Drug Policy Alliance

Cut Those Stupid TV Ads Dear Fellow Reformer, Are you tired of your tax money being used to pay for those stupid anti-marijuana commercials? The ones that compare marijuana smokers to terrorists and claim marijuana will make you crazy, get you raped, cause you to shoot your neighbor and give you bird flu? Ok, we made that last one up. But doesn't it sound like something the government would say? You can help us take those stupid commercials off the air. As you may know, five government studies have found that the ads have not reduced marijuana use - and two of the studies found that the ads might make some teenagers more likely to start using marijuana. Now, a new study by two researchers at Texas State University-San Marcos finds that 18- to 19-year-old college students who view the TV ads develop more positive attitudes towards marijuana than those who do not. This "boomerang" effect occurs because people tend to rebel against fear-based arguments, factual inaccuracies and messages that don't conform to their perceptions and experiences. It's bad enough that the government is wasting your money on stupid anti-marijuana commercials. It's even worse that these commercials are backfiring. Over the last four years the Alliance has helped slash the program's annual funding from $180 million to $100 million. With this latest study we hope to finally convince Congress to kill this counterproductive program. Please fax your member of Congress. And please forward this action alert to others. Learn More

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