WHITE HOUSE TO LAUNCH ANTIDRUG BLITZ AIMED AT YOUTH

By Anthony Boadle

WASHINGTON (Reuters) The White House will launch a $178 million
advertising campaign in January in an effort to reverse an alarming
increase in drug use by America's youth, officials said Thursday.

The media blitz will focus on youth ages 9 to 17 and their parents and seek
to counter the media's increasing portrayal of drug use as normal and
acceptable, they said.

The campaign will buy primetime television spots, radio and print ads,
outdoor billboards and ads on the Internet. It will also seek corporate
contributions and support from the entertainment industry in changing the
way drugs are depicted.

Congress has approved $195 million in funding for the first year of the
five year strategy, and final congressional approval of the plan is
expected before year end.

``We want televisionnetwork involvement and assistance in a national
effort to stop the rise in youth drug abuse,'' White House drug policy
chief Gen. Barry McCaffrey said.

``Our plan is to buy $178 million in antidrug ads for TV, radio and print
press, targeted to children and parents,'' he said.

Druguse studies show that the number of young people smoking marijuana in
the United States has doubled since 1992, while the use of heroin, cocaine
and other drugs has risen in schools.

A recent study by the Columbia University Center on Addiction and Substance
Abuse found that the age at which children were starting to use cigarettes,
alcohol and illegal drugs including LSD had dropped to the lowest ever.

U.S. drug officials said television coverage of the drug problem has
dwindled in recent years and fewer media outlets provide primetime space
for antidrug public service ads.

In addition, officials complained that pop music, films and television
shows are depicting drugs in a lighthearted manner. They were irked by a
November episode of the television program ''Murphy Brown'' in which the
main character smoked marijuana to ease nausea caused by cancer chemotherapy.

Officials said the change of values may be generational and believe young
people know little about the drug excesses of their parents' generation.

Another Columbia survey showed that baby boom parents who may have used
drugs in the 1960s or 1970s were not comfortable talking about drugs with
their children and many do not consider their children's drug use a crisis.

``Parents are not delivering the message as strongly and convincingly
today,'' said Alan Levitt, a senior adviser in the White House's Office of
National Drug Control Policy.

He said antidrug messages in the media had dropped dramatically.

``There are a lot more prodrug messages. Drug humor is rampant on
latenight talk shows. Sitcoms have little winkandnod jokes about cocaine
and marijuana,'' he said.

``We feel that a paid ad campaign is the quickest and most effective way to
change those attitudes for this youth cohort from 9 to 17,'' he said. ``We
will also focus on parents and try to get them to talk more about the issue.''

Levitt said the ads, which were created and donated by the advertising
industry, will not be ``preachy'' but will try to ''denormalize'' narcotics
and increase awareness of the risks involved in using drugs.

Officials noted that the $178 million budget for the campaign amounted to
barely more than the Pizza Hut $170 million spends each year on
advertising.