LET'S TARGET ALCOHOL ABUSE

The U.S. Government is spending $195 million this year to dissuade
teen-agers from using various drugs. Guess which drug is not on that list?
Alcohol, perhaps the greatest substance abuse threat to adolescents. This is
an oversight the government must correct.

Alcohol is not on the target list of the federal advertising campaign
because the law aims only at controlled substances. Gen. Barry McCaffrey,
director of national drug policy, would like to go after alcohol. He calls
it "the biggest drug abuse problem for adolescents," and says it is "linked
to the use of other, illegal drugs." Yet McCaffrey says his hands are tied
because of the wording of the law that authorizes his expenditures.

U.S. Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, D-Los Angeles, has introduced an amendment
that would add underage drinking to the advertising campaign's targets. Beer
wholesalers don't like it. But once you've seen the statistics it is
difficult to disagree with the point Roybal-Allard is trying to make.

In 1998, according to a University of Michigan survey, 74 percent of high
school seniors said they had drunk alcohol in the previous year. Nearly
one-third said they got drunk within the past month. All you need to do,
during this graduation season, is open your eyes and look around you. Many
teen-agers are drinking.

The government, by not targeting these abuses with its advertising, is "not
getting at the root of the problem, which is underage drinking," says
Roybal-Allard.

A co-sponsor, Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., adds that "you're finding more young
people dying of alcohol-related problems than of drugs."

These representatives want an amendment to the bill that would allow
McCaffrey to target teen-age alcohol abuse as well as marijuana and other
controlled substances. We support the amendment as right and necessary.

Meanwhile, parents should be aware that advertising alone is not going to
stop their teen-age children from abusing alcohol. That responsibility, as
it always has, resides in the home.

It is graduation season, which many teens translate as party season. Keep an
eye on your youngsters. Their futures depend on it.