Underage Drinking

* The Partnership for a Drug-Free America wholeheartedly supports the concept of developing a national advertising campaign targeting underage drinking. But your June 16 editorial misses the essence of our concerns regarding an amendment to the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign.

You can target illegal drugs with advertising. Backed by the proper research, you can do the same for underage drinking. But you cannot do both effectively with the current federal appropriation. That’s the issue. The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign is backed by $185 million in federal funds. The alcohol industry spends billions on marketing and promotion each year. It doesn’t take a marketing genius to understand that to compete effectively in the marketplace, it would require hundreds of millions more to change teenage attitudes about drinking. A campaign targeting underage drinking will require significantly more funding. If Congress wants to ensure the effectiveness of the anti-drug campaign, it must not ask it to do more than it was originally designed to do.

WILLIAM J. BENNETT

MARIO M. CUOMO

Co-Chairman, Partnership

for a Drug-Free America

New York