UNDERAGE DRINKING

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America wholeheartedly supports the concept
of developing a national advertising campaign targeting underage drinking.
But your June 16 editorial misses the essence of our concerns regarding an
amendment to the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign.

You can target illegal drugs with advertising. Backed by the proper
research, you can do the same for underage drinking. But you cannot do both
effectively with the current federal appropriation. That's the issue. The
National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign is backed by $185 million in
federal funds. The alcohol industry spends billions on marketing and
promotion each year. It doesn't take a marketing genius to understand that
to compete effectively in the marketplace, it would require hundreds of
millions more to change teenage attitudes about drinking. A campaign
targeting underage drinking will require significantly more funding. If
Congress wants to ensure the effectiveness of the antidrug campaign, it
must not ask it to do more than it was originally designed to do.

WILLIAM J. BENNETT MARIO M. CUOMO
CoChairman, Partnership for a Drug-Free America
New York