ANTI-DRUG OFFICIALS TRYING HARD SELL; AGENCIES BUY TIME FOR BETTER PLACEMENT THAN PSAS.

Byline: Michael Coit Staff Writer

A man leans back on the floor of a room, smoke lifting from a small pipe. A baby cries at the feet of a woman sitting on a couch.

Two women appear to be cooking something on a stove top.

A woman appears from a bedroom, screams in horror as flames engulf the scene, and closes the door on a toddler. The woman then is seen running outside when an explosion consumes the home as neighbors walk by.

The final image is a baby doll's melted form smoldering in the wreckage.

``Trainspotting II''? A Quentin Tarantino film? No.

This is the most provocative anti-drug public service announcement ever launched by the California Attorney General's Office. The target is methamphetamine, a powerful, long-acting stimulant that's easy to produce and packs a powerful craving.

Not content with occasional public service announcement spots when few viewers are watching, state officials are buying advertising time, a move matched only by a current campaign from the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy.

So disturbing are the images that television stations are running them in restricted time slots so hopefully only teens and adults see them. By comparison, a companion advertisement featuring young hipsters discussing unfashionable health effects of methamphetamine has no time restrictions.

``When you look at what's out on TV in PSA commercials now, we had to do something different. That was a whole new level,'' said Lisa Holcombe, who produced the advertisements for Cal Image Associates.

``We knew we were going to be asking (stations) to be thoughtful about it. We didn't want them running during `Barney and Friends,' '' she explained.

With music video production values, the ``explosion'' spot is aimed at getting teens and adults alike to consider how the production of methamphetamine destroys innocent lives.

``We've had difficulty over the years in drawing attention to the problem. If we're going to get the message out, it seems to be the most effective way,'' said Kathryn Jett, director of the state's Crime and Violence Prevention Center.

The Attorney General's Office received nearly $2 million in federal funding to produce anti-drug advertisements. The funding is part of an $18 million Department of Justice grant over three years, beginning in spring 1998, to target methamphetamine in the state by bolstering law enforcement and improving public education.

The funding recognizes that California remains ground zero for the methamphetamine scourge that has spread to other regions of the country, including both rural and urban areas of the South and Midwest, officials said.

``Law enforcement is not going to solve this problem,'' said Dick Flood, a top special agent for the California Department of Justice Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement in Southern California.

``Education is very critical. The whole premise is if we are able to take even one lab down in a neighborhood derived from information from someone seeing that ad, then it's money well spent,'' he explained.

Target drug

Methamphetamine has become a target of local, state and federal agents within the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area the federal government designated in 1990. The area spanning Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties is considered a gateway for drugs from other countries, but it also is infamous for clandestine methamphetamine labs.

Busts of California meth labs by the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement jumped from 465 in 1995 to 1,006 in 1998. There were 2,562 labs seized across the nation in 1998.

By focusing on labs in the explosion advertisement, drug enforcement officials want teens to think about the chemicals used to produce methamphetamine and their potentially volatile nature.

``This is far more dramatic because it focuses on some real dangers. It goes beyond just notifying people of the evils of the drug to awareness of what might occur in your own area,'' Flood said.

Toxic waste 

More than 30 chemicals are used to produce methamphetamine. Every pound leaves five pounds of often toxic waste. The chemicals that are caustic or explosive can become lethal if stored or cooked improperly.

``We have responded to lab sites where people have been literally blown out of their shoes. We've had explosions where their skin has been cooked right off,'' Flood said. ``It does happen, and it happens in neighborhoods, in remote areas, in industrial areas.''

The advertisement's image of a home on a residential street and neighbors walking by as the explosion occurs aims to give methamphetamine labs a contemporary context.

``We're really trying to get people to realize that meth is no longer just bikers out in the desert,'' said Holcombe, the producer.

The advertisement was released with three others focusing on methamphetamine to television stations and cable operators a year ago to run as public service announcements.

Time for public service announcements is limited. The Federal Communications Commission only requires stations to run four a day of any length, and they run in times not taken by paid advertisements or station promotions.

``We have a number of requests for PSAs that is far more than the actual PSA time that we have available,'' said Erin Dittman, director of communications for KNBC-TV (Channel 4) in Los Angeles. ``Buying time is a way to assure your spot is being placed.''

KNBC has been running the explosion advertisements in the late night fringe that begins at 11:30 p.m. and runs into the early morning, Dittman said.

``We reviewed the spot and thought that, while powerful, it was acceptable to air,'' she explained. ``It's basically restricted from time periods that would attract a young audience.''

Reaching audience?

Whether the advertisement has an impact on its targeted audience is unclear because the state does not have funding for a survey evaluating changes in attitudes.

The advertisement is getting some notice based on the number of times the Attorney General's Office's Internet Web site is opened. The address - www.stopdrugs.org - runs at the end of all methamphetamine spots, as well as on billboards and other media. There have been an average of 296,000 hits per month on the Web site since July 1998.

Jett said the state would seek federal funding to buy more advertising time next year, as well as produce videos for community education efforts and buy more billboard space.

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Photo

Photo: A powerful ad on the dangers of methamphetamine is running late at night.