Government Sponsored Anti-Drug Ads Deemed Failure by Congressional Auditors

On Friday, August 25^th the Associated Press reported that according to congressional auditors, “The government's anti-drug ad campaign has not been proven to deter children from using drugs, and lawmakers should consider reducing funding for the $1.2 billion program, congressional auditors said Friday.” This is news came as a surprise to the government’s Office of National Drug Control Policy and Drug Czar, John Walters, who took issue with the auditors’ study. Walters said establishing a direct relationship between advertising exposure and outcomes is virtually impossible.

This alleged lack of accountability of the advertising campaign is disturbing in light of the requested $120 million dollar increase in funding President Bush has requested for the coming year. The government has already spent about $1.2 billion since 1998 on scores of television, print and radio ads designed to discourage drug use among youth. Presumably, government officials believe the ads to be beneficial despite findings by the independent evaluating company Westat Inc. to the contrary. Westat found the ads had no "significant favorable effects" in deterring children from trying marijuana or in getting them to stop. Rather, it found that more 12 1/2- to 13-year-olds and girls were trying the drug after seeing the ads, the Goverment Accountability Office said.

Walters said of the study, "We have dealt with criticism of the campaign from adversaries, including those who advocate the legalization of drugs, and we have periodically needed to place these findings in context, especially because all major youth surveys report declining teen drug use." Westat Inc. and the GAO can hardly be labeled adversarial or bent on a legalization agenda, but is there any truth to Walters’ claim that all major youth surveys report declining teen drug use? Jack Cole, Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, claims to have heard this song and dance before and is convinced Walters is out of tune.

Cole points to “Monitoring the Future 2002,” the largest government funded study ever done on the behaviors, attitudes, and values of American secondary school students, college students, and young adults, and says “Walters has claimed that this survey confirms that our drug-prevention efforts are working but what did the report really say? The study asserted that over a ten-year period, between 1991 and 2002, marijuana use among students in all school grades across the United States increased. How much did it increase?—30 percent for twelfth graders; 65 percent for tenth graders; and for eighth graders, an 88 percent increase! How can John Walters say this study shows our drug prevention efforts are working? Could the drug-warriors possibly be lying to us?”

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, or LEAP, aims to combat drug war propaganda, namely that which maintains a steady flow from the ONDCP and Drug Enforcement Agency. Theirs is the voice of drug warriors who fought on the front lines of the drug war and concluded that their efforts were in vain. They claim that it is not a case of giving up, but rather of starting anew, with an attainable goal, instead of trudging ahead, ignorant to the evidence that the drug war is an immutable failure.

Check out LEAP's DVD for more information this groundbreaking organization.