Clinton Asks Hollywood to Not 'Glorify' Drug Use

Media: Radio address calls for business leaders to match new $195million
ad campaign aimed at teens. Speech decries 'warped images' in TV, movies
and music that don't depict hazards of abuse.

By ROBERT L. JACKSON, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTONDeclaring 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 $195million advertising campaign financed by the
federal government, the president said his administration soon will
launch a positive effort involving "an unprecedented highprofile,
primetime media campaign" of public service antidrug 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 oftenfatal 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 hardliquor 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 Washingtonbased
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 writerproducer 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 selfdescribed 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 antidrug 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
14yearolds.

"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 antidrug public service
messages. The $195million 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
mediafrom television to the Internet to sports marketingto
protect our children from drugs," the president said.

"We know that the media can powerfully affect our childrenfor
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 $60million increase for the Safe and DrugFree 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.

Copyright Los Angeles Times