ANTI-DRUG ADS HAVE BEEN SHOWN TO BE EFFECTIVE

Your editorial about the government's National Youth Anti-Drug Media
Campaign misrepresents the facts ["Drug war's bad ads," Opinion, Sept.
29]. (http://www2.ocregister.com/ocrweb/ocr/article.do?id=59332)The
Register does a disservice to its readers by highlighting selective
statistics and ignoring inconvenient evidence.

Just last week, the Partnership Attitude Tracking Survey found a
strong correlation between regular exposure to anti-drug ads and
increased perceptions of risk associated with marijuana use. It also
reported that more youths with high exposure to the ads said the ads
made them less likely to try or use drugs than youths with little or
no exposure.

Another study by the Department of Health and Human Services reported
last week that youths who had seen or heard drug-prevention messages
outside of school used drugs at a rate that was 15 percent lower than
youths who had not seen or heard these messages.

It is interesting that drug-legalization proponents like the Register
seem to be the only group of people leading the charge against this
program. Maybe it's because they fear the campaign is actually working?

Tom Riley,

Director of communications,

White House Office of National Drug Control Policy