INDUSTRY OPPOSES PUSH FOR ANTIALCOHOL AD CAMPAIGN

Health: L.A. lawmaker seeks to expand antidrug blitz out of concern for
Mexican Americans. Sellers' group decries attack on 'legal product.'

The alcohol industry has launched a vigorous counteroffensive to a
move afoot in Congress to include antialcohol messages as part of the
federal government's five year, $1 billion youth antidrug advertising
blitz. Efforts to include more ads against underage drinking began
when Rep. Lucille RoybalAllard (D-Los Angeles), concerned about high
rates of problem drinking among Mexican American men, questioned why
alcohol messages are not part of the government's paid media efforts to
combat substance abuse.

Today, the congresswoman is expected to introduce an amendment in a
House Appropriations subcommittee to require that messages against
excessive underage drinking be part of the campaign. David Rehr,
senior vice president of the National Beer Wholesalers Assn., lobbied
subcommittee members Wednesday to vote against the expected amendment.
"Everyone wants to get rid of underage drinking," but the
alcohol industry is best suited to formulate and distribute that
message, Rehr said. "Tax dollars shouldn't be used to put out of
business a legal product."

Launched with fanfare last year, the Youth AntiDrug Media Campaign has
provided a steady drumbeat of ads aimed at adolescents and their
parents that propound the dangers of illegal drug use. It is part of a
government effort to reduce youth drug use 20% by 2002. Currently,
officials said, an estimated 95% of teens see or hear seven such
messages each week. Yet none of the paid ads deal with alcohol abuse,
a problem that studies show afflicts four times as many Americans as
drug abuse. At a March 25 hearing, Roybal Allard, head of the
Congressional Hispanic Caucus, asked why alcohol isn't being tackled
in the campaign.

Citing two recent articles in The Times, she noted the
disproportionate toll of heavy alcohol use and abuse on Mexican
American men and quizzed the White House antidrug czar, Gen. Barry R.
McCaffrey, about what his White House Office of National Drug Control
Policy is doing to tackle the issue. "The problem," Roybal Allard told
McCaffrey, "has grown to epidemic proportions and is threatening many
of our Mexican American communities, such as those in my congressional
district." Heavy problem drinking, according to a 1998 federal study,
is one-third higher among Mexican American men than among any other
ethnic subgroup surveyed. McCaffrey's office says it hasn't included
antialcohol messages because it lacks the legal authority to do so.

The agency added that media outlets paid to put out the ads must air
an equivalent amount of free public service announcements about
substance abuse, of which 15% are about alcohol or drunken driving.
Advocates for making alcohol a bigger part of the campaign say
alcohol abuse is as great a menace to youths as abuse of other drugs.
McCaffrey himself has said that "the most dangerous drug in America
today is still alcohol" and cited its role in 100,000 deaths and $150
billion in socioeconomic and medical costs each year.