Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, April 2, 1993 TAG: 9304020156
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RACHEL L. JONES KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
REMEMBER THE `BRAIN ON DRUGS" AD?
The people who brought us the fried-eggs "This Is Your Brain On Drugs" commercial six years ago are back with a new campaign to demonstrate what dope does to the brain.This time, they're using the real thing.
The new 30-second public service announcement from the Partnership For A Drug-Free America compares three-dimensional computer images of a healthy brain and a brain damaged by chronic cocaine use.
The healthy brain glows in vibrant reds, yellows and blues, indicating normal blood flow. The brain of a chronic drug user is riddled with dark ovals that look like holes; these are areas where the blood flow is constricted because of cocaine use.
The commercial ends with a side-by-side comparison and this message: "maybe you have to have holes in your head to use drugs."
"It's symbolically graphic, but that's how you get the message across," says Richard Bonnette, executive director of the Partnership For A Drug-Free America. "One of the key ingredients in discouraging experimentation with drugs in young people is showing the risk involved with them. Once they've seen what drugs can do, they're making a more informed choice."
Bonnette says the spots are targeted at 9- to 12-year-olds, who are beginning to develop awareness and attitudes about drugs.
The images were produced through spect - single photon emission computed tomography - the same technology used to diagnose the effects of strokes, Alzheimer's disease and other brain disorders.
Dr. B. Leonard Holman of Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, the researcher who helped develop these SPECT images, says the brain in the commercial belongs to a person who used cocaine for 10 years.
Cocaine is a powerful vaso-constrictor; from the very first use, it can impede the flow of blood through the brain. Holman says there's not as much definitive research on how other drugs affect the brain. Long-term damage to the brain from cocaine use includes behavioral changes and memory loss.
You won't get holes in your brain from taking a puff on a marijuana cigarette or from short-term, casual cocaine use. But that's not the point, Holman says. "This campaign is not intended to be a scare tactic. It simply uses technology to make people aware of the direct effects of drug use, whether it's one year or 10."
Plus, very few cocaine users remain short-term, casual users. "Once you get started with cocaine," Bonnette says, "it's not something you can use only every now and then."