Based upon an independent evaluation conducted by Westat Inc., congressional auditors at the Government Accountability Office recommended a reduction in funding for the government’s $1.2 billion anti-drug ad campaign. According to Westat, findings show that the anti-marijuana ads in particular had no “significant favorable effects” in deterring marijuana use in teens.

John Walters (head of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy), of course, questioned the findings on the grounds that determining a direct relationship between ad exposure and outcomes is virtually impossible (I’m not even sure what this means).

The question, as always, is what motivates this sort of grasping at straws. Is it really only the desire to save face and to maintain funding? Is that it? Simple pride is behind this waste? The numbers are right there; the ads do not work. None of the auditors are claiming that we should legalize drugs as a result of this, just that we should drop the ads. Why is that met with such reluctance? Pure irrationality.

Thanks to Media Awareness Project for the story (which was originally published in Florida’s Brandeton Herald).

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