REMARKS BY BARRY R. MCCAFFREY, DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF NATIONAL DRUG CONTROL
POLICY TO THE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY SPECIAL SESSION ON DRUGS

Introduction

We appreciate the efforts of UNDCP, the U.N. Department of Public
Information, Italian National Television, and the Italian Permanent mission
to the U.N. in organizing this workshop and pulling together such a
distinguished group of participants. My comments will summarize how the
Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) is implementing an
integrated communications strategy that employs the full spectrum of
today's multi-media environment.

As stated in the U.S. 1998 National Drug Control Strategy, our principal
drug-control goal is to educate our sixty eight million children about
illegal drugs and enable them to reject such drugs. To meet this goal,
ONDCP received congressional funding to implement a five-year media
campaign, the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign. An unprecedented
paid advertising campaign, developed in association with Jim Burke and the
Partnership for a Drug-Free America, forms the core of this initiative. It
will be supported and extended through a variety of non-advertising
communication activities. By harnessing the potential of an integrated
communication campaign -- using both mass and interpersonal channels --
ONDCP intends to touch the lives of youth and their parents in myriad ways
that will encourage young people to embrace a drug-free lifestyle.

Dimensions Of The U.s. Adolescent Drug Problem

Our nation faces a challenging situation as the use of drugs by young
people climbs while their perception of the risk of drug use falls.
According to the University of Michigan Monitoring the Future study, a
sharp increase in marijuana and other drug use among adolescents in the
mid-1990s coincided with an equally sharp decline in the proportion of
students who believed marijuana use to be dangerous. Perhaps most
disconcerting is the fact that the increase in drug use was greatest among
the youngest cohort of adolescents. Although these increases in adolescent
drug use leveled off in 1997, they remain unacceptably high.

Adolescent substance abuse takes a great toll on our young people and our
society. Drug use can lead to school failure, diminished economic
opportunity, addiction, and even death. Most of the leading causes of death
among adolescents -- motor vehicle crashes, homicide, suicide, injury, and
HIV infection -- are more likely to occur under the influence of
psychoactive substances. Among adolescents, drug use is highly correlated
with a constellation of deviant behavior, including truancy, vandalism,
hostility, lying, and poor academic performance. The social costs of these
outcomes is staggering.

Drug use by adolescents accelerates their transition out of childhood but
does not give them the opportunity to acquire the necessary skills and
abilities for a successful transition into adult life. At the very least,
the time adolescents spend under the influence of drugs is time wasted -- a
hiatus in normal development. The reasons underlying youth drug use are as
varied and complex as the society in which we live. However, one
inescapable conclusion from research is that adolescent drug initiation and
continued use are largely functions of negative social influences in
adolescents' lives. Research suggests that compared to previous
generations, adolescents today experience more environmental and social
stressors and less parental guidance.

Compounding the impact of less parental influence is adolescent immersion
in popular culture as conveyed through various media. On average, American
children are exposed to media at least eight hours per day through
television, radio, movies, recorded music, comics, and video games. The
messages that society sends young people about illegal drugs (as well as
alcohol and tobacco) are frequently contradictory. Both media programming
and advertising content tend to portray substance use as common and normal.
For example, by his or her eighteenth birthday, an average adolescent will
have seen 100,000 television commercials for beer and will have watched
65,000 scenes on television depicting beer drinking. Although popular media
depict illicit substances less frequently than alcohol and tobacco, those
depictions often portray illicit substance use as acceptable and "cool." At
the same time, anti-drug messages in the media are dwindling. Free time and
space for drug-prevention public service messages are at a ten-year low.

"Vaccinating" Adolescents Through The Media

Rather than unfairly targeting the entertainment industry as the creator of
a popular culture that sends inappropriate drug messages to youth, we must
recognize that Hollywood writers, producers, and directors are parents,
community leaders, and educators. In the best sense of the word, they are
just like the rest of us. Culture is a joint product that the media
reflects as much as invents. In fact, most mass media in open societies
accurately mirror the image of their society. Blame should not be focused
on a collection of industries that contain some of the most creative people
in our society. Instead, we must appeal to professionals throughout the
communication fields for help in the struggle to save young people from
dangerous drug activity that the media has the power to unmask. While media
companies must respond to the marketplace as do other businesses, most of
them understand that mass media are not simply bystanders. They can play a
unique role in shaping a healthy future.

Dr. David Hamburg, chairman of the Carnegie Council on Adolescent
Development and chief author of its 1995 report "Great Transitions," calls
for families, schools, health care agencies, community organizations, and
the media to "vaccinate" teenagers against the sickness of addiction. The
Carnegie Report -- produced by former Cabinet and Congress members,
scholars, and scientists -- spotlighted early adolescence as the time when
we can take our best shot at preventing lifelong negative habits among the
whole population. Approximately half of all U.S. high school students will
use illegal drugs before they graduate. We see increased drug abuse among
younger children along with violence, suicide, and teen pregnancy. The
media can play a critical role in stemming this terrible tide.

One study showed that youngsters are less likely to turn to addictive drugs
if they have a concerned adult spending time with them. In the wake of
shattered families and the need for two-parent wage earners, the adults
talking to our children frequently reach them through TV, film, video
games, radio, music, the Internet, and advertising. By mid-adolescence,
kids have watched about 15,000 hours of television -- more time than they
spend with teachers in school. Add to that figure the hours devoted to
video games, watching tapes on the VCR, listening to the radio, and
attending movies, and the media's impact becomes primary.

The Changing Nature Of The Media

In facing the challenge of drug abuse, the mass media in the United States
have never been less monolithic. Fragmentation is rampant in the
entertainment industries. Vertical integration of media conglomerates adds
pressure to the marketplace and the creative process. Cable now cuts into
network territory, and competition among stations means that less free air
time is available for public service announcements to combat drug use. The
number of public service announcements (PSAs) that were broadcast has
dropped. Cable companies do not feel the same Federal regulatory
strictures, as do U.S. broadcasters whose licenses include a public service
component. They often have little incentive from local franchise
authorities to provide more than nominal pro bono services. Commercial
forces work against children's programming where positive role models can
be presented because consumers aged 18-49 are targeted as purchasers.

Changes in viewer habits have also worked against drug education. Channel
surfing on a remote control leads TV watchers away from PSAs that punctuate
regular programming. In general, the speed of mass communication mitigates
against exploring an issue carefully since people's attention span
decreases in correlation with shorter, rapid-fire presentation. ABC's Ted
Koppel has noted that over the last several decades, sound bites have gone
down from an average of 22 seconds to 8 seconds. Furthermore, pro-drug
messages are communicated to our children through the most sophisticated,
multimedia techniques while anti-drug forces typically fight back with
bumper stickers: that is, with one-dimensional approaches.

ONDCP's National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign

Fortunately, the growing awareness of America's parents and the bipartisan
commitment of the U.S. Congress have produced an important response to the
drug dangers facing our youth. The Congress has appropriated $195 million
for the first year of a five-year National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign.
We are about to undertake a multi-faceted communication campaign that can
"de-normalize" drug use in the minds of youth and empower parents to help
children with this critical problem.

The goals of this campaign are to prevent initiation into drug use and
encourage occasional users to stop. To achieve this end, twelve cities
across the United States began testing anti-drug advertising created by the
Partnership for a Drug-Free America. These ads are aimed at adolescents,
their parents, and other adults who take an active role in guiding children
toward a safe adulthood. We are using mass media advertising in TV, radio,
news publications, outdoor displays, schools, and theaters. Beginning in
mid-July, we will launch such advertising in national markets. We will also
develop other media tools, including the Internet; collaboration with the
entertainment industry; and partnerships with communities, news media, and
corporate entities.

Preliminary campaign results have been encouraging. Experts advise that we
will not see significant behavior change among our audiences for at least
two years. In the meantime, however, we expect heightened awareness and
understanding of the drug problem, followed by shifts in public attitudes.
In the twelve test communities, we find that parents, youth, and community
leaders are showing greatly increased awareness of the drug problem;
clearinghouses for drug-prevention publications have received increases in
public requests; and local anti-drug coalitions are receiving increased
offers of volunteerism, funding, and press exposure. Just as important, we
have asked media companies from whom we buy advertising to offer free
support as well. We are receiving pro bono media contributions whose dollar
value, in many cases, equals 100 percent of the paid advertising.

Integrating The Entertainment Media Into The Campaign

Undeniably, entertainment media have an enormous impact on all of us. Young
people, in particular, are greatly influenced by music, television, cinema,
and interactive media. This constant exposure provides the entertainment
industry with enormous potential for influencing youth attitudes and
behavior in a positive manner. Indeed, many excellent examples can be cited
of responsible depictions of drug use (and other important youth issues) in
all sectors of the entertainment industry. For example, a recent example of
Home Improvement dealt with adolescent marijuana use in a sensitive and
effective fashion. Such efforts should be recognized and commended.

Our campaign encourages the development of entertainment programs that
model healthy adolescent development and effective parenting. Following are
some of ONDCP's guiding principles for collaboration with the entertainment
industry:

Don't place blame. Recognize and commend positive activities on the part of
the industry.

Respect the fact that freedom to be creative is at the core of success for
people and projects in the entertainment industry.

Involve industry leaders and creators of entertainment programming early on
in the process.

Entertainment and sports figures have tremendous appeal to youth and
adults. Such resources should be included in efforts to communicate
anti-drug messages.

Integrating Public Information (News Media) Into The Campaign

News and other information presented by the news media play a special role
in modern society. News-based information is accorded high credibility
because, for the most part, the international news-gathering and reporting
system operates according to the well-developed ethics of modern
journalism. According to many surveys, youth drug use is one of the leading
concerns of both young people and their parents. Consequently, there is
considerable opportunity to work with the news media and communicate
accurate information about drug abuse. Here are some of ONDCP's principles
for public affairs outreach.

Communicate useful information consistently to media that reach specific
target audiences. When necessary, correct errors.

Build and maintain ongoing relationships with regional, national, and
international media.

Creatively pursue both hard news and feature stories that deal with the
truth about drug abuse.

Integrating interactive technologies into the campaign, including the
Internet and other new media

During the past five years, the use of Internet and other new interactive
media has grown at a tremendous rate. For many of us, the Internet has
become an important source of information and entertainment. It can be an
effective way to reach target audiences, and information retrieval by users
can be measured in unprecedented ways. It also provides a powerful tool for
coordinating activity and building collaboration. As many as eighty million
Americans are likely to be "on line" by the end of this year; approximately
half will use the Internet daily. Similarly, more than a third of
adolescents currently use on-line services while 90 percent will have
Internet access through schools by 1999. ONDCP's has four principles for
dealing with interactive media.

Generate Web information with which young people will interact. Recognize
that young people use the Internet as a "social medium."

Offer transactional opportunities to users who are frequently in the
"action mode" when on-line.

Reach target audiences through as many sites as possible.

Extend the reach of the campaign beyond advertising by integrating
mainstream youth Web sites and other digital media such as CD-ROM.

Conclusion

There are two keys for harnessing the full potential of the media in an
effort to prevent drug abuse. The first is an integrated communication plan
that combines advertising and non-advertising activities across the full
spectrum of the media. The second is in the mobilization of civil society
at all levels. To help achieve this latter goal, parents, teachers,
coaches, and religious leaders must ensure that local media representatives
understand how the drug problem affects communities and how an anti-drug
campaign can help everyone. Corporations whose productivity depends on
healthy, drug-free employees can lend financial backing as well as public
endorsement.

Leaders in the entertainment and sports industries and others whose
influence reaches every neighborhood and country can play a role in
safeguarding our most precious resource: our children. The U.S. National
Drug Control Strategy articulates the priority given to protecting
sixty-eight million children from toxic, addictive substances. Our National
Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign recognizes the centrality of the media in
any national effort to educate the next generation about the dangers
associated with underage drinking and smoking, abuse of psychoactive
substances, and all illegal drugs.

Checked-by: Richard Lake