MANY ROOTS FOR TEEN PROBLEMS

Last week Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, the federal drug czar, announced
that a study he commissioned had found, among other things, that
nearly all of the most popular movies of 1996 and 1997 had characters
who drank, smoked or used illegal drugs. This, the $400,000 study
concluded, has the "potential . . . to encourage use." The finding
could stoke further support for federal controls.

Support for government intervention in popular media has already been
spurred by the Colorado high school massacre. Last week President
Clinton said he will convene a White House strategy session with
entertainment industry executives as well as gun lobbyists and members
of the clergy to discuss how American culture influences youth
violence. Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (DS.C.) introduced a bill to bar
violent TV programming at hours when children are likely to be watching.

Cracking down on movies and TV, however, is unlikely to solve deeply
rooted teen problems like drug use and violence. McCaffrey recommends
that producers who depict teenagers smoking should also depict "the
consequences of their action." But while connecting all characters'
actions to ultimate consequences might create moral messages for
teens, it's also likely to create tedious programming that would not
be persuasive.

Even so, that doesn't mean the research should be dismissed.
Entertainment industry executives should seriously consider the
study's troubling finding that 15% of the movies depicting use of
illegal drugs associate that use with wealth, luxury and success.

Washington officials, meanwhile, need to review governmental options
for curtailing what is clearly a societal affliction. These officials
include McCaffrey, who last month proposed spending nearly $12 billion
on an until now frustrated effort to stop drug abuse through law
enforcement and only $5 billion on drug prevention and treatment
programs that generally have proved effective.