PUTTING ALCOHOL IN ADS ON DRUGS IS RESISTED

Evidence abounds that beer is more popular with adolescents than
marijuana. Yet while the government is spending $195 million this year
on its national media campaign to dissuade adolescents from using
illicit drugs, not a penny of the appropriated tax dollars goes to
warn about the dangers of drinking. So this month, Rep. Lucille
Roybal-Allard, D-Calif., introduced an amendment allowing underage
drinking to be included among the advertising campaign's targets. Her
effort has not pleased beer wholesalers, some other members of
Congress or even the White House's Office of National Drug Control
Policy.

"We are neither endorsing nor opposing that proposal for
inclusion of alcohol in the media campaign," said Robert Weiner, the
spokesman for Gen. Barry McCaffrey, the director of national drug
policy. Teen-agers' wider use of alcohol over drugs has been
documented in the annual survey of adolescent drug use by researchers
at the University of Michigan. In 1998, the survey reported, 74
percent of the high school seniors sampled said they had drunk alcohol
in the previous year, and nearly one-third said they had gotten drunk
within the last month. In comparison, 38 percent of the seniors said
they had smoked marijuana during the previous year. McCaffrey himself
has expressed concern about alcohol use by the young.

"It's the biggest drug abuse problem for adolescents, and it's linked to
the use
of other, illegal drugs," he said at a news conference on Feb. 8. But
a month later, McCaffrey told a House Appropriations subcommittee that
he lacked the authority to spend federal money on anti-alcohol
messages in the media campaign, which has now reached 102 cities
across the country. The law passed by Congress creating the antidrug
media campaign does not define "drug." But the earlier law creating
the White House national drug control office limits its authority to
combating controlled substances, thereby excluding alcohol.

Ms. Roybal-Allard, a subcommittee member, said she was sufficiently
upset by McCaffrey's remarks to put forward her amendment, which may
be voted on next month. "They're not getting at the root of the
problem, which is underage drinking," she said in a telephone
interview from Washington. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., joined Ms.
Roybal-Allard as a co-sponsor. "You're finding more young people dying
of alcohol-related problems than of drugs," Wolf said. He said he
wanted to let McCaffrey include underage drinking in the media
campaign "if he thinks it's appropriate."

But the White House drug control office says it does not want to
tinker with the campaign's efforts to change youth attitudes about
drugs, and possibly dilute the message about drugs.

Charles Blanchard, the chief counsel for McCaffrey, said that media
outlets had been asked to match the federal funds they get for running
the antidrug ads by supplying additional public service announcements
or programming. He estimated that 15 percent of these would address
underage drinking. Even if these anti-alcohol messages appear, critics
say, they would account for little more than 7 percent of the
advertising messages in the campaign. Karolyn Nunnallee, the national
president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, accused the White House
drug office of ignoring the problem of underage drinking. "To say that
MADD is a little upset over Gen. McCaffrey and the direction he has
chosen to take would probably be an understatement," Mrs. Nunnallee
said in a telephone interview from her home in Fort Meade, Fla. The
American Medical Association, the American Public Health Association,
the American Society of Addiction Medicine and other medical, church
and community groups also support the amendment.

Opposition in the House is forming around Rep. Anne Northup, R-Ky.,
who promises to kill the amendment when it comes up for a vote. "I
think everybody appreciates Ms. Roybal-Allard's concern," Mrs. Northup
said. But, she added, "there are a number of people that believe that
drugs are unique and we shouldn't confuse the messages and diminish
them." "The message about drugs is don't ever do it, not at any age
and type," Ms. Northup said. "That is not the message about alcohol,
just like it's not the message of sex."

George Hacker, director of the alcohol policies project for the Center
for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit education and advocacy
organization that is rallying support for the amendment, pointed out
that Ms. Northup received more than $38,000 in donations from liquor
and beer interests between 1997 and 1998.

But Ms. Northup said that had nothing to do with her opposition to the
amendment. "I've seen this tactic a lot where anybody who's against
anything, the first thing people do is pull your campaign
contributions," she said. "That way you don't have to have a
conversation about the quality of the discussion."

Tamara Tyrrell, the director of public affairs for the National Beer
Wholesalers' Association, said the amendment "is not the proper way to
solve the problem" of underage drinking. Beer wholesalers already
spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on alcohol awareness programs,
she said. "We feel that the drug czar should be focused on illegal
drugs," Ms. Tyrrell said, "and alcohol is a legal product and, when
consumed responsibly, it has even healthy benefits for certain people."

The Partnership for a Drug-Free America, a coalition of advertising
and public relations professionals that is coordinating the antidrug
media campaign, has also found itself in the awkward position of
opposing the amendment. "You can't simply assume that the antidrug
campaign can be widened to include something as huge as underage
drinking," said Stephen Dnistrian, the partnership's spokesman.

He said the alcohol industry spends close to $3 billion a year on
marketing and promotion, a sum that dwarfs the government's $195
million appropriation for the antidrug media campaign.

"We have concern about killing one campaign to help another that will
have virtually no impact," Dnistrian said.

This is not the first time the issue has been raised. Blanchard said
that the Office of National Drug Control Policy tried last year to
include underage drinking as part of its mandate, but the proposal
never reached the House floor.

But Blanchard added, "Even if we were given the authority, we wouldn't
immediately include alcohol" because it could confuse the antidrug
campaign "and neither message would punch through."

"We don't feel you could mindlessly tack it onto this campaign," he
said. "It has to be done right."

Ms. Roybal-Allard said the solution could be as simple as concluding
each antidrug message by asking parents to "talk to your children
about drugs -- and alcohol."

In fact, the White House's national drug strategy has as its first
goal to "educate and enable America's youth to reject illegal drugs as
well as alcohol and tobacco." The strategy also identifies drinking as
a gateway to illicit drug use. It says that adults who started
drinking as children are nearly eight times more likely to use cocaine
than adults who did not do so. The House Appropriations Committee has
not yet considered the amendment on underage drinking because some
Democratic members of Congress have attached gun-control amendments to
the legislation, which is a Treasury and general government
appropriations bill. A vote looks unlikely before mid-June. With
enough public support, Ms. Roybal-Allard said, "I think we're going to
win on this. I just can't imagine someone voting against it." But, she
added, "The industries opposing it are very, very powerful."