Drug Wars: The High Times

This video about teen drinking offers all the didacticism and soapy "drama" of an After School Special, only with more cussing and worse music. When a group of friends discuss plans for the evening and one suggests a drinking party, Straight Friend #1 whines, "I don't know--hangovers suck! Headaches, throwing up, being sick--where's the fun in that?" Of course, they end up going to the party anyway, where they find one friend puking, another being obnoxious and belligerent, and discover yet another friend has just left, driving drunk (naturally, he's pulled over and arrested). When the obnoxious and belligerent friend has some kind of seizure, the Straight Friends whisk him to the hospital (he's apparently able to get himself out of the seizure, up off the floor, and in and out of the Straight Friends' car unassisted), where the ER doc has plenty of time to discuss the Dangers of Teen Drinking with the kids. There's more! The gorgeous babe that Straight Friend #1 has been lusting over drinks mineral water and says the party is fun anyway--though why any sober person would enjoy a bunch of obnoxious drunks listening to crappy music is a mystery. Good intentions do not a good substance abuse deterrence video make, necessarily. A better choice here might be Alcohol: Brain Under the Influence (VL-11/99). Not a necessary purchase. Aud: H. (R. Reagan)