The Partnership for a Drug-Free America is a nonprofit coalition of the United States communications industries; its mission is to help reduce demand for illegal drugs by using the media to change the attitudes that affect drug trial and experimental (nonaddicted) use. The key officers of the organization are James E. Burke, chairman; Thomas A. Hedrick, Jr., president; Richard D. Bonnette, executive director; and Robert L. Caruso, chief financial officer.

The partnership was founded by Richard T. O'Reilly in early 1986 as a project of the American Association of Advertising Agencies. It was based on the idea by Philip Joanou, chairman of Dailey & Associates in Los Angeles, that the disciplines of marketing could be used effectively and efficiently over time to help "unsell" illegal drugs. The hypothesis was that prevention could be viewed as trying to affect individual decisions to buy...