Pubdate: Tue, 08 June 1999 Source: Fresno Bee, The (CA) Copyright: 1999 The Fresno Bee Contact: http://www.fresnobee.com/ Author: Michael Doyle, Bee Washington Bureau BATTLE BREWS OVER ANTI-ALCOHOL AD PLAN WASHINGTON - This is your brain. This is your brain on booze. That's the ad line that could crop up, depending on who wins a political fight that California vintners are just now learning about. Within days, a key House committee will have to unscramble the dispute over whether the government should broaden its anti-drug campaign to target alcohol. "Since wine is not an illegal substance, and since wine has been consumed as the natural accompaniment to meals for thousands of years, it would be surprising to find it included in drug legislation," Lee Nordlund, marketing director for the Manteca-based Delicato Family Vineyards, said Monday. The federal drug czar's office spends $195 million a year on anti-drug ads, including the memorable "this is your brain on drugs" video that compares a drug user's brain to an egg frying in a pan. The drug czar's current campaign sidesteps alcohol, the No. 1 intoxicant of choice among young people. That would change under a measure before the House Appropriations Committee. The Treasury Department's fiscal 2000 funding bill, as approved by a House subcommittee, would let the federal drug-control office target alcohol in its ad campaign. Anti-drinking advocates say it's about time, since twice as many Americans die from alcohol-related causes as from illegal drugs. "We will not sit back and be quiet while the alcohol industry works endlessly to ensure that alcohol and underage drinking are excluded from the most comprehensive anti-drug advertising campaign in U.S. history," Karolyn Nunnallee, president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said Monday. One in five U.S. teen-agers younger than 17 drank alcohol within the past month, according to the most recent government survey. That was twice as many as the number who had smoked marijuana. Alcohol abuse and alcoholism cost the United States an estimated $148 billion annually, the National Institute on Drug Abuse calculates. Drug abuse and dependence cost the country an estimated $98 billion annually. But should a program established to target illegal drugs now broaden its approach? Drug czar Barry McCaffrey cautioned Monday that the ad change would "dilute the focus of a successful media campaign" that targets 102 cities, adding it would be a "serious mistake" to change the ad focus without a funding increase. He noted that privately funded ads, provided as matching contributions to the federal ads, have attacked drinking. The National Beer Wholesalers Association is trying to kill the subcommittee's alcohol ad provision when the full House panel meets this week. The group has been successful in the past. The 1988 bill setting up the Office of National Drug Control Policy specifically excludes wine, beer and liquor from the office's jurisdiction. The San Francisco-based Wine Institute hasn't formally convened to oppose the new proposal, but the industry, like beer brewers, is skeptical. "We have some concerns that by throwing alcohol into the mix, is there a mixed message as a result?" Wine Institute senior vice president Robert P. Koch, the industry's top lobbyist, said Monday. "We are different. We are not an illegal substance." One House member championing a revised new ad campaign is Los Angeles Democrat Lucille Roybal-Allard. Customarily, though, California lawmakers have backed the state's $5.9 billion-a-year wine industry. These lawmakers may have to confront the issue if the House Appropriations Committee can't stop the provision this week. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D