NEW AD BLASTS BUSH ADMINISTRATION

Drug War, Not Youth, Supports Terrorism, Group Says

A noted drug reform group has placed an advertisement that parodies the Bush
administration's linking of buying illegal drugs to supporting terrorism.

The New York-based Drug Policy Alliance's ad, which was placed in
yesterday's issue of Roll Call, Capitol Hill's daily newspaper, seeks to
"point out that while the Bush administration is blaming American youth for
terrorism, it is actually the drug war that creates the illegal markets that
help fund terrorism."

The DPA ad features a full-page photo of President Bush, overlaid by these
words: "This month, I watched the Super Bowl, wasted 10 million taxpayer
dollars on a deceptive ad campaign and shamelessly exploited the war on
terrorism to prop up the failed war on drugs. … C'mon, it was just
politics."

Additionally, the ad says resources would be better spent on drug treatment
and fighting real threats to national security.

"The drug czar's office seems to think that American youth are as dumb as a
doorknob," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of Drug Policy Alliance.
"It's hard to believe that any American teenager smoking homegrown marijuana
is going to believe she's subsidizing bin Laden's terror campaign. They're
going to spoof these ads just the way they spoofed the 'fried egg' ads a
decade ago."

The DPA ad is similar to an earlier full-page advertisement sponsored by the
Libertarian Party and placed in Tuesday's editions of USA Today and The
Washington Times.

The Libertarian-sponsored ad featured a picture of U.S. Office of National
Drug Control Policy Director John Walters, and featured this caption: "This
week, I had lunch with the president, testified before Congress and helped
funnel $40 million in illegal drug money to groups like the Taliban. … The
war on drugs boosts the price of illegal drugs by as much as 17,000 percent
- - funneling huge profits to terrorist organizations. If you support the war
on drugs or vote for the politicians who wage it, you're helping support
terrorism."

Like the Libertarians, DPA officials say the government's so-called "war
against drugs" has driven up the price of illegal narcotics, thus enhancing
the profits of terrorist groups who grow and sell them to raise cash.

"Blaming nonviolent Americans for terrorism is like blaming beer drinkers
for Al Capone's murders," Nadelmann said.

Tony Newman, a spokesman for DPA in its New York office, told WorldNetDaily
that the Bush administration's anti-drug policies seemed more "aggressive"
than previous administrations.

"I think the new development right now is that the government is coming out
and blaming non-violent Americans for supporting terrorism," he said.
"That's obviously a post-Sept. 11 campaign, but they're basically saying
that half of American high school kids are supporting terrorism."

In terms of funding, there hasn't been much difference in the way the
government has approached its war on drugs over the past 10-12 years, said
DPA's director of national affairs, Bill McColl.

"It's really hard to change the numbers in funding," he told WorldNetDaily.
"The government's efforts are sort of geared toward criminal justice and law
enforcement, interdiction and source-country control. So those areas are
robustly funded."

However, he said, the Bush administration is re-emphasizing "stigma -
creating a sense that [drug use] should never happen and a clamp on any
message other than, 'wrong, wrong, wrong.'"

"That's what's different from the Clinton administration and even [the first
Bush presidency] - to maximize stigma," he said.

Tom Riley, communications director for the Office of National Drug Control
Policy, told WorldNetDaily his office was actually pleased by the response
the government's anti-drug ads were receiving.

"What we're trying to do is get an idea out," he said. "The whole plan of
this campaign, and the way it's been structured, has been to promote
discussion and debate this."

By publishing competing ads, the other groups "are keeping this discussion
going. By far, this is the most talked-about campaign we've [ever] done."

The Libertarian Party, the DPA and others have criticized the
administration's decision to air two of its most controversial "drug use
equals terrorism" ads during this year's Super Bowl game in February.

But the two ads, which cost $3.4 million, were some of the most effective
anti-drug messages in years, Riley said.

"After the Super Bowl and just one showing of those ads, an independent poll
showed that over 50 percent of people who saw them could articulate the
message in them," he said. "Ninety million people watched the Super Bowl, so
in essence, about 45 million people could tell you what the ads were about
the next day. That's incredibly good penetration."

Riley also denied politics were behind the new campaign.

"The first interjection of politics into this was the use of President
Bush's image [in the DPA ad]," he said. "There is lots of bipartisan support
on Capitol Hill for the administration's anti-drug and terrorism efforts."

Riley said other recent government-sponsored anti-drug ads were also
successful because they provoked more parental involvement in prevention
efforts aimed at teen-agers.

"Every study in the world says parents are a kid's best prevention method,
so we're trying to get them more involved," Riley told WND.

He said the Office of National Drug Control Policy's current media campaign
budget of $180 million was first authorized by Congress in 1998.

In testimony before the House Reform Committee's Subcommittee on Criminal
Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources, Walters said the agency's strategy
was three-fold: Stopping drug use before it begins, increased drug treatment
and "disrupting the market."

"We are using parents, educational institutions, the media and community
action to prevent young people from experimenting with drugs in the first
instance and starting on a path that all too often leads to addiction, crime
and personal and familial destruction," Walters told the subcommittee.

In 1998, the agency said, Americans spent $66 billion on illegal drugs.
Also, half of state and a third of federal prisoners reported committing
their offense under the influence of alcohol or drugs, the agency says,
quoting its most recent data.