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Take
Action: Congress Votes to Use Taxpayer Dollars to Attack Drug
Policy Reforms
May 19, 2003
Congress wants to use your money to tell you how to think
and vote. Your help is needed today to stop them. The House
Government Reform Committee will consider legislation this
Thursday, May 22nd that would allow Drug Czar John Walters
to spend taxpayer money to influence voters to reject drug
policy reforms. The section is so broad it could allow the
White House to use almost $1 billion in taxpayer money to
run government-sponsored television ads against state and
local ballot measures that enact drug policy reforms. It could
even allow taxpayer money for partisan political purposes,
such as government-sponsored attack ads against candidates
the White House doesn't like.
While
this money could only be used right now for opposing drug
reform efforts - including stopping ballot measures and partisan
politics - it's a dangerous precedent that could soon expand
to using taxpayer money to influence candidate races, ballot
elections, and voter opinion on a wide variety of issues,
including guns and abortion. Indeed, the drug czar's office
is already running anti-drug ads that contain discreet pro-life
and pro-gun control messages ? at taxpayer expense.
The
provision is part of legislation reauthorizing the drug czar's
office. It would renew the National Youth Anti-Drug Media
Campaign, a controversial ad campaign that cost taxpayers
over a billion dollars in the last six years, despite numerous
government studies showing it has failed to meet its intended
goals of reducing drug use. If approved by the full Congress,
the drug czar's office would have almost a billion dollars
over the next five years to spend on the failed media campaign,
including ads telling voters to oppose drug policy reform.
(For more information, see the "background" section
below.)
Actions
to Take
If
you¡¯re from a state with Representatives on the House Government
Reform Committee, call them all today (see list of Committee
Members and contact information below).
Tell them to remove the section of HR 2086, the ¡°Office of
National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2003¡±,
that allows the Drug Czar to use the media campaign for partisan
political purposes.
Tell them you strongly oppose using taxpayer money to run
government ads telling us how to vote and what to think.
Urge them to also reduce the reauthorization of the National
Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign to one year instead of five,
consistent with recommendations by the Office of Management
and Budget (OMB).
If you¡¯re from a state without a Representative on the House
Government Reform Committee, call your Representative and
urge him or her to pressure Members on the Government Reform
Committee to take out the propaganda provision. To Find out
who your Representative is visit: http://www.house.gov
Tell your Representative to do everything in his or her power
to convince the Government Reform Committee to remove the
section from HR2086 that allows federal bureaucrats to use
taxpayer money to influence elections. Tell your Representative
to vote against any bill that contains such a provision.
Please let your friends and family know about this legilsation
and what they can do about it. Unless Congress hears from
thousands of voters this bill and its dangerous provision
could easily become law.
Government Reform Committee
California
Doug
Ose (R-3rd) 202-225-5716
Henry A. Waxman (D-30th, Rnk. Mem) 202-225-3976
Tom Lantos (D-12th) 202-225-3531
Diane Watson (D-33rd) 202-225-7084
Linda T. Sanchez (D-39th) 202-225-6676
Connecticut
Christopher
Shays (R-4th) 202-225-5541
District
of Columbia
Eleanor
Holmes Norton (D-Del.) 202-225-8050
Florida
Ileana
Ros-Lehtinen (R-18th)
John Mica (R-7th) 202-225-4035
Adam Putnam (R-12th) 202-225-1252
Georgia
Nathan
Deal (R-10th) 202-225-5211
Illinois
Danny
K. Davis (D-7th) 202-225-5006
Indiana
Dan
Burton (R-5th) 202-225-2276
Mark Souder (R-3rd) 202-225-4436
Kentucky
Ron
Lewis (R-2nd) 202-225-3501
Maryland
Elijah
Cummings (D-7th) 202-225-4741
Chris Van Hollen, Jr. (D-8th) 202-225-5341
C.A. Ruppersberger (D-2nd) 202-225-3061
Massachusetts
John
F. Tierney (D-6th) 202-225-8020
Stephen F. Lynch (D-9th) 202-225-8273
Michigan
Candice
Miller (R-10th) 202-225-2106
Missouri
William
L. Clay, Jr. (D-1st) 202-225-2406
New
York
John
McHugh (R-23rd) 202-225-4611
Major R. Owens (D-11th) 202-225-6231
Edolphus Towns (D-10th) 202-225-5936
Carolyn Maloney (D-14th) 202-225-7944
Ohio
Steven
C. LaTourette (R-14th) 202-225-5731
Michael Turner (R-3rd) 202-225-6465
Dennis J. Kucinich (D-10th) 202-225-5871
Oklahoma
John
Sullivan (R-1st) 202-225-2211
Pennsylvania
Todd
R. Platts (R-19th) 202-225-5836
Timothy F. Murphy (R-18th) 202-225-2301
Paul E. Kanjorski (D-11th) 202-225-6511
South
Dakota
William
J. Janklow (R-At Large) 202-225-2801
Tennessee
John
J. Duncan Jr. (R-2nd) 202-225-5435
Marsha Blackburn (R-7th) 202-225-2811
Jim Cooper (D-5th) 202-225-4311
Texas
John
R. Carter (R-31st) 202-225-3864
Chris Bell (D-25th) 202-225-7508
Utah
Chris
Cannon (R-3rd) 202-225-7751
Virginia
Thomas
M. Davis III (R-11th), Chair 202-225-3071
Jo Ann S. Davis (R-1st) 202-225-4261
Edward L. Schrock (R-2nd) 202-225-4215
Background
In
1998, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) created
the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign (Media Campaign).
The Media Campaign was intended to reduce drug use among young
people through the use of multi-media advertising and public
communications strategies that included television, radio,
and prints ads. Over the past six years, Congress has appropriated
more than $1 billion to the Media Campaign, making ONDCP -
and its primary private partner, the Partnership for a Drug
Free America - one of the nation¡¯s largest advertisers.
From
the start the media campaign has been embroiled in controversy.
In addition to the numerous government studies finding the
ads ineffective in reducing drug use, the Drug Czar¡¯s office
has used this media campaign to bribe television networks
to change their scripts and magazines to editorialize on certain
subjects. They were accused of violating federal law by manipulating
measurement criteria to make the media campaign look effective,
and faced Congressional heat over its decision to maintain
contracts with Ogilvy & Mather - an advertising agency
that has over-billed taxpayers for its work on the media campaign.
In addition, the recently canceled ¡°drugs and terror¡± ads
were roundly criticized from all quarters, including the Partnership
for a Drug Free America, which called them off-strategy, and
the Weekly Standard, which called the ads ¡°propaganda worthy
of the¡¦Soviet Union.¡± The most recent anti-drug ads featuring
teenage pregnancy and an accidental handgun shooting have
been accused of promoting pro-life views and gun control.
Congress
took the first step last week in renewing the National Youth
Anti-Drug Media Campaign, when the House Subcommittee on Criminal
Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources, approved HR 2086,
the "Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization
Act of 2003¡±, a bill that renews the drug czar¡¯s office
and the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign. Chairman
Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN) and Ranking Member Rep. Elijah Cummings
(D-MD) both supported renewing the controversial ad campaign,
despite the fact that the government¡¯s own studies have found
them to be failures.
Buried
within Section 10 of HR 2086 are provisions amending the statutory
ban on using the media campaign for ¡°partisan political purposes¡±
to allow the drug czar to use taxpayer money for partisan
political purposes as long as the purpose is opposing drug
legalization, including making marijuana legally available
to AIDS and cancer patients. If enacted, the Office of National
Drug Control Policy (which is ran out of the White House)
could spend up to $195 million of taxpayer money every year
on radio, print, and television ads opposing medical marijuana
laws and trying to defeat candidates that support more compassionate
drug laws. It would also give whoever is President the power
to use taxpayer money for political attacks on his or her
opponents.
The
Drug Policy Alliance is urging Members of Congress to cancel
the expensive ad campaign and spend the money on drug treatment,
after-school programs and other prevention programs that cost
less and are proven to work. At a minimum, say experts at
the Alliance, the propaganda provision should be taken out
and the media campaign should be approved for only one year
instead of five, consistent with recommendations of the Office
of Management and Budget (OMB) that 2005 funding be contingent
upon improved results.
Government
auditors and the President¡¯s budget submission for 2004 note
that ¡°The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign has not
demonstrated the results sought, and does not yet have adequate
performance measures and related goals.¡± In addition, every
study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has found
the ads to be ineffective in reducing youth drug use and could
actually make youth more likely to use marijuana in the future.
Even Drug Czar John Walters has admitted the media campaign
is a flop, telling the Wall Street Journal ¡°this campaign
isn¡¯t reducing drug use.¡±
NIDA¡¯s
most recent studies have found that the ad campaign not only
fails to reduce drug use, but may actually make youth more
likely to use marijuana in the future. According to NIDA,
the ads may give youth the perception that drug use is common
among their peers; and may also trigger what psychologists
call ¡°reactance¡± - the more someone is told what not to
do, the more they want to do it. Other experts believe the
ads are so ridiculous and over-the-top that young people dismiss
them outright, assuming they¡¯re being lied to. NIDA¡¯s final
evaluation of the program¡¯s effectiveness will be released
later this year, presumably after Congress decides whether
to renew the Campaign.
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