Lawyers’ Group Probes Pervasive Use of Drugs and Alcohol by Youths

For all their familiarity, the statistics are no less disturbing: An estimated 30 million Americans are alcoholics or dependent on drugs. By the time children leave grade school, almost 5% are experimenting with drugs. One in three high school students uses marijuana at least once a month. More than 90% of high school students have experimented with alcohol.

A society’s inability to cope with a problem whose dimensions are reflected in those conservative figures lay behind two days of hearings conducted by the American Bar Assn.’s Advisory Commission on Youth Alcohol and Drug Problems in Los Angeles this week.

The commission is the outgrowth of a promise that Bar Assn. President John C. Shepherd said he made when he assumed office last August to “put the needs of the children of America, which have long been overlooked, high on the agenda of the American Bar Assn.”

Talking to reporters on Thursday, Shepherd said there is no more important priority for him “than getting the dope peddlers off the playgrounds of our schools. This is not only a moral and health problem; this is a legal problem.”

Professionals Testify

Seeking ways to involve lawyers in the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, the commission heard testimony on Thursday and Friday from judges, physicians, educators, therapists, attorneys and representatives of the alcoholic beverage industry.

Their testimony ranged from proposals that judges be given jurisdiction over an entire family having an alcoholic parent and a delinquent child, to suggestions that breweries be prohibited from providing free beer for campus fraternity parties.

The central question facing the commission is to determine what lawyers can do “to decrease the problem of alcoholism and drug abuse among young people,” said commission member David Evans, an attorney who heads New Jersey’s intoxicated driver and criminal justice programs.

The commission is weighing a host of questions, proposals and recommendations in an effort to develop a policy to be presented to the American Bar Assn.’s national convention this summer for adoption, Evans said.

Questions Posed

Among those questions: Should taxes on alcoholic beverages be raised to finance treatment programs? Should a uniform national drinking age of 21 be established? Should there be more severe civil and criminal liabilities for merchants who sell alcohol to minors? How far should the legal system go in intervening in families where a drug abusing parent mistreats his children?

No more controversial question faces the commission, however, than the issue of whether beer and wine advertising should be banned from radio and television.

“Young people are exposed to thousands of slick and seductive ads for alcoholic beverages on radio and television long before they even approach the age of reason, let alone the legal age to drink,” attorney Timothy McFlynn told the commission Thursday.

McFlynn, executive director of the Public Justice Foundation in Santa Monica, added that such advertising tells children “time after time and day after day that drinking is both glamorous and essential to a healthy as well as happy successful American life.”

Seek Ban on Ads

His sentiments echo those of a growing grass-roots coalition of education, religious and public-interest groups seeking to ban from the airwaves alcoholic beverage ads featuring celebrities on the grounds that they glamorize drinking and contribute to alcohol abuse.

The coalition has collected more than 700,000 signatures on petitions calling for major changes in alcohol advertising and is seeking to have all beer and wine ads banned from the air or equal time for health messages. The group also wants an end to the use of athletes and other celebrities in commercials.

Representatives from the alcoholic beverage industry opposed a ban on ads in testimony before the commission on Friday.

Patricia A. Schneider, education director for the Wine Institute, pointed out that California vintners and growers belonging to the institute have adopted a voluntary advertising code ensuring that its members’ commercials are not aimed at young people.

Prohibits Some Ads

Among other things, that code prohibits ads suggesting that wine directly contributes to success or achievement, and it bars the use of sports celebrities in commercials.

“Although advertisements by non-institute members which violate our code have occurred, we join in criticizing this practice or any portrayal of alcohol abuse,” Schneider said.

Sen. Paula Hawkins (R-Fla.), chairwoman of the Senate labor and human resources subcommittee on alcohol and drug abuse, has called that code an example of private initiative that “stands as a model of social responsibility which deserves wider support and recognition.”

Donald B. Shea, president of the United States Brewers Assn., also opposed a ban on beer advertising, saying that advocates of such a ban “have failed to establish any link between advertising and alcohol misuse.” He pointed out that brewers also have adopted a voluntary advertising code prohibiting ads portraying drinking by minors.

Shepherd said American Bar Assn. members “will want a lot more information before taking a position banning beer and wine commercials. The biggest mistake we can make is to divert our attention from drug dealers.”