ANTI-DRUG CAMPAIGN DOES NOT ADDRESS THE ROOT CAUSES OF TEEN-AGE ABUSE

On July 9,President Clinton launched the latest offensive in this country's
War on Drugs. Presenting a bipartisan front, the president stood alongside
Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich to unveil a new five-year, $2
billion anti-drug ad campaign. The campaign will focus primarily on
television advertising; it's intended to educate children about the dangers
of drugs and to discourage their use.

However, as you watch this ad campaign - which is larger than the current
ad campaigns for Sprint, American Express and Nike - you should ask
yourself one vital question: Will these advertisements stop any significant
number of children from using drugs? As a teen-ager and a sophomore in
college, I can tell you that the answer to that question is a resounding no.

The government has been trying to solve the drug problem for years abut has
had little to show for its efforts. Even at the height of the War on Drugs
in 1992, a full 22 percent of high school seniors reported having used
marijuana; nearly 10 percent had used hallucinogens; and cocaine use
(including "crack" cocaine) was in the double digits.

Now politicians desperate to be seen as "doing something" about the drug
problem have come up with the idea that if only we can saturate the
airwaves with enough anti-drug propaganda, we will finally start to see
teen drug use begin to fall.

However, I can tell you first-hand that such drug "education" initiatives
have become a joke among teen-agers. Everything from D.A.R.E. to drug
education classes to anti-drug advertisements is a target of ridicule for
youth who see those efforts as nothing more than heavy-handed admonitions
from hypocritical baby boomers.

Everyone I know has been through a drug education program of some sort and
has seen anti-drug advertising, yet I do not know a single person who has
stayed away from drugs because of those influences.

So, why are those programs so utterly incapable of producing results?
Because the cannot strike at the root of the problem, which is moral and
spiritual. Some teens turn to drugs out of boredom, some out of insecurity
- - but most turn to drugs as an escape from lives that seem empty.

As Patrick Fagan, senior policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation and a
former family therapist and clinical psychologist, says, "Behind teen-age
drug use is the unhappy, empty heart that quite a few of our young
adolescents have. If they're not happy, and the empty heart needs filling,
they turn to other things."

Too often, those other things are drugs, since they give at least the
feeling of security and happiness while blocking reality. Teen-agers turn
to drugs because they have not been provided with the inner resources to
face life with confidence and hope. They have not been given a strong moral
or spiritual and afraid.

I myself have watched a close friend with a fairly normal life go through a
particularly hard semester in school and quickly turn to drugs after having
been relatively happy and straight. On the other hand, I'd have plenty of
excuses for turning to drugs, should I choose to make them. My parents are
divorced, and my 10-year-old brother Zachary died when I was 14. Still, I
have never found it necessary to use an illicit drug.

The difference between us is that I was lucky enough to have received a
strong spiritual upbringing from my mother. The knowledge that my life has
meaning, regardless of how the world may look at any given moment, has
given me the strength not to need drugs. Lack of such an understanding on
my friend's part, I believe, allowed her to make a wrong turn.

The problem of teen-age drug use in America is not a problem of education -
teen-agers know the risks. No amount of advertising is likely to stop a
young person inclined to do so from turning to drugs. The government has
already proven itself unable to make a difference. What can make a
difference is parenting.

Says Fagan, "If parents have not taught their children how to find
happiness ... then those children are at risk for mistaking pleasure and
excitement as a route to happiness."

Only if parents take the time to instill in their children moral values and
spiritual teachings will they realize the power within themselves to meet
all of life's challenges.

I am glad my mother did that, instead of counting on the government to do
her job.

Checked-by: Pat Dolan