Guest columnist

ANTI-DRUG CAMPAIGN NOT `SHAMELESS'

by Brad Owen Special to The Times

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: "Rolf Ernst"