OTHER VOICES: STOP WASTING TAX DOLLARS ON FAILED ADS

With the federal budget careening toward a half-trillion dollar deficit and
expenses mounting for the war in Iraq, Congress should not waste money on
programs that are proven failures. The Senate now has a chance to stop
throwing away money on the most spectacular government failure of recent
years - the National Anti-Drug Media Campaign.

The Senate Appropriations Committee already took a major whack out of the
program, cutting the White House's request of $170 million down to $100
million. In doing so, the committee noted, "When this program was initially
funded by the Congress in fiscal year 1998, it was with the understanding
that within three years there would be demonstrable behavior changes in
America's youth with relation to drug use. The Committee is concerned that
drug use is increasing in spite of the national media campaign ... "

That is putting it mildly. In 1998, Congress gave the White House Office of
National Drug Control Policy specific goals based on two national surveys of
teen drug use: the federally funded Monitoring the Future survey and the
National Parents' Resource Institute for Drug Education's PRIDE survey.
Congress told ONDCP it expected a reduction of teen drug use "to 3 percent
of the adolescent population of the United States, or less, by December 31,
2003, and achievement of at least 20 percent of such reduction during each
of 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2003."

The Office of National Drug Control Policy's effort - built around
blanketing the airwaves with hysterical ads suggesting that teens who light
up a joint will get pregnant or shoot their friends - is an utter failure.
The 2002 Monitoring the Future study reported rates of illicit drug use
within the last 30 days ranging from 10.4 percent for eighthgraders to more
than 25 percent for high school seniors. The slight decline since 1998 is so
tiny as to be statistically meaningless.

The just-released 2002-03 PRIDE survey suggests the Media Campaign's heavy
emphasis on marijuana has boomeranged, particularly among younger kids. For
example, the percentage of eighth-graders using marijuana in the past month
rocketed from 7.2 percent to 10.2 percent over the past year. Among
sixth-graders, recent marijuana use doubled, from 1.7 percent to 3.4
percent.

The news about other drugs is equally bad. Past-month use of cocaine rose
among all age groups over the last year, nearly doubling among sixth-and
ninth-graders. Overall use of illicit drugs, which took a small dip last
year, is back up this year in every grade, and is above 1998 levels for
sixth- and twelfth-graders.

No surprise. An independent review of the ad campaign, conducted by the
University of Pennsylvania and funded by the National Institute on Drug
Abuse, reported in January, "There is no evidence yet consistent with a
desirable effect of the Campaign on youth." Worse, teens who saw the ads
most often "tended to move more markedly in a 'pro-drug' direction" in their
attitudes over time.

ONDCP's response? Stop the independent evaluations and have the ads'
effectiveness rated by the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, which helps
create the ads. That is like having the Republican National Committee rate
President Bush's job performance.

Scientific data now confirmed what thinking people sensed all along: Kids
are laughing at ONDCP's ads. Not only are they not working, they may
actually be harming our young people. It's time for Congress to pull the
plug.

Fox is director of government relations for the Washington, D.C.-based
Marijuana Policy Project.