Anti-Drug Blitz Planned for TV

The Clinton administration hopes to make prime time television a major battlefield in the war on drugs with an unprecedented $350-million media campaign designed to counter rapidly increasing teenage drug abuse. Under the plan, the federal government and the private sector would equally divide the cost of an advertising blitz so massive that the anti-drug message would be virtually inescapable on the programming that captures younger audiences. “There is every reason to believe that this absolutely will turn around drug abuse by youngsters,” said retired Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, the chief of the White House drug office who would direct the media campaign.