“Just Say No” Failed :: Time to End “War on Drugs”
New research finds that a national campaignâ’s anti-drug TV ads failed to convince young children and teenagers to stay away from marijuana and actually might have encouraged some to try smoking pot.
In their 1999 to 2004 incarnation, the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaignâ’s TV ads â’either had no effects on kids or possibly had a boomerang effect,â’ said Robert Hornik, lead author of a new study and professor of communication at the University of Pennsylvania.
The U.S. Congress created the anti-drug campaign in the late 1990s and gave almost $1 billion to it through 2004, according to the study. The taxpayer-funded campaign continues to create anti-drug advertising today.
The study appears online and in the December issue of the American Journal of Public Health.
The researchers surveyed 8,117 children from 1999 to 2001 and followed up with many of them over the next several years. The children were nine to18 years old when they were first recruited for the study, the same ages as the group targeted by the campaignâ’s TV ads.
Ninety-four percent of the kids reported seeing two to three of the anti-drug ads per week. But seeing the ads didnâ’t reduce the likelihood that the children used marijuana. And it appeared that the ads possibly raised the risk that kids would be willing to try marijuana.
Of participants ages 12 to18 who reported seeing four or fewer ads from the campaign a month, 82 percent later reported that they â’definitelyâ’ had no plans to smoke marijuana. The percentage fell to 78 percent among those who said they saw 12 or more ads a month.
The researchers adjusted the numbers to account for factors that may have affected the childrenâ’s exposure to anti-drug advertising.
â’Our basic hypothesis is that the more kids saw these ads, the more they came to believe that lots of other kids were using marijuana,â’ Hornik said. â’And the more they came to believe that other kids were using marijuana, the more they became more interested in using it themselves.â’
Jennifer de Vallance, a spokeswoman for the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, said the new study is â’old news.â’
â’The campaign has made major changes to improve its effectiveness and, in fact, drug use among teens has dropped steadily in nearly every category since 2001,â’ she said.
Personal Note
The “War on Drugs” is a failure. The war should have never been started. The Federal Government is not to play ‘parents’ to its citizens and using valuable services (prison and police) to enforce a war that is a constant loss.
Further Reading : Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP)
The mission of LEAP is to reduce the multitude of unintended harmful consequences resulting from fighting the war on drugs and to lessen the incidence of death, disease, crime, and addiction by ultimately ending drug prohibition.
The consequence should not be for use nor for possession; the only penalty will be use just as it is for smoking and/or drinking. The United States Government tried to control alcohol via Prohibition (1920 to 1933) but all it did was create crime. At the end of Prohibition some supporters openly admitted its failure. Near the end of the US Prohibition period (1932) JD Rockerfeller Jr. wrote:
“When Prohibition was introduced, I hoped that it would be widely supported by public opinion and the day would soon come when the evil effects of alcohol would be recognized. I have slowly and reluctantly come to believe that this has not been the result. Instead, drinking has generally increased; the speakeasy has replaced the saloon; a vast army of lawbreakers has appeared; many of our best citizens have openly ignored Prohibition; respect for the law has been greatly lessened; and crime has increased to a level never seen before”
The time for the United States stop creating crime and constantly creating taboo social activities. There will always be misuse of any substance. For example; the United States largest health threat is obesity.
When will the United States wage a “War on Fat” and making it illegal to be over a certain weigh/height ratio? The obese person is a larger burden to the United States with soaring health costs which affect even the healthiest coverage. The obese are more dependent on their automobile which affects not only the economy but the air quality of all world population.
The World Health Organization ( WHO ) predicts that overweight and obesity may soon replace more traditional public health concerns such as undernutrition and infectious diseases as the most significant cause of poor health. WHO is also watching obesity as an affect to public health and policy problems because of its prevalence, costs, and health effects. What has the United States done to keep this epidemic affect the nation’s population?
What about the ‘War on Drugs”? The United States should sale and tax the heck out of drugs, just like most states treat liquor and cigarettes. It is a waste of money and personnel in the constant loss in the “War on Drugs”.
If the United States is going to regulate or crimialize what citizens put in their bodies then all ‘Big Macs’ and ‘Woppers’ should be just as illegal as “smoking the doobie”.