SELLING A DRUG-FREE AMERICA

Jim Burke, chairman of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, harshly
attacked the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign [op-ed, May 21]. He
said that the program fell into a "bureaucratic trap," that it was
"strangled by Beltway processes" and quoted one person as saying that its
architecture was an "utter nightmare." Mr. Burke asserted that there is "no
more cost-effective approach to educating millions of kids . . . about the
dangers of drugs than via media-based education." This is specious.

Anti-drug ads are mocked by teenagers. The ad of a fried egg in a skillet --
"This is your brain on drugs" -- became the basis for a slang term for
getting high, "Wanna go fry an egg?" As long as ads transparently exaggerate
the harmfulness of marijuana, skeptical teenagers will mistakenly exaggerate
the harmlessness of drugs.

Kids can never learn how to weigh the risks and benefits of drug use if the
risks are always exaggerated.

ERIC E. STERLING

Silver Spring