Dec. 21 - Gen. McCaffrey: ""The most dangerous drug in America is a 12-year-old..."

MCCAFFREY ON TEEN DRUG INITIATIVE / CNN Transcript:
"The most dangerous drug in America is a 12-year-old smoking pot..."

December 21, 1997

CNN Announcer:

General Barry McCaffrey, the country's drug czar, speaks about a new initiative that will attempt to lower drug use by adolescents. The campaign will send youth anti-drug messages through the Internet, television, and radio.

BOB CAIN, CNN ANCHOR: Joining me to talk about the administration's newest plans to fight teen drug use, drug, alcohol, and smoking, is General Barry McCaffrey. He's the director of the president's Office of National Drug
Control Policy, also known more informally as the nation's drug czar.

Good morning, General.

GEN. BARRY MCCAFFREY, DRUG POLICY DIRECTOR: Good morning.

CAIN: Thanks for joining us.

First, is there anything in this report that we have just outlined that you
disagreed with, anything you questioned?

MCCAFFREY: No, I think the president, Secretary Shalala, and I put in front
of the American people yesterday the second report that indicates we may be
starting to see an impact of all of our hard work.

When I say our hard work, I mean parents and community coalitions,
educators, ministers. When people get engaged with adolescents, drug use
goes down. And that Monitoring the Future study shows with the
eighth-graders at least, we're beginning to see a turn- around in the
situation.

But there's plenty of bad news, as your report points out. Drug use among
adolescents has gone up enormously, and that's at the heart and soul of the
problem.

CAIN: All right. So in effect it's a wash? There's -- the good news balances the bad, for one way or another. Do you agree with the president's assertion that the most effective battle against this problem, to the extent that it is a problem, will be fought around the nation's kitchen tables?

MCCAFFREY: No question. Most of our studies indicate that, when you look
at drug use among adolescents, they listen to the people they love and respect. And that starts with their parents, their home room teachers, coaches on high school sports teams, but I wouldn't want to discount now the good news in yesterday's study was that the youngest group, the eighth-graders, where drug use has tripled in the last five years, has gone up steadily for five years in a row, where heroin use among eighth-graders is higher than 12th-graders, when those numbers start to turn around, it presages good news for America.

So, it's encouraging because we're about to begin in January, phase one, a test pilot phase, in 12 cities, of a $195 million national youth media strategy. We're going to be on Internet, radio, TV. We'll try and learn from January through May what works best, and then go nationwide in June.

CAIN: What you're going to do is buy commercials, in effect, and try to
educate the public, the parents and the teachers.

MCCAFFREY: Indeed. We've got bipartisan support out of Congress. Rob
Portman, Denny Hastert, both Senators Hatch and Biden in the upper chamber.
And we're going to go on the Net and talk to children and their parents
about why drugs will kill you.

CAIN: General, either you or somebody in your office is quoted in my research here as having said that there are presently on television more pro-drug messages than anti. What -- I'm not sure if that's from you, but you or someone in your office. What do you consider a pro-drug message? What do they mean by that?

MCCAFFREY: I'm not sure that came from our office. We have been very
concerned, though, that there be a consistent message to American youngsters. The dominant message comes from their school, their home, their church, but at the same time, we're aware that they listen to radio. Their music is enormously important. And we can't give inconsistent messages without causing problems.

CAIN: But do you consider that there are pro-drug -- what amount to pro-drug messages, or pro-smoking, or pro-alcohol on the media?

MCCAFFREY: Well, I think many believe that that's the case. I think that's
probably less true of mainline TV, for example, than it is of the music industry, where there's widespread concern that the message of violence, of degradation of women, of drug use, et cetera is causing problems.

But I think Hollywood is sensitized to it, and we -- we've asked them to attempt to portray drug use for what it is, not romanticize it, not glamorize it, but show the ugliness of it and portray it in that manner.

CAIN: Well, how closely are you and your agency working with the people who try to stop the flow of drugs, General? Do you still believe in interdiction?

MCCAFFREY: Well, I think the heart and soul of the president's drug strategy is prevention. You've got to talk to 9-year-olds through 17 and get them through that age group without smoking cigarettes, abusing alcohol, or using drugs, and that's primarily marijuana. The most dangerous drug in America is a 12-year-old smoking pot because they put themselves in this enormous statistical probability of having a compulsive drug problem, and I think, having said that, you've still got to go, defend America's air, land, and sea borders. You have to work with our international partners.

President Clinton and I were just down in Miami to draw attention to our ideas on interdiction. But that's going to be a supporting aspect of a prevention, treatment strategy.

CAIN: All right. General Barry McCaffrey, thank you for joining us today.

MCCAFFREY: Good to be here.

CAIN: The general is director of National Drug Control Policy.

(Excerpts: 1997 Cable News Network)
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