Drug Campaign

Re Robert Scheer's Column Left, March 11: Perhaps the
ABC television network earnestly wants to do some good for
young people and their parents, but partnering with the
Partnership for a DrugFree America is not the way to
accomplish that goal. Scheer is right: Alcohol is America's No.1
drug problem, costing society more than $85 billion in
economic costs and untold pain and suffering. It is even our
biggest illegal problem when you consider underage drinking.
The evidence indicates that the most effective way to
reduce death and disease from alcohol, particularly among
youth, is to raise the price. I venture we will never see a public
service campaign calling for an increase in excise taxes for
alcohol. Certainly not when the brewers are among the
advertising industry's and broadcasters' biggest supporters.
Public service advertising does more harm than good when
it keeps the public mind on the least effective strategies for
dealing with problems that require not just personal behavior
change but also social change. ABC can do better.
LORI DORFMAN, CoDirector
Berkeley Media Studies Group