GOV'T MESSAGES ON DRUGS LECTURE US FROM ON HIGH

I find neither drugs nor terrorism especially funny. But I have to confess
that when the government rolled out its new anti-drug campaign on the Super
Bowl telecast this year, the ad spots that say you shouldn't use drugs
because they finance terrorism, I burst out laughing.

So I was glad to hear John Walters, President Bush's drug czar, say last
week that in his view, government anti-drug spots have been about as
effective as "Reefer Madness."

Unfortunately, it turns out that what Walters didn't like was the previous
anti-drug campaign, which featured Mary J. Blige, the Dixie Chicks, Chuck D
and Christina Aguilera.

Walters thinks the new ones are exactly what we need.

Oh, dear.

The problem with the new spots starts with the tone, which is the one
grownups take when they want kids to just shut up and do what they're told.
Grownups have used this tone for thousands of admonitions, from "You'll go
blind" to "Just say no," and the impact has always been the same. Kids say,
"Yeah, yeah," and do what they want.

The second problem is that the message is silly, and kids know it. Do some
drug sales fund reprehensible activities? Of course. So do some oil
profits. Osama Bin Laden is a billionaire because his family builds things
for Saudi Arabian rulers who make so much money from our love of
gas-guzzling motorcars.

But our government isn't buying ads on the Super Bowl to warn us that every
time we fill 'er up, we finance terrorism - and while obviously there are
larger and more complex issues with oil, that's also true with drugs.

Walters argues that the drug/terrorism spots are effective because they get
your attention. The trouble is what they do with your attention once they
have it, and my guess is they cause it to giggle.

Remember the last in-your-face anti-drug campaign, the one with the fried
egg captioned "your brain on drugs"?

There's a record shop in Jersey where the owner has two baseball team
logos. Over the Yankees logo is the legend "This is your brain." Over the
Mets logo is the legend "This is your brain on drugs."

People are so much more creative than the government, and at a fraction of
the cost.

Of course, we should provide honest information to young people on drugs,
smoking, drinking, sex and all the other temptations of adolescence. But
when they start laughing, they usually stop listening.