Anti-Drug Campaign Focuses on Marijuana: Waste of Taxpayer Money?

Pretty much everyone in America has seen the anti-drug commercials largely targeted towards stopping teens from trying drugs, the main one being marijuana. At first they seem like an outstanding effort, attempting to stop the youth of our country from ruining their futures, but upon further inspection I thought, "Isn't this a slight waste of taxpayer money?"

When it comes down to the hard evidence, the facts show that exponentially more teens are killed from alcohol abuse than marijuana abuse. In fact, there are no cases in which a teen has been killed directly from marijuana abuse. So why not target the more dangerous drug- alcohol? Obviously, the possession of marijuana has a higher penalty than that of alcohol, but when it comes to the safety of the minors of this country, the loss of a life is more important than the incarceration of one. I can't help but feel that the war on drugs is overshadowing the real villain that steals hundreds of lives everyday.

As shown in the commercials, the biggest physical drawback from marijuana is laziness. For example, the teenage girl who won't take her dog on a walk or the boy who sits on the stoop in front of his home smoking "dat weed". I urge someone to find another problem with marijuana that the commercials mention because thus far, I have not found one.

Don't get me wrong, I am not advocating the use of one drug over another, but it seems that the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign care more about the war on certain drugs than with the well-being of those they say they are trying to protect. I have yet to see a commercial targeting teens who drink. Even the commercial featuring a scenario about the girl who got way to high and had some questionable pictures of her being passed around school seemed more suited for an anti-alcohol campaign. Bear in mind that I live in Texas and perhaps there are commercials in other parts of the country that focus on alcohol abuse, but the only one we have here deals with adults driving drunk, there is not one teen featured in this commercial.

I concede to the fact that these commercials are a positive influence on the lives of young people throughout the country. They let teens know that they don't have to be alone in saying no to drugs and that if they want to do something physically productive, getting high first probably isn't the best plan. But I still think that the focus needs to be altered and targeted towards underage drinking. Traffic accidents are the number one killer of teens and one third of those crashes are a result of drinking. So perhaps the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign has overlooked something important, perhaps they need to shift to focus to alcohol.