(1/17/98 Baltimore AFRO-American Newspaper)
by Congressman Elijah E. Cummings
A few weeks ago when I arrived at my home and opened the door, a note, which had been placed in the door fell on the steps. The note was written on what appeared to be a greasy paper bag. It read "Mr. Elijah, I need your help right now. Please call me at -----------. Thank you." It was signed "Suzi." My initial inclination was not to call, but there was something about the words, "right now," that told me that I must. I’m glad that I did.
Suzi, who is 18 years old, told me that she began using drugs at the age of 16 when she was a high school student. She said that her boyfriend had introduced her to crack cocaine, and she thought that she could "handle it." Well, she shortly found out that she could not. Suzi told me about how she had gotten to the point where she would do almost anything to get cocaine. Suzi enjoyed getting high. However, when the high was over, she would feel extremely low. She said that the only way that she could "cure" her low feelings was to have more crack. She dropped out of school within six months of initially using crack.
This young lady had reached a point of being tired of spending her days and nights in pursuit of another fix. She told me that she was no longer seeking pleasure, but was constantly trying to avoid pain. She asked for help, and I referred her to a drug treatment center and promised that I would monitor her progress.
After hanging up the phone, I paused and asked myself what could be done to make sure that our children do not end up in the position in which Suzi found herself.
America’s youth watch on an average 21 hours of television each week. The strength of those viewing numbers have made television one of the most powerful mediums for reaching out to young people. Advertisers spend billions of dollars each year to use media to market products, send messages, and change lifestyle choices. Television, radio, magazine ads, billboards, and posters have proven to be an effective formula for targeting messages to youth, our nation’s biggest consumers.
Unfortunately, movies, fashion photo spreads, and television programs have too often associated glamour, success and style with a drug culture. Some music idols combine the pulse of strong dance beats with images of lifestyles that are rooted in a drug culture. Far too many performers and sport figures, idolized by our young people, are arrested and serve jail sentences for their drug use. From these images our young people learn an acceptance of a drug culture without fully understanding the downside of a life associated with the use of drugs. It’s time to flip the script and use media to communicate a different message.
In our efforts to rid our communities of drugs, we need to use every resource available. General Barry McCaffrey, Director of President Clinton’s Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the Drug Czar, has teamed up with the advertising industry to use the power of the media to communicate to youth the devastating and negative side of drug use. The anti-drug ads are hard-hitting, and have a language that youth can easily understand. In one ad produced by the Partnership for a Drug Free America, a young teen likens the dripping of an egg yolk to the feel of a body on drugs, and then slams a frying pan across the kitchen sink and cabinets, breaking glass to demonstrate what drugs can do to a family, friends, and a life. Other ads encourage adults to be mentors and asks parents to talk frankly to their children about drugs.
During the last Congressional session we appropriated $195 million to ONDCP to conduct a National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign. The campaign will focus on young people between the ages of nine and seventeen. It will also be directed toward the adults who influence them, such as parents, teachers, coaches, and mentors. Baltimore was selected as one of the twelve cities for phase one of the program. In Baltimore, the ONDCP will spend about one million dollars between now and April to place these ads on the radio, television, in magazines, newspapers, and posters. Additional funds will be used for research and the development of a wider national campaign. I was pleased to learn that the Baltimore-based Sinclair Broadcasting Group, which owns channels 45 and 54, has been a leader in airing public service announcements similar to those which will be used in this campaign.
Earlier this week, General McCaffrey, Senator Sarbanes, Lieutenant Governor Kathleen Kennedy-Townsend, and City Council President Lawrence Bell, joined me at Edmondson Senior High School to kick-off the program in Baltimore. As adults, parents, and elected officials, we are also teachers. We all have a responsibility to teach our young people that opportunity is found not at the end of a crack pipe or marijuana cigarette.
Statistics show that many of our young people begin drug use before their teenage years. Therefore, it is important to teach them about the dangers of drug use before they start to experiment. Research has shown that if a child reaches the age of nineteen without using drugs, he or she is not likely to become addicted to drugs.
Drug use is not something that is without costs and consequences. The very existence of our next generation depends upon our seriousness in this fight.
I have an obligation to ensure that federal resources are directed to programs to help avoid the pain that Suzi spoke of, and save lives. This National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign hopefully will go far in accomplishing this aim. Grounded in the messages of this campaign is a belief that self-worth leads to personal empowerment.
I truly believe that a day will come when we will not see young men selling crack on the corners of our neighborhoods because people like Suzi will have said yes to a drug-free style.
-The Honorable Elijah E. Cummings represents the 7th Congressional District of Maryland in the United States House of Representatives.