This Might Be Your Brain on Drugs: Colorado’s Softer Anti-Pot Propaganda Is Still Propaganda

This week Colorado rolled out an ad campaign that
warns teenagers away from marijuana by citing the possibility of
lasting neurological damage. In my latest
Forbes column, I argue that the ads, while more
restrained than the anti-pot propaganda of yore, still misrepresent
what is known about the drug’s hazards in important ways. Here is
how the piece starts:

This week the Colorado Department of Public Health and
Environment unveiled a new ad campaign aimed at scaring
teenagers away from marijuana by warning them that it might damage
their brains. Then again, it might not. Larry Wolk, the health
department’s executive director, concedes “more research is
necessary” because “much still needs to be learned about the effect
marijuana has on the brain.” As the campaign itself intermittently
acknowledges, claims that marijuana causes lasting neurological
impairment remain controversial. But why take a chance? That is the
state’s message in a nutshell. Hence the slogan: “Don’t be a lab
rat.”

As anti-drug propaganda goes, Colorado’s campaign, which was
prompted by fears that teenagers will be more inclined to smoke pot
now that it’s legal for adults (fears that so far seem to be
unfounded), is relatively subtle. In one TV spot, the camera
circles a dark, smoky car full of teenagers passing a pot pipe. The
captions read: “Scientists at Duke University discovered that
marijuana permanently decreased the IQs of teens. Some dispute that
study. But what if, years from now, you learn those scientists were
right?”

Colorado’s approach is certainly a step up from the
1987 Partnership for a Drug-Free America ad that featured
a man dropping an egg into a sizzling frying pan. “This is your
brain on drugs,” he declared. “Any questions?” It turned out that
people had a lot of questions. Among them: Why did anyone think
this kind of absurd hyperbole, which has been widely mocked ever
since, would dissuade curious adolescents from trying drugs?

By comparison, Colorado’s message is restrained:
This might be your brain on drugs. The campaign
nevertheless exaggerates the strength of the evidence linking
adolescent pot smoking to brain damage as well as the level of risk
facing the typical adolescent pot smoker.

Read the whole thing.