Washington, DC: The White House is pulling the plug on a series of federal anti-drug ads released after September 11, 2001 that allege recreational drug use aids terrorism. The decision comes four months after an internal evaluation of the ads determined that they had failed to discourage viewers from trying marijuana or other drugs, and in some cases fostered “pro-drug” beliefs among teens.
NORML Executive Director Keith Stroup called the alleged link between recreational marijuana use and terrorism “a silly attempt by the Drug Czar to demonize marijuana and marijuana smokers,” and claimed it undermines the government’s efforts to reduce youth drug use. “There is nothing to be gained by exaggerating marijuana’s harmfulness,” he said. “On the contrary, by overstating marijuana’s potential harm, our policy-makers undermine their credibility, and their ability to effectively educate the public of the legitimate harms associated with more dangerous drugs.”
Stroup added that NORML has generated more than 6,400 letters to Congress and the Drug Czar’s office decrying the ad campaign.
Last June, Drug Czar John Walters told Congress that the White House’s new “drugs-and-terrorism” ads, which had begun airing earlier that year, would show positive results among target audiences within six months. But an evaluation of the ads in November by Westat Inc. and the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania found “no statistically significant … improvements in beliefs and attitudes about marijuana use between 2000 and the first half of 2002.” In addition, reviewers noted that those teens who were more exposed to the ad campaign tended to “move more markedly in a ‘pro-drug’ direction as they aged than those who were exposed to less.”
As part of the White House’s decision to deep-six the drugs-and-terrorism ads, the Feds also announced that they would cease funding the $8 million bi-annual Westat and Annenberg evaluation that had been critical of the campaign. Westat and Annenberg had produced regular evaluations of the ad campaign for the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) since 1999. Speaking before Congress last year, evaluation co-author Robert Hornick called the negative results among the worst in the history of large-scale public communication campaigns.
Stroup called the White House’s decision to stop funding the evaluation predictable. “This is standard operating procedure in the government’s war on drugs,” he said. “Science has never supported the drug war, so the Feds’ just do away with the science. This is a case where the White House doesn¹t like the results so they¹re shooting the messenger.”
According to White House Office of National Drug Policy (ONDCP) spokesman Tom Riley, the final series of drugs-and-terrorism ads will run in June. The ads were produced under the banner of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, which Congress funds at an estimated $195 million per year.
For more information, please contact either Keith Stroup or Paul Armentano of NORML at (202) 483-5500.