Results revealed that when drug use was debated, one source in six defended or accepted the use of currently prohibited drugs. Stories criticizing failed drug policies outnumbered those praising successes by a three-to-one margin. Four out of five evaluations of President and Mrs. Reagan's role in the war on drugs were negative. Television news stories criticized the war on drugs by an eight-to-one margin, compared to a three-to-two negative margin in print. CBS broadcast more criticism than ABC and NBC combined. The policies discussed most often focused on a conservative agenda: expanded police and military operations and stiffer sentences. However, the criticisms most often reflected a liberal perspective: the need to spend more money and to focus on the social and economic causes of drug abuse. Figures