LOSING A WAR

Millions More Are Wasted On Anti-Drug Commercials

The federal government has again thrown away a few hundred million dollars
in its anti-drug crusade.

It isn't new that money is being wasted that way. Billions of tax dollars
have been blown over the years to try to dissuade people from using drugs.
What's different this time is that a government official actually bestirred
himself to find out whether an initiative was effective. And then, when the
results were negative, he said so.

That someone is John P. Walters, the head of President Bush's drug policy
office.

Walters had his doubts about television commercials on which the government
has spent $180 million. These ads feature electric guitars and
skateboarding as a cooler alternative to the old "Just Say No" ads that we
used to see.

If anyone ever did a survey about the "Just Say No" ads, they would
probably be found to be impotent, too. Of the latest ads, there is no doubt.

Walters had an extensive survey conducted. It found that drug use was no
lower among teen-agers who had seen the commercials than among those who
hadn't.

In fact, it was a little higher among those who had. That doesn't prove
that the ads actually caused anyone to use drugs. But it certainly is a
strong indication that they didn't work as intended.

On top of the billions that we have spent on such advertising over the
years, we have spent other billions at all levels of government on law
enforcement and prisons because of the drug trade. We have spent untold
millions more, and lost many lives, in other countries in efforts to stop
the export of drugs to the United States.

Yet, the use of illegal narcotics continues to be widespread.

Moreover, drug-related crime -- crimes committed by addicts to get money to
assuage their expensive addictions -- make up the bulk of the crimes
committed in the country.

In Walters' study, parents were surveyed about ads that urged them to be
more involved in their childrens' lives. Eighty percent of those who saw
the ads said they were positively influenced.

Perhaps it wouldn't be too big an exaggeration to say that this survey
shows promise, and that parents really can be persuaded to talk more with
their children about their social lives. And, if so, maybe it is true that
fewer children would use drugs.

But that is too wobbly a proposition to look to as an answer to the drug
problem. We need to seek other ways, altogether different from what we have
tried, to get control of drugs.

Walters has introduced ads that link the purchase of drugs to the financing
of terrorism, but so far there are no indications how effective that is.

It is doubtful that any ad campaign is going to make a real difference. The
answer lies somewhere else.

Those who advocate these public appeals, and those who support the building
of more and more prisons in which to house offenders, do so with the best
of intentions. The trouble is that the war on drugs, as it has been
conducted so far, is being lost.