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Preliminary Assessment of the Youth Marijuana Campaign

NCJ Number
235981
Date Published
June 2003
Length
160 pages
Annotation
This report presents preliminary information on the early impact of the Office of National Drug Control Policy's (ONDCP's) Marijuana Campaign.
Abstract
Data from the 2003 Partnership Attitude Tracking Study (PATS) Interim Teens Survey Results found that past- year marijuana use among youth (grades 6-12) declined a significant 13 percent (32 to 28 percent) between 2002 and 2003. Lifetime use of marijuana also decreased a significant 15 percent (40 percent to 34 percent). The percentage of youth in grades 6 through 12 who perceived great risk in trying marijuana once or twice increased 17 percent between 2002 and 2003. Youth who reported high exposure to the campaign's marijuana ads on television were significantly less likely to report using marijuana in the past year compared to those who reported seeing none of the ads. Generally, the new marijuana ads tested better than previous ads. These results support the decision to develop more stringent criteria for airing the ads, and it alerted the Media Campaign staff to the importance of closely monitoring the Advanced Tracking Study data so as to better assess the impact of the ads. This report advises caution in reviewing the findings of these analyses, since both the PATS and tracking data are preliminary, and the studies are ongoing. The final PATS report and the Wave 7 evaluation report, in particular, will allow ONDCP to make a more complete assessment of the Marijuana Campaign's impact. A CD-R is included for the PATS data. Appended supplementary data