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MADD wants alcohol part of anti-drug ad campaign
National Beer Wholesalers, other groups disagree with targeting alcohol
June 8, 1999 - Mothers Against Drunk Driving is lobbying Congress to include alcohol and underage drinking in a national advertising campaign aimed at reducing drug use. MADD held a press conference in Washington, D.C., to counter what it said were efforts by the National Beer Wholesalers Association, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America and "friends of the alcohol industry in Congress'' to exclude alcohol from the billion dollar ad campaign.
"Alcohol is an illicit drug for Americans under the legal minimum drinking age of 21,'' said Karolyn Nunnallee, national president of MADD. "It is very sad that the Partnership for a Drug-Free America appears interested in only a partial drug-free America for youth,'' she said. The House Appropriations Committee is expected to vote on legislation, sponsored by Reps. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.) and Frank Wolf (R-Va.), as early as this week that would open the media campaign to ads discouraging underage drinking, the group said. A spokesman for the National Beer Wholesalers Association, an industry group in Alexandria, Va., said it had worked with MADD to reduce drunken driving but disagreed with targeting alcohol in the anti-drug campaign.
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