HARSH REALITY OF DRUG USE'S DAMAGE

+ The war on drugs needs more parents willing to play a greater role in
their children's lives.

You knew it was time to tilt the head to absorb the shock of the hand when
you heard your parents utter these four simple words: That's the last
straw. You knew right away upon hearing them that your finest negotiating
skills were but a useless exercise of the lips.

In the annals of parental supervision, those words struck a fear unmatched
by anything faced by today's teen-agers. They were as plain-as-English as
it got. If deeds ran beyond the boundaries (when boundaries were clear) of
acceptable behavior, our parents sternly reminded us there were no more
chances. They had reached the end of their rope.

Today's teen-agers rarely hear those words. And they're often the ones
holding the rope. And not only do the teens miss the "last straw" sermon,
the parents who want to get tough run the risk of being ostracized by the
gospel of permissiveness and a society quick to grant "children's rights"
at the expense of denying parents theirs.

Maybe that 's how we've reached what could be the beginning of the
turnaround in the use of illicit drugs in this country. A $1 billion media
campaign over the next five-years is hoped to do what all the "Just: Say
No!" and D.A.R.E. programs failed to do - show in the harshest reality that
drug use does to the brain what a frying pan does to an egg.

"This is your brain. This is heroin." Then the young actress smashes the
pan over the egg. "This is what happens to your brain after snorting
heroin. This is what your body goes through."

There's more. "It's not over yet." A dish rack and a glass wall clock get
popped. "This is what your family goes through! And your friends! And
your money! And your job! And your self-respect! And your future!"

Her last words? "Any questions?"

After watching the ad on "Nightline" last week, I say toss out Barney and
Big Bird and bring in the woman wearing the tank top. Or at least give
her equal billing.

After waging a war on drugs that was, to paraphrase Sean Connery in the
"Untouchables," tantamount to bringing a knife to a gunfight, this new
campaign just might make a statement that young people understand.

Love it or loathe it, the power of television advertising is real. It's no
accident that people often buy pizza after seeing a pizza commercial. It
is an impulsive behavior. So why not use that impulse in the reverse, to
get young people to see the dangers of their own often impulsive behavior
when it comes to drugs?

Before the cigarette companies engaged in all-out war, the best
anti-smoking commercial was the one that ran a day or so after actor Yul
Brynner died. I can't remember the words, but his message was clear. He
smoked for nearly his entire life and he said he died because of it. It was

like a dead man talking. And the cigarette companies knew it.

If that commercial had run continuously for six months or six years after
Brynner's death, we'd be talking about Big Tobacco finding new plants to
grow, not allowing it to wage its own massive propaganda campaign that
distorts the real issue - that tobacco kills.

The $1 billion anti-drug campaign may seem large to get a message out. But
it pales in comparison to some of the other federal spending we've seen
recently. We need this campaign. In the end, the question becomes at what
cost do we go to save our children?

Ultimately, the government cannot raise anyone's children. So it would
seem that the best public-service campaign can be waged inside the home, by
the parents who are well aware of the where-abouts of their children and
the company they keep.

My only criticism of the campaign is the timing. For years, crack cocaine
turned urban neighborhoods into territorial killing fields, a chemical war
that left thousands of young men and women walking zombies or cold flesh on
a morgue slab. But the rise in methamphetamine use in rural communities
has shown illicit drug use for what it is - an equal-opportunity harbinger
of a slow, senseless and sure death.

Still, it's better late than never. Critics of the campaign, which
ironically include a conservative group called Family Watch, would prefer
the money be spent on after-school and drug-treatment programs.

But that's merely more government doing what should be done inside the
home, instilling a sense of values and laying out a morality road map to
counter a wayward trip whose only destination is more of the same.

The war on drugs doesn't need to create another job in the drug-treatment
business. It doesn't need to hire another counselor for an after-school
program.

It just needs more parents willing to rethink their own lifestyles, and the
things they don't think about that could lead their children to drug abuse.
It just needs them to play a greater role in their children's daily lives,
from friendships to activities to privileges, not for matters of intrusion
but for matters of involvement.

It just requires them to every now and then utter those four simple words -
that's the last straw - and then be prepared to back them up, not with the
hand against the tilted head but with the heartfelt and constant reminder
that bad decisions usually lead to bad consequences.

If history is any kind of a gauge, teen-agers don't want to use up that
last straw before they really need to.