cannabisnews.com: Latest Report Tests Effectiveness of Anti-Drug Ads Latest Report Tests Effectiveness of Anti-Drug Ads Posted by CN Staff on September 28, 2003 at 22:46:32 PT By Meredith Dietrich, Features Reporter Source: Badger Herald With a plethora of anti-drug advertisements on TV and in magazines daily, advertisers have begun to worry that teens could be tuning the ads out. However, according to two recent White House reports, the ads are indeed getting the desired message to their target audience. The White House conducted two surveys to test the effectiveness of the government's latest anti-drug ad campaigns. Of the more than 30,000 teenagers who participated, the majority said advertisements relating drug use, more specifically marijuana use, to terrorism is in fact gaining their attention. The advertisements, which focus on possible links between buying drugs, supporting drug trafficking and, as a result, supporting terrorist groups, are meant to prove that drug use may be more dangerous than teenagers previously thought. "One of the things we tried to do was make the ads punchier and more dramatic," said Tom Riley, Office of National Drug Control Policy spokesman. The ads feature images of terrorists buying cars, machine guns, explosives and other dangerous materials in a parody of the popular recent MasterCard commercials. "Our ads are contributing to a climate of disapproval of drug use that is so imperative to reducing the human, social and financial costs of this deadly disease," White House spokesman John Walters said in a recent release. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health reports that 49 percent of high school teenagers who had high exposure to the ads while in school were unlikely to try drugs. The survey also found that those who had seen the drug prevention ads on their own used drugs 15 percent less than those who had not seen the ads. However, University of Wisconsin sophomore David Glotter thinks the drug laws are ridiculous. "Relating marijuana to terrorism is absurd. The U.S. drug laws are preposterous, and there are more important issues that they should be spending their time and money on." Ivan Preston, a Professor Emertus in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at UW, recognizes some of the outrage that may stem from the airing of these types of ads and said that anti-drug ads are treated much differently than regular advertisements. "The anti-ads are not considered to involve commercial speech like regular ads," Preston said. "That means that essentially they are not regulated by law, although they are subject to constraints from the public that may arise from social outrage." According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, more teenagers in treatment have a diagnosis of marijuana dependence than all other illicit drugs combined. In a 2002 survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration 8.3 percent of the population, age 12 or over, used illicit drugs. Preston believes comparing terrorism to drug use changes the subject. "The drug issue may go on a lot longer than the terrorism issue and so drug issue should stay related to the drug issue," he said. The Anti-Drug, a National Youth anti-drug media campaign, said money spent buying drugs could finance "unspeakable crimes" around the world. President George W. Bush was even quoted on the national Anti-Drug website as saying, "It's so important for Americans to know that the traffic in drugs finances the work of terror, sustaining terrorists, that terrorists use drug profits to fund their cells to commit acts of murder." Though the ads may work for a percentage of the nation's youth, there are still many who feel that the drug-terrorist link is taking it to far. "Anti-drug ads, when portraying the actual truth, are effective," UW sophomore Melissa Frey said. "But when the ads make up extreme cases about the negative effects of substance abuse, they seem completely unbelievable." Source: Badger Herald (Edu, Madison, WI)Author: Meredith Dietrich, News WriterPublished: September 29, 2003 Copyright: 2003 Badger HeraldContact: editor badgerherald.comWebsite: http://www.badgerherald.com/Related Articles:Cannabis Crusades: Anti-Pot Ads Have Backfired http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17407.shtml George Bush’s Joint http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17401.shtmlAxing the Drug-Terrorism Ad Campaignhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16755.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #5 posted by mamawillie on September 29, 2003 at 10:56:35 PT Let them keep lying Look, don't get outraged by all of these lies by the government trying to portray the war on drugs as successful. The claims are so unbelievable that it is trickling down into the non-drug users... and they are questioning the war on drugs. My dad is Mr. Conservative, right wing Republican Christian and never did drugs, doesn't smoke and occassionally drinks. he says if it ever came up for a vote, he's voting to legalize marijuana because he is sick of the lying propaganda and the blind assumption that conservative Americans want all of these punishments for drug use.He says that whatever adults do in the privacy of their own house if fine with him and he would rather see cigs and alcohol illegal and pot legalized.Now, if my dad can admit that, then I do believe this is a great example on how we are winning... [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by WolfgangWylde on September 29, 2003 at 04:34:36 PT Puh-leeze... ...Non White House Surveys (ie, those that aren't pure BS) show youth drug use is up in every category. Walters is just trying to shore up his failed program. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on September 29, 2003 at 03:41:18 PT Story from Australia Girl, 5, makes bong in class: http://news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7401630%255E13569,00.html [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by OverwhelmSam on September 29, 2003 at 00:58:35 PT: Keep Telling The Same Lies... And Sooner Or Later, Someone will start to believe it.Why don't they tell the truth? It's because US law makes the drugs illegal, that terrorists traffic them. Make them legal and the terrorists have to find some other way to raise money.One thing is for sure, not matter how they have to get money, they'll do it. And mainly because of US policies like the ones against marijuana.Maybe the US will get a clue one day. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Ron Bennett on September 29, 2003 at 00:35:58 PT University of Mississippi == Terror Organization If one believes the anti-drug drug/terror ads......since the University of Mississippi grows and helps supply several people with cannabis, they are a terror organization...and since the University of Mississippi cannabis program is paid for and sponsored by the U.S. government, that must mean......the U.S. government == terror organization.Ron [ Post Comment ] Post Comment