Patricia Lopez and Sharon Schmickle Star Tribune Published Apr 6, 2002 A tune allegedly sung by a punk band at a state-sponsored anti-tobacco event last October may inadvertently wind up being the swan song for the state's sometimes controversial tobacco-prevention campaign.

The lyrics -- laced with profanity and including a reference to binge drinking -- were handed out at a legislative budget conference committee Friday just as Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm was preparing to defend the state's tobacco-prevention endowment, which House Republicans want to use to reduce the state's deficit.

Target Market members at anti-smoking rally

Richard Sennott
Associated Press

The band, Alkaline Trio, is a punk group from Chicago whose music typically runs heavy on obscenities and references to heavy drinking and drugs. A Web site for the group's record label, Vagrant Records, describes the band this way: "Whether with their alcohol-fueled love songs or their love-fueled alcohol songs, Alkaline Trio will move you with something you've never seen before."

In addition, in an interview last June with PunkBands.com posted on the band's Web site, vocalist and guitarist Matt Skiba attributed his gritty voice to "all the cigarettes I smoke and beer I drink."

Rep. Kevin Goodno, R-Moorhead, who distributed reprints of the lyrics to the committee, said his staff had alerted him to songs he said were sung at the October event.

Included in the lyrics was: "I need a beer to wash it all away without a trace. And then I'll drink 23 more to wipe this stupid smile off my [expletive] face."

Goodno said that while he was dismayed by the profanity, he was far more disturbed by the references to heavy drinking. "The campaign, as I understand it, is aimed not just at tobacco but at alcohol and drug abuse," he said. "We're sending inconsistent messages if we tell kids "don't smoke" but the band that's hired tells them it's OK to drink 23 beers."

Malcolm, clearly surprised, said she knew nothing about the band's lyrics or its reputation before it was paid $5,000 to appear at Kick Ash Bash II, which drew 400 teens representing every county in Minnesota. The St. Cloud event was put on by Target Market, the organization that coordinates the state's anti-tobacco ad campaign aimed at 12-to 17-year-olds.

Several teens involved in Target Market also testified before the committee, defending the program and saying the fuss over the band's lyrics should not jeopardize the group's funding.

The ad campaign uses $6.5 million of the $21 million generated in interest from the tobacco-prevention endowment and claims a 25 percent reduction in teen smoking over two years.

House Republicans want to use $325 million of the endowment -- the amount of principal that funds tobacco prevention -- to reduce the state's deficit. Such a move would remove funding for the state's anti-tobacco efforts, although money for some local efforts would remain.

Goodno, who co-chairs the budget conference committee to which Malcolm testified and who also leads the House Health and Human Services Finance committee, said that in its zeal to reach young people, Target Market "may have lost its focus."

At a time when the committee is weighing cuts in medical care to the indigent and cuts in other needed services, "we really have to think about whether this is the most effective way to reduce tobacco use among teens," he said.

Malcolm said that much of the campaign's effectiveness came from its "genuine voice" -- the result of the 35,000 kids who participate in Target Market efforts. However, she said, "it's very fair to ask us to look at the screening criteria. This bears a closer look."

Malcolm, who has spent years fending off attempted raids on the tobacco-prevention endowment, said that as disturbed as she is by the apparent lack of screening, "I would hate for this to be the reason to undo the program. Does what happened today show the need for serious and careful review and change? I think it does. We need to make sure all our messages are mutually reinforcing."

Target Market executive director Alana Petersen said it was important to hire "bands that the kids are really excited about." When hiring, she said, "we do meet with the band and . . . make sure they knew they are addressing high school students who are working to fight tobacco and decrease youth smoking."

Petersen said Target Market did not check Alkaline Trio's Web site. She also said she was at the show and did not hear the lyrics in question, but also acknowledged that she did not know what songs were sung.

Erik Anderson, the band's manager, defended the lyrics in a phone interview, saying that "the band writes about reality." He also said the band accepted the invitation because "we thought it was for a great cause." As for Skiba's smoking, Anderson said he had no comment. "If people want to start digging and looking for small, inane things, then let them. . . . It's ridiculous."

Nikki DeLaForest, 15, of Shoreview, was among the teens involved in Target Market who testified before Goodno's committee on Friday, defending the program. She said that "we made a deal we would reduce teen smoking by 30 percent over five years. We're keeping our end of the bargain. We just want them [legislators] to keep their end of the deal."