist and two economists, looked at shifts from
public to private sales in several states and foreign countries and
found socially harmful results.