Adding
Alcohol
to
Partnership
Ads?
6/4/99
According to the federal government, almost twice as many high school seniors have had an alcoholic drink in the past year (74%) as have used marijuana (38%). This despite a survey taken in 1997 by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse which showed that three out of four high school seniors list marijuana as easier to purchase than beer. Alcohol, by almost any measure, is the drug of choice among America's young. So why, asked Representative Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-CA), is underage drinking entirely ignored by the federal government's $195 million Partnership for a Drug Free America ad campaign? She's not wondering anymore. Roybal-Allard, along with co-sponsor Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-VA) introduced legislation last week that would give the Office of National Drug Control Policy the authority to target underage drinking as well as illegal drug use in the campaign. "They're not getting to the root of the problem, which is underage drinking" she told the New York Times. The legislation, however, has run up against strong opposition from the liquor lobby and their legislative allies. Rep. Anne Northrup (R-KY), who received more than $38,000 in campaign contributions from beer and liquor interests in 1997 and 1998 opposes the measure and has promised to kill it when it comes up for a vote. Ms. Northrup said that "there are a number of people that believe that drugs are unique and we shouldn't confuse the messages and diminish them." Among the people who believe this is David K. Rehr, senior vice president of the National Beer Wholesalers Association. In a memo to Ms. Roybal-Allard, Mr. Rehr showed that his concern extended to the executive branch as well. "Your support for this amendment" he wrote, "would make the drug czar's position untenable and reduce his ability to wage the war on drugs." Sandee Burbank, Director of the organization Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse, told The Week Online that she is concerned about the artificial distinctions that are made between legal and illegal substances. "All drugs are potentially dangerous, and they affect people differently. We, as a society have an interest in eliminating the abuse of any drug by young people. Alcohol kills more than ten times as many Americans as all illicit drugs combined. This focus on a small number of illicit drugs diverts resources from prevention and education efforts around all substances." Ms. Burbank is also critical of the demonization of substances masquerading as drug education. "To the extent that we use scare tactics instead of consumer safety information when we discuss substances with our kids, we risk losing our credibility with them. And the moment that we assign morality to a substance, we confuse the issues of safety and danger." As for the Drug Czar himself, after initially saying that he opposed the legislation, his office told the Times this week that, "We are neither endorsing nor opposing that proposal for inclusion of alcohol in the media campaign." But, they added, "Even if we were given the authority, we wouldn't immediately include alcohol," in order not to confuse the message of the campaign. Another opponent of the measure
is the Partnership itself. Partnership for a Drug Free America is
actually a coalition of advertising and public relations firms, a number
of which do work for the alcohol industry, which spends almost $3 billion
per year on marketing and promotion. Steven Dnistrian, a spokesman
for the group, told the New York Times, "you can't simply assume that the
anti-drug campaign can be widened to include something as huge as underage
drinking."
"We need a very strong national campaign on alcohol consumer safety, as we should have with regard to all drugs, legal and illegal" she said. "We are not doing nearly enough to teach either kids or adults about responsible alcohol use." Mothers Against Misuse and Abuse can be found online at http://www.mamas.org. The Partnership for a Drug Free America is online at http://www.drugfreeamerica.org. The Partnership for a Drug Free America was unavailable for comment for this story.
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