ANTI-DRUG CAMPAIGN INEFFECTIVE

"Just tell her parents you lost track of her because you were stoned.
They'll understand."

That is the message that the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign
wants Americans to hear about marijuana: It makes you lose small children.

The validity of this new ad campaign is not an issue. It is an
obvious guilt tactic that probably would not work on even the most
gullible of marijuana users. What is at issue is that this message
and messages like it cost an exorbitant amount of money to produce
and air on national television. Very often this organization has
airtime donated to it, but there is only so much of it and it is very
important that it is used effectively and not a waste of time for the
donors, producers, organizations and most of all, the viewers.

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Marijuana is not the most dangerous drug in America. One would think
that if ad space were to be taken up with any anti-drug campaigns in
this country, the time should go to the real problem, the very
frightening reality that is methamphetamines.

Last month, Newsweek magazine declared meth the most dangerous drug
in America. Things have not changed since then, but the anti-meth
campaigns are few and far between. Perhaps it is true that the reason
you did not have dinner with your grandmother was because you were
off getting stoned, but at least you will still be alive and have
most of your brain functions when you finally do show up.

Meth is a killer in this country and college students are no stranger
to it, especially in Texas. Last year, 395 Texas meth labs were
seized and cleaned up by law enforcement - and that is just the
number they found.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, 18- to 25-year-olds
are the most likely users of meth, with over 5 percent of all
Americans in that age range admitting to using meth within the last four years.

The Office of National Drug Control Policy claims they have something
resembling an anti-meth ad campaign in the mix for November, but if
they are as pathetic a waste of money as their anti-marijuana
campaigns have been, one must wonder if the meth problem is really a
concern to politicians at all. They were kind enough to put
pseudoephedrine, a drug used in the production of meth, behind the
counter and pass restrictions on it because large amounts were being
heisted by those running meth labs. But was this to protect the
community or the drug companies?

Methamphetamine, a central nervous system stimulant of the
amphetamine family, is often manufactured in small, dirty labs in
backyard sheds. Mixed with unsavory substances, such as liquid drain
cleaner, the drug produces a brain-killing "high" that is the country
crack of the American Midwest.

The likelihood of someone dying from the use of marijuana is pretty
much nonexistent. That is not to say that it is a good thing to be
stoned all the time - it may result in bad grades, a depleted bank
account and mild weight gain- - but it generally does not cause death.

The government's anti-drug initiatives should focus on what is
destroying the lives of Americans, ripping families apart and
actually killing people. The meth epidemic is so huge that, as
Newsweek put it, "even Mormon Utah has a meth problem."

Even Mormons! They don't do anything wrong.

The American youth needs help and anti-marijuana ads are a joke. The
Office of National Drug Control Policy would be better off offering
bribes to meth users to go to rehab than spending the money on ads.

Ryan is a humanities and radio-television-film senior.