WASHINTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley today addressed Congress on the importance of educating youth about the dangers of drugs with an effective anti-drug media campaign. Grassley is calling on the Office of National Drug Control Policy to improve the existing media campaign before Congress increases its budget.
“We need to build a strong and consistent youth anti-drug media campaign. We’ve seen successful campaigns fizzle out and it’s time we see something new that will have an impact,” Grassley said. “We can do our part here in Washington to make it harder for drug dealers, but in Iowa it’s important that our young people know how to say ‘NO’. An effective media campaign will assist our parents, teachers and communities in warning children of the dangers of drugs.”
The Partnership for a Drug-Free America, which created ads like “This is your brain…This Is Your Brain On Drugs” has worked in conjunction with the Office of National Drug Control Policy to create the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign to help prevent drug use among youth.
Grassley has been a leader in the Senate in the fight against drug abuse. Grassley is the co-chairman of the Senate Caucus of International Narcotics Control and a member of the Senate Anti-Meth Caucus. Earlier this year, he introduced the Methamphetamine Production Prevention Act of 2007 with Sen. Durbin of Illinois which would promote the use of electronic logbook systems by pharmacies to better track the sale of ingredients that could be used to make meth.
Grassley is also a leading sponsor of legislation to double the federal criminal penalties for drug dealers who flavor or disguise illegal drugs to make them more appealing to people under age 21. The bill he introduced this year with Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California – the Saving Kids from Dangerous Drugs Act – would triple those penalties for repeat offenders. The senators also have sponsored legislation to reauthorize a $20 million grant program that helps treat children who live in a home where methamphetamine was manufactured or distributed.
In Iowa, Grassley founded a community-based anti-drug coalition called “Face It Together” to support efforts by parents, educators, businesses, religious leaders, law enforcement officials, health care providers, youth groups and news organizations to combat illegal drugs.
Following is the text of Grassley’s prepared statement.
Floor Statement of U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Co-Chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control
The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign
Friday, August 3, 2007
Mr. President, as Co-Chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, I’ve had a distinct interest in the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign and how we can improve its quality and effectiveness. In 1998 the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), with overwhelming bi-partisan support from Congress, launched an historic initiative to encourage kids to stay drug-free. Building upon the success of former First Lady Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” campaign, the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign targets youth, ages 9-18, as well as parents and other adults who might have influence over the choices young people make.
Research has clearly shown that if we can keep a child free from drugs until the age of 20, chances are very slim that they will ever try or become addicted to drugs. Maintaining a coherent anti-drug message that begins early in adolescence and continues throughout the growing years is essential to educating and hopefully enabling our young people to reject illegal drugs. Through realistic portrayals, the media campaign is designed to show kids the harmful effects of drugs and the benefits of a drug free lifestyle.
You might recall the famous advertisement known for its unforgettable slogan “This Is Your Brain... This Is Your Brain On Drugs.” Created by the Partnership for a Drug Free America in 1987, it is widely recognized as one of the most influential ads of all time. While most of us have probably never seen an actual brain on drugs, this commercial helped to shape the views of an entire generation regarding the dangers of drugs.
The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign is without a doubt, the single most visible symbol of the federal government’s commitment to youth drug prevention. These advertisements are an important source of information for kids and parents about the risks and dangers associated with illegal drugs. Sadly though, we have come along way from the cost and success of those early ads such as the one you see behind me.
In the 10 years prior to the creation of the Media Campaign in 1998, The Partnership for a Drug Free America was able to secure grants from various businesses, foundations, and agencies to create over one thousand ads including the famous “This Is Your Brain On Drugs” ad, which ran in 90% of American households a day. Between 1987 and 1998, national and local media outlets donated over $2.3 Billion dollars worth of free advertising space. If you adjust that number for today’s price tag, that would be nearly $3 Billion dollars worth in donated media time. Unfortunately, as drug use began to decline, so did the generous donations of free air time and by 1998 Congress decided to fund a paid media campaign employing the Partnership’s anti-drug messages.
Since that time, the Federal Government has spent well over $1.5 billion to create, research, produce, and distribute ads to prevent teen drug use. Though I realize at age 74, I am not in the target audience, I fear that we continue to spend precious anti-drug dollars to fund increasingly mediocre ads that fail to effectively reach our nation’s youth.
A case in point are the spots running on TV today.
There is an ad titled “Walk Yourself” from the “Above the Influence” campaign. For those of you who might not be familiar with this ad, I will give you a quick synopsis. The commercial, which looks as though it could have been drawn by a 5 year old, begins with a man smoking a marijuana cigarette while his dog looks on. When the man notices that his dog wants to go for a walk, he tells his dog to walk himself presumably because he is busy getting high. The dog responds, telling him that he is disappointed in him. The ad ends with the dog leaving and raising an “Above the Influence” flag.
Now, maybe I’m old fashioned and somehow missing the point, but I fail to see how an ad like this, realistically portrays the dangers or the harmful effects of doing drugs.
Mr. President, we have a moral obligation in this country to ensure that our young people have a chance to grow up without being accosted by drug pushers at every turn, whether on TV, in the movies, or on the way to school. We need, as a country, to create a strong moral context to help our young people know how to make the right choices. They need to know how to say “no”, that saying no is okay, and that saying no to drugs is the right thing to do - not just the safe thing or the healthier thing, but the right thing.
While funding for the media campaign has been relatively modest in terms of our overall federal drug control-budget, it for many, is the most visible aspect of our nation’s so called “war on drugs.” With only so much money to go around, we must ensure that we are getting the most bang for our buck. Though I support and encourage any agency that works to reduce or prevent drug abuse, as members of Congress it is important that we be good stewards of the taxpayers’ money.
Numerous studies, over the years, show that the effectiveness of the present media campaign is very minimal if nonexistent. In last year’s Weiden-Kennedy test results of teenagers, the flags ads, as they are called, were rated on their believability, persuasiveness, and honestly. When you add up the averages of the flags ads with the rest of the PDFA ads, the flags ads perform well under the ratings of the previous ads. I would think the most important categories an anti-drug ad must deliver on would be the ones you see here, which is why I’m concerned the media campaign is failing to reach and deliver an important message to our teens.
I’m not alone in this assessment. Due to the wide variety of studies showing a lack of effectiveness, including one from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) that recommends Congress reduce funding for the campaign until it can be proven to be an effective prevention tool, Congress has slashed funding considerably. The funding for the media campaign is only half of what it was ten years ago. For fiscal year 2008, the House has slashed another $6 million off of the campaign’s budget to bring it to $93 million though the Senate version keeps the funding level. If this is not a wake up call to ONDCP, I don’t know what is. If Congress is to support the White House’s request for a 30% budget increase, then ONDCP must take several steps to improve the quality and effectiveness of the campaign.
The first thing that must be done is to improve the quality of the ads. This does not require a budget increase to do so. The ads need to be simple, direct, and show the consequences of drug use. Exaggerations like a girl flattened on a couch or “smushed” from pot use along with poorly drawn cartoons where dogs speak and space aliens freely roam show unrealistic scenarios and damage the credibility of the campaign as you saw in a previous chart. The early anti-drug PSA’s were simple, short, and memorable. I believe the success of those early ads can be replicated using a similar formula.
Secondly, the campaign could be more effective if its message was more diversified. Though the media campaign has begun an awareness campaign on meth, it took an act of Congress to force the campaign to spend 10% of its budget to do so. Most of the ads produced by the campaign so far have all been anti-marijuana ads. Though, I believe it’s important that we discourage marijuana use as much as possible, there are new and alarming drug abuse patterns that are starting to emerge among teens. Recent articles and studies are showing an alarming rate of teenagers who are abusing prescription drugs to get high. These drugs are easily accessible because kids can easily find and purchase them online or grab them from their parent’s medicine cabinet. Many parents are not even aware of this trend or how they should go about discarding left over medication. The media campaign could be a very useful tool to educate teens as well as parents on these new and emerging threats.
Finally, the campaign, along with Congress, should work to encourage media outlets to donate more air time for anti-drug messages. Currently, the campaign spends most of its budget in purchasing air time, though media outlets match the amount the campaign spends, it does not compare to what was donated twenty years ago. I believe it’s imperative that we show these outlets the need for more donated time in light of the trends that I previously illustrated. With more donated time, it will enable the campaign to focus on producing more ads on emerging drugs without having Congress to balloon it’s budget in the process.
Mr. President, some have accused me of being against the anti-drug media campaign, but that isn’t the case. I’m against wasting tax dollars on ineffective programs that show no effort at improvement. I believe the campaign can be remade into an effective tool to aide in our prevention efforts against teen drug abuse, but much has to change in order for this to happen. I intend to send a letter to Director Walters of ONDCP to find out why the campaign is not having a positive impact in preventing teen drug use, as GAO reports, and what they intend to do to change this trend. I look forward to hearing their response promptly and to begin the process of reforming and reenergizing the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign.