Pubdate: Sun, 20 Mar 2005
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2005 Calgary Herald
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66
Author: David Harrison, The Telegraph (UK)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mdma.htm (Ecstasy)

GAME 'GLAMORIZES' DRUGS

Computer Title Features Police Using Crack, Pot

Acomputer game in which players use crack cocaine, ecstasy and cannabis to 
give themselves a "power boost" was condemned Saturday as irresponsible by 
anti-drug campaigners.

Critics said the game, called Narc, would glamorize drug-taking and 
undermine respect for the police, who are depicted in the game as taking 
the drugs to help them to catch criminals.

In the game, which will be released in the United States this week and in 
Britain in May, the players are elite undercover narcotics officers whose 
aim is to eliminate an international drug cartel.

Two police characters take drugs from the dealers and can use them to give 
themselves a "power boost" to help them to face "tough challenges."

A spokesman for Sony Playstation in London said: "If an officer finds 
himself in an extremely difficult or dangerous situation, say surrounded by 
violent enemies, he can take drugs and that can give him the power to take 
them on and win."

Each drug has a different effect. If the officer takes a digital ecstasy 
tablet, for example, it creates a mellow atmosphere that can pacify 
aggressive enemies.

An electronic puff of marijuana temporarily slows the action of the game 
like a sports action-replay. The use of crack momentarily makes the player 
a top marksman -- a "crack" shot.

The aim of the game, which can be played by one or more players on a 
Playstation or Xbox console, is to "bust" drug dealers until they capture 
the "Mr. Big" of the underworld.

"I don't approve of a game that has people taking drugs," said Dr. Ken 
Checinski, a senior lecturer at St George's Hospital medical school in 
London and an authority on addictive behaviour.

"There is a risk that it will glamorize drug-taking and send out the wrong 
message to young, impressionable people. It could also send out a dangerous 
moral message -- that two wrongs make a right: corrupt officers take 
illicit drugs while working and it helps them to arrest criminals."

A spokesman for Drugscope, an anti-drug charity, said: "It is totally wrong 
to suggest that people can do their jobs better while under the influence 
of drugs."

Sony defended the game, which will receive an adult classification.

"It's a classic good versus evil game that shows the destructive power of 
drugs," a spokesman said.

A spokesman for Midway, Narc's publisher, said: "This subject is something 
that nobody else has tackled in computer games and we felt it was time to 
do it."
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MAP posted-by: Beth