EDITORIAL : BOUQUET FOR HOLLYWOOD CLINTON DRUG CZAR OFFERS NEW APPROACH AGAINST GLAMORIZING DRUGS.

PRESIDENT Clinton's drug czar wants Hollywood to depict the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about the consequences of drugs.

It was a new twist in the war on drugs - pitching woo and peace to Hollywood. Barry McCaffrey, the retired general now in charge of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, deserves applause. His give-'em-honey speech certainly seemed to sit better with executives than last year's lambaste lunch by Bob Dole.

In the words of the president of the Screen Actors Guild, Richard Masur: ``It was a breath of fresh air.''

And why not? McCaffrey's pitch was reasonable: Truth and drugs need not be mutually exclusive in the entertainment media. ``What we want to do is portray the consequences of drug use realistically, to have truth appear on TV, the film screen and in the music industry,'' he said.

Hollywood certainly has enough subject matter readily available when the subject is drugs and the outcome is less than glamorous; Robert Downey Jr. and the late River Phoenix and John Belushi.

And in fairness to producers, writers and directors, realism has not always been ignored when drugs are depicted, as McCaffrey noted. He lauded the controversial British film about young heroin addicts, ``Trainspotting'' - a Dole target during the 1996 presidential campaign - as having ``tremendous power and impact in demystifying the nature of heroin addiction.''

McCaffrey's point that the American film industry or TV or the music world are not the real problem is also well-taken. Nevertheless, Hollywood can and does play a leading role in creating trends, championing ideals and glamorizing lifestyles. So why not enlist Hollywood's support to help fashion ideas and shape opinions of young minds?

It's worth a shot.