Clinton Asks Hollywood to Not ‘Glorify’ Drug Use

Declaring the nation must do more to reduce teenage drug use, President Clinton urged the entertainment industry Saturday to “do its part” by avoiding the depiction of “warped images” that glorify drugs.

Hailing a new $195-million advertising campaign financed by the federal government, the president said his administration soon will launch a positive effort involving “an unprecedented high-profile, prime-time media campaign” of public service anti-drug messages four times a week.

In his weekly radio address, Clinton said he regretted that “movies, music videos and magazines” often have promoted “warped images of a dream world where drugs are cool” and have failed to highlight their often-fatal effects.

Comparing the danger of drugs to the health hazards caused by smoking and drinking, the president said: “That is why we acted to protect our children from tobacco advertisements and why we’ve urged the liquor industry to refrain from running hard-liquor ads on television.”

Appealing directly to the movie and music video industry, Clinton implored: “Never glorify drugs, but more importantly, tell our children the truth. Show them that drug use is really a death sentence. Use the power of your voice to teach our children and to help shape our nation’s future.”

In prodding the entertainment industry, Clinton stopped short of the kind of “Hollywood bashing” that former Republican Sen. Bob Dole engaged in during his presidential campaign, when he lectured movie executives about curtailing drug use and violence in their films.

Since then, Jack Valenti, president of the Washington-based Motion Picture Assn. of America, has led efforts to cooperate with Congress and the administration in reducing the depiction of drug use as glamorous. More recently, Vice President Al Gore has been working with industry leaders to persuade them to show fewer scenes that involve smoking.

Attempts to reach Valenti were unsuccessful. Other movie industry executives, while expressing support for a reduction in drug use among teenagers, have told congressional committees that filmmakers must remain free to express their art in realistic ways to maintain their integrity.

Hollywood writer-producer Lionel Chetwynd, reacting to Clinton’s address, said: “I’m fearful of politicians like Clinton. It’s easy and comforting for them to say things like this. If Hollywood is the problem, then we have a magic bullet that cures everything.

“It’s certainly a fair criticism that we could do better,” Chetwynd, a self-described conservative, said. “But so could he.” Chetwynd’s credits include “Kissinger and Nixon: Peace at Hand” on TNT and “Color of Justice” on Showtime.

Executives in the music video industry in Los Angeles, responding to Clinton’s remarks, said an anti-drug policy actually has been in force for three years in which videos that depict drug use or contain language that promotes drugs cannot be shown on television.

“Those parts where they exist have to be eliminated, and this is a very strict policy that applies to all three major outlets that show music videos: MTV, VH1 and BET,” an industry official said.

Although the restrictive policy does not apply to videos sold over the counter, the vast majority of teenagers are exposed to music videos only via television. Retail sales never have been substantial, executives said.

Citing government studies, Clinton said overall drug use among Americans has declined dramatically, but “drug use by our young people has doubled” overall and nearly tripled among 13- and 14-year-olds.

“We do not understand all the reasons for these unsettling statistics,” Clinton said. One contributing factor, he suggested, could be a significant reduction in the number of anti-drug public service messages. The $195-million initiative is designed to reverse that trend.

Clinton urged business leaders “to help us reach our goal by matching the funds that Congress has appropriated” in the legislation that Clinton signed into law Friday.

“For the very first time, we’ll be able to use the full power of the media--from television to the Internet to sports marketing--to protect our children from drugs,” the president said.

“We know that the media can powerfully affect our children--for good or ill,” he added. “We must . . . give our children the straight facts: Drugs are wrong, drugs are illegal and drugs can kill you.”

Studies show that young people who have not used illegal drugs by the age of 21 probably will never use them, Clinton said. “That’s why we must reach our children with the right message before it’s too late.”

With Republicans often accusing Clinton of ignoring America’s drug problem, the White House issued additional material to demonstrate the administration’s resolve to combat drugs.

It said the president’s proposed budget for the 1998 fiscal year contains a $60-million increase for the Safe and Drug-Free Schools program, which reaches 97% of the nation’s school districts. Schools use these funds to protect students from drugs, alcohol and violence.

Times staff writer Chuck Phillips in Los Angeles contributed to this story.