emma_goldman
7th September 2006, 22:58
Anti-marijuana ads increase teen use, says report buried by White House
Dear With Holt:
You know those anti-marijuana TV ads that feature outrageous scenarios like stoned teenagers driving over a little girl on a bicycle, one stoned teenager shooting another in his parents' den, another stoned teenager date-raping another, and a teenager who gets pregnant because she smoked marijuana? A new independent report — commissioned by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) — finds that the ads not only fail to reduce teen marijuana use, but in some cases actually increase teen marijuana use!
The White House drug czar — whose office runs those ads — is coming under heavy fire with the release of the report ... which was kept under wraps for a year-and-a-half until the Marijuana Policy Project pushed for its release.
USA Today, The Washington Post, CNN, Fox News' Web site, and newspapers around the country have all covered this damning new evidence of the drug czar's failure. Read some of the coverage here.
The drug czar was slammed in an August 25 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) assessment that used the new report (which was conducted by private research firm Westat) to question the effectiveness of the ad campaign: According to the GAO, "the only significant effect indicated in Westat's analysis of the relationship between campaign exposure and self-reported drug use" was an increase in first-time marijuana use by 12½- to 13-year-old boys and girls.
Responding to the drug czar's claim that failure to continue the media campaign would be "raising the white flag to those who favor drug legalization," the GAO authors wrote, "In our view, on the other hand, continuation of programs that have been demonstrated not to work diverts scarce resources from programs that may be more effective."
As a matter of a fact, MPP's lobbying efforts have already helped reduce the budget for these ads by $80 million since 2002 (from $180 million in 2002 to $100 million in 2006) — a 44% reduction over five years. And we'll keep at it until the ads are killed altogether. If you'd like to help, please contribute to our work here.
More good news may be on the horizon: A U.S. Senate committee has recommended reducing salaries in the drug czar's office by more than half, "to more closely reflect actual performance." I'll be keeping you posted as that legislation moves through the Senate.
Sincerely,
Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.
P.S. As I've mentioned in previous alerts, a major philanthropist has committed to match the first $3.5 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2006. This means that your donation today will be doubled.
Dear With Holt:
You know those anti-marijuana TV ads that feature outrageous scenarios like stoned teenagers driving over a little girl on a bicycle, one stoned teenager shooting another in his parents' den, another stoned teenager date-raping another, and a teenager who gets pregnant because she smoked marijuana? A new independent report — commissioned by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) — finds that the ads not only fail to reduce teen marijuana use, but in some cases actually increase teen marijuana use!
The White House drug czar — whose office runs those ads — is coming under heavy fire with the release of the report ... which was kept under wraps for a year-and-a-half until the Marijuana Policy Project pushed for its release.
USA Today, The Washington Post, CNN, Fox News' Web site, and newspapers around the country have all covered this damning new evidence of the drug czar's failure. Read some of the coverage here.
The drug czar was slammed in an August 25 U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) assessment that used the new report (which was conducted by private research firm Westat) to question the effectiveness of the ad campaign: According to the GAO, "the only significant effect indicated in Westat's analysis of the relationship between campaign exposure and self-reported drug use" was an increase in first-time marijuana use by 12½- to 13-year-old boys and girls.
Responding to the drug czar's claim that failure to continue the media campaign would be "raising the white flag to those who favor drug legalization," the GAO authors wrote, "In our view, on the other hand, continuation of programs that have been demonstrated not to work diverts scarce resources from programs that may be more effective."
As a matter of a fact, MPP's lobbying efforts have already helped reduce the budget for these ads by $80 million since 2002 (from $180 million in 2002 to $100 million in 2006) — a 44% reduction over five years. And we'll keep at it until the ads are killed altogether. If you'd like to help, please contribute to our work here.
More good news may be on the horizon: A U.S. Senate committee has recommended reducing salaries in the drug czar's office by more than half, "to more closely reflect actual performance." I'll be keeping you posted as that legislation moves through the Senate.
Sincerely,
Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.
P.S. As I've mentioned in previous alerts, a major philanthropist has committed to match the first $3.5 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2006. This means that your donation today will be doubled.