Various groups in recent years have produced public service announcements to be run on television or in print-ad versions to encourage young people not to experiment with drugs. However, according to the CDC's Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System's report for 1997, nationwide 47.1 percent of students have used marijuana and one in ten of these students tried marijuana before they were thirteen year old. 8.2 percent had used some form of cocaine, 1.1 percent before their thirteenth birthday (Kann et al., 1998, 1). Drug initiation experiences can happen at a very young age are public service ads targeted at youth an effective detriment to drug use? These advertisements are costly, and their effectiveness is often questioned. The empirical data indeed suggests that they are not especially effective, any more than programs such as D.A.R.E. are really effective at preventing young people form using drugs. the evidence so far shows that peer pressure has a much greater influence than television advertising or even programs directed at the classroom as far as drug use is concerned.
"Just Say No" was the slogan of a drug-free America supported by the President, Congress, and many businesses and parents. It was a media movement in reaction to the Do Your Own Thing 1960s attitudes where the attitude toward illegal drug use had become casual; but did this campaign really address the needs of young people faced with peer pressure challenges? Strasberger (1989) shows how a media campaign can cost millions of dollars, $300 million was spent on drug campaigns in 1987, yet not be based on scientific evaluation of effectiveness. Some drug prevention programs have been proven to work. Programs with a sophisticated sociopsychological approach based on Bandura's learning theory and the Evans et al. (1978) view of "psychological inoculation" have been proven effective. Bandura's theory requires the introduction of powerful role models. ...