ANTI-DRUG AD WARNS OF 'DEGRADATION'

But Some Say Message Is Blurred

Dakhilkon Afyoun (I Beg You Opium) is a song by Ghassan Rahbani that
plays the length of a four-minute commercial produced by the Interior
Ministry as part of a nationwide awareness campaign on the dangers of
drug use.

The television ad shows a number of young addicts, including Rahbani,
singing about finding refuge in drugs as a way of escaping problems.
Rahbani finds himself arrested by the Internal Security Forces and
pleads with them in total agony: "I beg you opium, I beg you opium!"
when the officer responds that it is against the law and that drugs
will degrade him.

The message identified from the commercial is about degradation and
it lies threefold. First, the person feels degraded once arrested and
exposed to the society. Second, the person is further degraded when
his addiction overtakes all his other needs and he starts begging for
the drug and receives no compensation for his desires. And the final
degradation takes place when the addiction robs him of a future.

Despite the obvious interpretation of the television ad, As-Safir
newspaper recently published a rather critical article which called
on the Interior Ministry to withdraw the commercial for fear of
"enticing drug use and teaching people how to use them." The author
called the ministry's awareness attempt a "mistake" and urged it to
seek the expertise of psychologists before undertaking such a project
wrongly and having their expenses go to waste.

The awareness campaign is not restricted to television. Some 10,200
billboards are already posted around schools, universities, hospitals
and entertainment outlets, with a similar message of "drugs are
harmful and will degrade you." That number will double over the next
few months, according to ministry sources.

The Interior Ministry, which had in early February announced that it
planned a full and comprehensive eradication of illicit drug
cultivation, kept its word and completed phase one of that campaign
on March 5, destroying an estimated 5,160 dunums of cannabis and
poppy plants. In a statement earlier last week, the ministry said it
would undertake phase two of the campaign within 15 days of
completing phase one.

An official source told The Daily Star that the ministry could not
wait for donor programs and other international aid. The
responsibility to provide alternative income to those losing their
livlihood lies with the government, the source said.

According to the Lebanese Center for Agricultural Research and
Studies, 2001 saw the re-emergence of 40,000 dunums of cannabis.