Less Anti-Drug Propaganda, Less Drug Use

Jacob Sullum | December 26, 2006

Students for Sensible Drug Policy juxtaposes data on drug use by teenagers with spending on the federal government's anti-drug ads and finds a clear association:

 

As SSDP concedes in the fine print, this comparison does not really prove anything, but it is similar to the logic drug warriors routinely use to demonstrate the dangers of drugs and the benefits of prohibition. In any case, as the evaluations of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign quoted by SSDP show, there are other reasons to believe the ads are ineffective at best.