Marijuana Policy Project

Washington, D.C. — The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) is aggressively challenging a new newspaper ad being run by the office of White House "Drug Czar" John Walters in 300 U.S. newspapers March 10. MPP will run a contrasting ad in selected papers and is also making available a video news release in which MPP Executive Director Robert Kampia discusses the misleading and dishonest nature of Walters' anti-marijuana advertising blitz.

"The drug czar's ads aren't about educating teens; they're about frightening parents into keeping marijuana illegal and avoiding the real issue. The real issue is that marijuana is bad for kids, but marijuana prohibition is worse," Kampia said.

"John Walters pours millions of dollars of taxpayer money — $150 million in the new fiscal year — into deceptive anti-marijuana ads that we know aren't working and may actually be doing harm." The government-funded independent evaluation of the campaign, conducted by the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication, found "there is no evidence yet consistent with a desirable effect of the Campaign on youth." More disturbing, the long-term evaluation of the teens who most frequently saw the early ads found that they had more "pro-drug" beliefs than teens who saw the commercials less often.

"It doesn't surprise anyone that the drug czar's ads aren't working," Kampia continued. "Kids are laughing at these ads — they know when they're being lied to. A campaign of obvious lies and distortions doesn't discourage kids from trying marijuana and sabotages efforts to educate them about the life-threatening risks of speed or crack.

"The drug czar's latest ad takes scary-sounding information out of context, ignores conflicting data, and blurs the lines between common marijuana effects and extremely rare ones. This ad is a disservice to parents, who need complete, honest information."

For MPP's response ad, click here. A satellite feed featuring sound bites from Robert Kampia and marijuana arrest B-roll footage will be available on Monday, March 10, from 2:30 - 2:45 p.m. Eastern and again from 3:15 - 3:30 p.m. Eastern. Satellite coordinates are KU Analog: SBS 6, Transponder 5, downlink frequency 11823 Horizontal. Audio is on 6.2 and 6.8. For technical assistance, call The Washington Bureau at 202-347-6396.

The independent evaluation of the drug czar's ads is available here.

With 11,000 members nationwide, the Marijuana Policy Project works to minimize the harm associated with marijuana — both the consumption of marijuana and the laws that are intended to prohibit such use. MPP believes that the greatest harm associated with marijuana is imprisonment. To this end, MPP focuses on removing criminal penalties for marijuana use, with a particular emphasis on making marijuana medically available to seriously ill people who have the approval of their doctors.

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