Hard Facts About Marijuana Grab Parents' Attention

Main Category: Alcohol / Addiction / Illegal Drugs
Article Date: 23 Apr 2005 - 11:00 PDT

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The Office of National Drug Control Policy's (ONDCP) National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign (USA) launched a new advertising campaign to provide scientific facts about marijuana risks and harms for parents of teens. Themed "Facts for Parents," the print ad campaign underscores the potency and carcinogenic content of marijuana and outlines short- and long-term consequences of marijuana use on adolescent brain development and learning. Starting today, the ads are running in The New York Times, USA Today, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. During the course of the next four months, they will also appear in Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Time and Smithsonian magazines.

"We've done research with parents to determine what motivates them to take an active stance about marijuana with their teens, and we discovered that many parents say they don't have the accurate information or compelling facts they need to address this issue," said John P. Walters, Director of National Drug Control Policy. "These ads give parents some hard facts that they can use to have informed conversations with their kids about the negative consequences of marijuana. When parents stay involved in their teens' lives and talk to them about the harms and risk of drugs such as marijuana, the teens are much less likely to use drugs."

According to the 17th annual Partnership Attitude Tracking Study conducted by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America (the Partnership), the number of parents who report never talking with their child about drugs has doubled in the past six years, from 6 percent in 1998 to 12 percent in 2004. Fewer than one in three teens (approximately 30 percent) say they have learned a lot about the risks of drugs at home.

"Recent research shows that today's parents are significantly less likely to be talking with their teens about drug use. In part, this is due to their lack of understanding about today's marijuana," says Roy Bostock, Chairman of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. "We hope these ads can educate parents that today's marijuana is different than the marijuana they knew as teenagers and prompt them to send a clear and consistent message that marijuana and other drug use is not acceptable."

The ads, created by BBDO Worldwide in collaboration with the Partnership and ONDCP, incorporate data from the latest scientific research that demonstrates how marijuana harms teens' minds and bodies. For example:

-- Kids who are regular marijuana users often have shortened attention spans, decreased energy and ambition, lack of judgment, high distractibility, and impaired ability to communicate and relate to others-a set of symptoms called "amotivational syndrome" by psychologists.

-- Kids who regularly smoke marijuana often make risky decisions about driving or sex.

-- Using marijuana can lead to symptoms of depression and thoughts of suicide.

-- Regular marijuana use can lead to breathing problems and greater exposure to cancerous chemicals than from tobacco. In fact, one marijuana cigarette can deliver four times as much cancer-causing tar as one tobacco cigarette.

-- Marijuana today is more than twice as powerful on average as it was 20 years ago. It contains twice the concentration of THC, the chemical that affects the brain.

More information about the effects of marijuana use and its signs and symptoms, as well as advice for parents on keeping kids drug-free, can be found on the Media Campaign Web site for parents at http://www.TheAntiDrug.com. Parents can also call the National Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information at 1-800-788-2800 for free resources.

In 1998, with the bipartisan support of Congress and the President, ONDCP created the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, an effort designed to educate and empower youth to reject illicit drugs. Counting on an unprecedented blend of public and private partnerships, non-profit community service organizations, volunteerism, and youth-to-youth communications, the Campaign is designed to reach Americans of diverse backgrounds with effective anti-drug messages.

For more information on the ONDCP National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, visit http://www.mediacampaign.org.

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