STUDENTS DEBATE EFFECTIVENESS OF ANTI-POT ADS

The jury is still out on the effectiveness of a series of anti-marijuana
ads launched by the federal government in January.

One such commercial portrays a boy who molests a girl at a party after they
have both been smoking marijuana. Another depicts high teens at a
drive-thru window who end up running over a child riding a bike. One of the
most heavily-rotated commercials depicts two teen boys smoking marijuana
and playing with a gun that they think is unloaded. One of the boys ends up
shooting his friend. John Forsyth (freshman-communications) said he and his
friends think the commercials are ineffective and unrealistic because they
show situations that seem to be a result of drinking rather than smoking
marijuana.

"We see these commercials and think, 'That is totally not true,' " he said.
"Weed is so much less dangerous than alcohol."

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy designed the ads,
which premiered during this year's Super Bowl and pre-game show, to educate
young people about the dangers of drug use. The commercials were in
response to research showing that American youth wanted to be provided with
solid facts about marijuana.

Jenny Sellers (sophomore-advertising) said the commercials do not give
solid evidence about the dangers of marijuana. "They are not giving hard
facts. They are making up hypothetical situations and putting worst-case
scenarios in these commercials," she said. "People our age laugh at it."

Diana Ramos, community health supervisor for the Marijuana Intervention
Project under Penn State's Office of Health Promotion and Education, said
these ads are not convincing for the college-age population because they
are primarily geared toward younger teens.

"They are absolutely targeted to middle-school-age kids," she said. "My
19-year-old wouldn't buy it, but it would have a definite impact on my
12-year-old." Ramos said the scenarios displayed in these ads would be
effective for younger adolescents, but testimonial-type ads from actual
young adults discouraging drug use would work better for older teens.

Bonnie Barry, a family counselor and consumer science teacher at Park
Forest Middle School, 2180 School Drive, said she feels similarly.

"To some middle school kids it would have a profound effect. They're just
starting to develop and make their own opinions," she said. Barry is an
adviser for Students Teaching Awareness and Resistance (STAR) and helps
Park Forest students involved in STAR create anti-drug skits for local
elementary students. "A 'Hey, this isn't cool [to do drugs]' approach works
a lot better than scare tactics," she said. Cathy Arbogast, program
administrator for Centre County Drug and Alcohol Program, said if the ads
don't strike a chord with their target audience, they need to find out why.
"Young people's attitudes about drugs and alcohol change about one year
before they start using, sometimes as early as 10 or 12. We need to not
only run the ads but to do our homework and find out if they're effective,"
she said. "If kids are laughing at them, we need to take a new approach."

Rebecca Shaver, Pennsylvania director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving,
said more emphasis should be placed on the dangers of drinking because
alcohol is more prevalent and more accessible.