THE MOST DANGEROUS DRUG IN AMERICA TODAY IS STILL ALCOHOL

The alcohol industry has launched a vigorous counteroffensive to a
move afoot in Congress to include anti-alcohol messages as part of the
federal government's five-year, $1-billion youth anti-drug advertising
blitz.

Efforts to include more ads against underage drinking began when Rep.
Lucille Roybal-Allard (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 Anti-Drug 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 anti-drug 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 anti-alcohol 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.