Film Depictions of Drug Use

Regarding The Times’ July 12 editorial: The Office of National Drug Control Policy is not providing any form of financial reward to the film industry to encourage accurate depictions of drug use in the movies. Nor are there any plans to reward studios for anti-drug depictions. No financial incentive has ever been offered or planned to encourage the accurate portrayal of drug use.

The costs of drug use to our families and nation are real and substantial. Each year 52,000 Americans die from drug-related causes. The additional societal costs of drug use to the nation total over $110 billion per year. California feels these impacts as badly as anywhere else.

Our outreach efforts toward the film industry focus on providing technical assistance (including access to experts, research and the most up-to-date information). These efforts are part of a long history, both within this agency and through the National Institutes of Health, of working with the entertainment community to help ensure accuracy. We are providing them with the science-based information; they can choose to use it on their own terms.

The goal of our National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign is to provide young people and the adults who care about them with the facts needed to empower our youth to reject drugs. Through the full power of this public health campaign--from television to the Internet to community-based outreach--we are now reaching 95% of America’s young people on an average of 6.8 times per week with research-based, effective drug-prevention messages.

These messages are effective at reaching young people. Since its launch in March of 1999, our Freevibe.com Web site has received over 1.8 million page views, with the average visit lasting over 7.4 minutes. Television programs incorporating anti-drug messages have resulted in over 100 million teen impressions and 250 million adult impressions. Most importantly, we are beginning to see changes in youth drug-use attitudes and behaviors. The National Household Survey released in 1999 reported that overall youth drug use (children ages 12 to 17) in the U.S. fell by 13% from the prior year. Youth inhalant use plummeted 45%, cocaine use fell 20% and marijuana use dropped 12%.

BARRY R. McCAFFREY

Director, Office of National

Drug Control Policy, Washington