"Health & Medical News"

By Bob Curley

With federal research showing that its anti-drug media campaign isn’t working with kids, and Congress calling for major cuts in the program, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has unveiled a more modest effort that focuses on an emerging threat — prescription-drug abuse — and appeals to parents rather than youth.

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Washington — The American Medical Association’s campaign to raise awareness of the nation’s 47 million uninsured and to help address the problem is going nationwide.

The three-phase initiative kicked off in August 2007 with $5 million in advertising in Washington, D.C., and in the early presidential primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. This year the campaign will spend about $15 million to spread the AMA’s message across the country using print, television, radio and Internet ads; healthy lifestyle events; mobile billboards; and profiles on the popular social networking sites MySpace and Facebook.

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An ad campaign targeting 12- to 17-year-olds in Idaho and warning about the dangers of methamphetamine use was launched this week, The Twin Falls Times-News reported Jan. 7.

The ads from the Idaho Meth Project, which closely mirrors a similar campaign in Montana, began appearing on local TV. The Idaho group is spending $2.7 million to support the campaign, with support from state government as well as private donors.

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The Partnership for a Drug-Free America (PDFA) is increasing its use of the Internet to disseminate anti-drug messages to kids and parents while trimming its traditional advertising on broadcast television, the New York Times reported Sept. 28.

The PDFA’s Time to Talk initiative, for example uses a website — not TV ads — to encourage parents to talk to their kids about alcohol and other drugs. The project includes a partnership with Yahoo to facilitate communication with and among the target audience.

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The new Support 21 coalition, launched by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), the American Medical Association, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, is aimed at countering growing calls for lowering the national drinking age from 21 to 18.

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Massachusetts has launched a statewide public awareness campaign to address and reduce the stigma associated with addiction.

The campaign promotes a new website, TalkAboutAddiction.org, which launched Sept. 1 to coincide with Recovery Month, according to Michael Botticelli, Director of the state’s? Bureau of Substance Abuse Services? in the Department of Public Health.

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The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) says a drug-interdiction campaign by Mexico’s government has cut cocaine supplies in 26 U.S. cities and resulted in a 29-percent price increase on the streets, USA Today reported Sept. 13.

The DEA said that the crackdown by the Calderon government in Mexico has also resulted in a decline in cocaine purity in the U.S. cities since September 2006. Cocaine prices are the highest since April 2005, when DEA began tracking price and purity.

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The Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control is working with a task force of high-school students and parents to place stickers on packages of beer, wine coolers and other alcoholic beverages warning against buying alcohol for minors, the Washington Post reported Sept. 13.

Stop-sign shaped stickers will be placed on products at 50 participating retailers in the Alexandria area. The “sticker shock” campaign is intended to prevent underage drinking.

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Utah’s new anti-methampetamine public-awareness campaign calls on the friends and family members of users to help them overcome their addiction, the Deseret Morning News reported Sept. 24.

That’s a departure from typical campaigns against the drug, which often focus on “meth mouth” and other gruesome effects that the drug can have on users.

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