The heroin-fried brain commercial featuring the Minneapolis starlet
(entertainment article 7/19/98) epitomizes our nation's emotional and
nonfactual conception of politically incorrect drugs. Notwithstanding
their strong addictive quality and the hazards of adulterants and
unknown dose, opiates are pleasurable exactly because they're so
similar to pleasure-inducing compounds endogenous to the human brain.
Pharmaceutically pure opiates in correct doses can be used long-term
without harming the body (witness the longevity of author/addict
William Burroughs).

The drug that really destroys brain cells is alcohol. But the
Partnership for a Drug Free America, erstwhile recipient of funding
from the alcohol industry (e.g., Anheuser-Busch), won't air any ads
decrying the brain damage that alcohol visits upon humans from
conception (fetal alcohol syndrome) to old age (alcoholic dementia).
That would conflict with the public's common misperceptions about
"dangerous drugs" and this ad campaign is not meant to convey such
unbiased information.

The frying-pan ad is the first of a billion dollars worth of
propaganda that will likely fail at its laudable aim of preventing
teen drug use. The campaign seems destined to go the way of DARE,
making the public feel good but having no tangible benefit. Remember
those Pentagon buyers who bought the $150 hammers and the $600 toilet
seats? They were thinking small. The drug warriors are now using our
tax dollars to buy a billion-dollar frying pan.

For temperance and peace,

Paul M. Bischke, Co-Director Drug Policy Reform Group of Minnesota St.
Paul, MN