A BETTER MESSAGE

To find the best way to discourage teen drug use, we need to listen
to them Three years ago, a 17-year-old young woman told CNN what a
government-funded survey now trumpets: Teens aren't influenced by
anti-drug commercials.

''Seeing a commercial is not going to change your mind that much,'' she said.

The survey backs her up. None of the young people who participated in
the two-year study said that it caused them to decrease their use of
drugs at all. In fact, there may even be some evidence that drug use
among some of them actually increased.

What does this mean?

One, it means that the commercials aren't speaking their language.
Yet parents who were surveyed responded well to the ads. In fact, the
ads moved about 80 percent of them to begin getting more involved in
the lives of their children.

While this is certainly good news, the truth is that parents and
their children often make different cultural connections. They enjoy
different music and television shows. They don't read the same books
and magazines. They talk and dress differently.

Two, it means that the White House needs to go back to the drawing
board. This anti-drug ad campaign was launched in 1998. By the time
it ends, nearly $1 billion will have been spent to discourage teens
from using drugs. The shame will be that all this money was wasted.

Congress has to decide whether to reauthorize it. But before doing
so, Congress should ensure that the White House is doing more than
farming out the creative responsibility for the ads to public
relations guys in three-piece suits. It also needs to know that the
bureaucrats aren't crafting them either.

Some real, outside-of-the-Beltway teens need to be at the drawing board.

Still, listening may be the most effective anti-drug of all. We might
be able to convince more teens not to use drugs if we adults listen
to and value their ideas, fears, likes and dislikes. Then, not only
will the next batch of commercials be more effective, we might find
that the commercials aren't needed as much.