Frequency of Drugs in Films, Music Studied

The passionate debate over how kids are influenced by popular culture shifted from violence to drugs Wednesday, as the White House released a new study detailing how frequently drugs and other dangerous substances show up in movies and music.

Nearly all of the 200 most popular movies rented in 1996 and 1997 included the appearance of alcohol, tobacco or illegal drugs, Stanford University researchers found.

Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, said most troubling was the carefree context in which smoking, drinking and drug use were often presented. Of the 79 major characters under the age of 18 who smoked marijuana or cigarettes, for instance, none suffered any apparent consequences, the report concludes.

“When drugs are portrayed, they are stripped of their consequences,” McCaffrey said at a news conference. “That’s a problem.”

The study, presented in the wake of the Littleton, Colo., tragedy, comes at a time of renewed concern about what children are watching and hearing. McCaffrey used the new data to call on the entertainment industry to present a more realistic and responsible portrayal of drug use.

McCaffrey said he has already begun meeting with film and music industry leaders to drive home the dangers of depicting drug use as normal and free of risks.

But some entertainment executives--and even a Clinton administration health official--said the numbers may simply reflect the realities of a society where drugs, alcohol and smoking are still commonplace.

Researchers singled out rap music for particular criticism, saying that 63% of all songs refer to illicit drugs. The prevalence was far higher than that found in other musical genres, but an executive with one major rap label said the federal government is simply trying to scapegoat rappers.

Rap artists “aren’t rapping about things they made up. It’s not glorifying it. It’s just real life. It is what it is,” said Gabrielle Peluso, director of publicity for Def Jam Records in New York.

The $400,000 study was commissioned by the drug policy office and the Department of Health and Human Services. Researchers, using young people to decipher slang terms for drugs, studied 1,000 rap, rock, country, heavy metal and other popular songs from 1996 and 1997, along with 200 movie rentals.

About 98% of all films included some depiction of drinking, smoking or drug use. Alcohol and tobacco appeared in more than 90% of the films and illicit drugs in 22%, the study found.

Movie warnings about graphic content, adopted in 1990, were often incomplete.

In nearly half of the PG-13 and R-rated movies in which illicit drugs were used, remarks by the Motion Picture Assn. of America failed to note drug-related content, researchers said.

The MPAA declined comment on that particular finding, but the group made clear that it would oppose any efforts to use the data to regulate the content of films.

“We’re the first industry to do any sort of voluntary ratings of our content for parents, and we think we’ve done exactly what we set out to do,” said Rich Taylor, spokesman for the MPAA.

Although music was much less likely than film to include questionable content, with 27% of all songs related to drugs or alcohol, researchers found that when these subjects did come up in songs, the users rarely suffered any effects. Only 19% of songs depicting drug use and 48% of the films showed any consequences to the user, the study said.

Even when the impact was shown--such as the late actor Chris Farley falling down drunk in the film “Tommy Boy”--the effect was often played for laughs, said Stanford University communications professor Donald F. Roberts, the lead researcher.

The question of whether exposure to an illicit activity, such as drinking or drug use, actually makes children more likely to undertake it has been hotly debated for years, and McCaffrey was careful not to draw any direct connections.

But noting that children spend an average of four hours a day listening to music, he said parents “need to know what these products are.”

And co-researcher Peter G. Christenson of Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Ore., said that denying possible links between what children hear and how they act “is just silly.”