Many Roots for Teen Problems

Last week Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, the federal drug czar, announced that a study he commissioned had found, among other things, that nearly all of the most popular movies of 1996 and 1997 had characters who drank, smoked or used illegal drugs. This, the $400,000 study concluded, has the “potential . . . to encourage use.” The finding could stoke further support for federal controls.

Support for government intervention in popular media has already been spurred by the Colorado high school massacre. Last week President Clinton said he will convene a White House strategy session with entertainment industry executives as well as gun lobbyists and members of the clergy to discuss how American culture influences youth violence. Sen. Ernest F. Hollings (D-S.C.) introduced a bill to bar violent TV programming at hours when children are likely to be watching.

Cracking down on movies and TV, however, is unlikely to solve deeply rooted teen problems like drug use and violence. McCaffrey recommends that producers who depict teenagers smoking should also depict “the consequences of their action.” But while connecting all characters’ actions to ultimate consequences might create moral messages for teens, it’s also likely to create tedious programming that would not be persuasive.

Even so, that doesn’t mean the research should be dismissed. Entertainment industry executives should seriously consider the study’s troubling finding that 15% of the movies depicting use of illegal drugs associate that use with wealth, luxury and success.

Washington officials, meanwhile, need to review governmental options for curtailing what is clearly a societal affliction. These officials include McCaffrey, who last month proposed spending nearly $12 billion on an until-now frustrated effort to stop drug abuse through law enforcement and only $5 billion on drug prevention and treatment programs that generally have proved effective.