ANTI-DRUG CAMPAIGN NOT `SHAMELESS'

I AM greatly troubled by The Seattle Times' characterization of the
president's new anti-drug media campaign as "shameless" (July 13 editorial,
"Brains on Drugs"). This new campaign is critical to a comprehensive drug-
and violence-prevention effort, which, as suggested by The Seattle Times,
includes after-school programs.

Community drug- and violence-prevention leaders from across the nation -
groups such as CADCA (with local affiliate Washington State Community
Mobilization) and the Partnership for a Drug Free America - went to
Washington, D.C., and asked the president and Congress for this new
program. I personally lobbied our state's congressional delegation.

You see, if The Seattle Times had asked the Partnership, they would have
learned that their program hasn't "been doing just fine" as reported. Drug
use by our nation's youth has seen dramatic increases since the early
1990s. Marijuana use alone by our state's eighth-graders nearly tripled in
just three years to reach record levels - currently 28 percent.

Of chief concern to the prevention community is the significant decline in
media attention given to drug issues - highlighted by a huge drop in
exposure for our national anti-drug public-service announcements since
1991. The Seattle Times' editorial board called drug education and
anti-drug advertising "dubious," but the reality is that the rise in drug
use among young people is concurrent with the drop in anti-drug
advertising.

Prevention is marketing. Certainly, the experts tell us that drug and
violence prevention for young people includes caring and support, and
meaningful involvement (that's where after-school programs help). But, of
equal and great importance is the consistent and clear communication of
high expectations and healthy messages. Advertising works for beer
companies, tobacco companies and drug-legalization initiatives, and it
works for drug and violence prevention, as well.

Drug use and violence among young people is absolutely preventable.
Independent studies - conducted by Johns Hopkins, NYU and the University of
Michigan - tell us teens believe targeted anti-drug messages are credible.
Correlative data show that when the Partnership's ad campaign ran heavily
in the late '80s, drug use declined significantly. Overall drug use among
that generation of kids was cut by 50 percent, cocaine by 70 percent, which
has left us with 10 million fewer regular drug users today - 10 million
fewer. Researchers believe the reduction in drug use has contributed to the
decline in crime and violence across the country, which has reached 30-year
lows. Yet, today there are fewer anti-drug public-service announcements
because the splintering of the media - the creation of new television
networks and hundreds of cable channels - has created intense competition
for ratings and survival in the media industry. Market forces are squeezing
public-service announcements off the air or into the wrong time slots, and
support for public service simply will not return to levels required for
effectiveness. Even if it did, it would not deliver what the new program
will: guaranteed exposure for the right ads to run in the right time slots,
consistently over time.

The new media campaign is a very mature evolution of our drug policy, from
which we all stand to benefit. For the first time, we have, in part, our
national anti-drug campaign run the way research shows that it should to be
run - much like a commercial advertising effort. And, the investment of
$195 million represents just 1 percent of the federal anti-drug budget.

Media companies will be asked to match all purchased media with donations
of additional exposure, elevating the potential reach of the campaign to
$350-$400 million. The advertising industry - of whom The Seattle Times
misleadingly reported that their "newest clients are the American
taxpayers" - is providing all ads for free.

So who should the president and Congress listen to: our local, state and
national drug and violence prevention experts? Or The Seattle Times?

I applaud the president and the speaker for having the foresight and the
courage to invest in our young people at a time when too many in the media
think anti-drug efforts are "shameless" and that things are "doing just
fine."

Brad Owen, a Democrat, is lieutenant governor of Washington.

Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)