5 minute read
Anti- Marijuana Ads
DID THEY WORK?
Anti-Marijuana Ads
By Chynna Pearson
Remember all those antimarijuana ads? What did they accomplish, if anything? Because let's be honest, even Nancy Regan can admit the winner of the War on Drugs was drugs. I know way too many stoners who wear D.A.R.E (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) shirts ironically and who had previously signed the oath never to touch the stuff. For me and most of my friends, D.A.R.E didn’t do its job but, it also didn’t make us more curious. It simply did not work for us and many others.
Just in case these ads aren’t coming back to you, let’s mention some of the more known ones. Some ads have been recently turned into memes, like the one where a girl is deflated on the couch (I’ve seen people say, “I want what she was smoking,” in reference to her).
Another was parodied on Family Guy, a man is too concerned with smoking to take care of his dog and it makes the dog sad. But, one of the most memorable ones is the eggs in a frying pan with a voice over saying,
There are many more, but just for reminders sake, those are all I will describe. Additionally, anti-drug ads used to be in newspapers and on posters in schools, they were not only in the form of commercials.
Let’s go back to the time when anti-drug ads would run at all times of the day, the 80s’, 90s’, and early 2000s’. (Interestingly enough, there are even some anti-drug/marijuana ads that are still running in conservatice areas and being produced today!) When the War on Drugs started, “Just say no,” was the most popular saying to combat drug use.
However, the “Just say no'' campaign was created around the time of the Crack Epidemic of the 1980s, it had little to do with other drugs as that was the main focus at that time. According to History.com,
“In 1985, the proportion of Americans who saw drug abuse as the nation’s “number one problem,” was between 2 percent and 6 percent. In 1989, that number jumped to 64 percent.”
As time progressed and public concern for drugs increased, all drugs were encompassed in “Just say no.” That is when D.A.R.E. was introduced to about 75% of American schools in the early 80s and continues today (although it is not in as many schools today and the ones that do have an adjusted “hands-on” approach).
As of 2001, the Surgeon General, Dr. David Satcher, has categorized D.A.R.E as an “ineffective primary prevention program.” When looking into this further, The New York Times reported that these ads “at best had no effect on drug use, research shows. At worst, exposure to the campaign might have actually increased the likelihood of adolescent marijuana use.''
A study by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine (NCBI), shows that in thousands of adolescents surveyed from 1999 to 2004, that there was no change in the prevalence of marijuana use for those who did and those who didn’t get exposed to anti-marijuana campaigns.
Due to this research, it can be said that anti-drug campaigns don’t do much to keep people away from marijuana. Some people believe that ads and campaigns like D.A.R.E actually incentivize teens to try drugs by exposing them to things they may not have known about without the campaign. This could be due to pure curiosity or simply the urge to rebel against social norms.
One study that I have come across actually could show the results they wanted was the Above the Influence campaign. This campaign was less about demonizing drugs and more about showing teens that not using drugs maximized the freedom of youth, basically, they didn’t need to experiment with drugs to enjoy their youth.
After this campaign, a study was done with another couple thousand adolescents. This study was done by the NCBI also and it did show that over 2 years with the Above the Influence campaign the students have trended downward in marijuana use.
Although this campaign did work, it is important to note that that is not the norm and not common to see with campaigns like it. Ultimately, after doing more research into anti-drug ads, it seems that studies have shown that none of these programs and ads truly had any help to offer. Unfortunately, the laws that were put in place at this time, whether you support anti-drug ads or not, have had a lasting impact on the drug enforcement as a whole, and not always in a good way.
The lasting effects for BIPOC (Black and Indigeonus People of Color) have been detrimental to communities all over the United States. It is a well known fact that drug laws disproportionately affect minorities and due to this prisons and jails are overflowing with non-violent drug/marijuana offenders, even in some states with legal marijuana.
It is a completely insane notion that there are people in prison for what others are making millions of dollars off of. It is something that we, as marijuana lovers, should advocate for and actively try to change. If some of us are still persecuted, none of us are truly free.
"If some of us are still persecuted, none of us are truly free"
