english essay

Paul (GUICHIGUAN)

Prof. Josh Benjamin

ENGL 102-319

January 25, 2015

Anti-Drug Campaign for Teenagers

Over the years, nations from all over the world have come up with campaigns on educating the youth on the effects of drugs. The United States of America is one of these nations that has been active in the anti-drug campaigns. The U.S created the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign in 1998 with the aim of reducing and preventing drug use among the youth. The campaign has two main areas of focus: a teen-targeted above the influence and a young adult-targeted Anti-meth campaign (Hanson & Fleckenstein, 2012).

The teen-targeted Above the Influence Campaign balances messaging of broad conclusion at a level that is national with efforts of targeting based at the community level. With this approach, the campaign can be able to continue reaching all teenagers countrywide with a highly effective and visible presence of national messaging while at the same time encouraging the participation of the youth Above the Influence at the level of the community (Leukefeld & Logan, 2003). The Above the Influence campaign which was an initiative from the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign used the television, internet and print advertising to reach to its audience who are teenagers.

They used the message of broad prevention of drugs among the teenagers and it has since worked because from a research conducted, it shows that currently more than 85 percent of the teenagers in the U.S are aware of this campaign as well as its purpose as they say that they know that the campaign speaks to them despite their gender, ethnicity and race (Hanson & Fleckenstein, 2012). The important thing is that the teenagers who interact with the campaign have been able to develop strong anti-drug belief systems compared to those who are not aware of the campaign. This campaign targeting the teens has gained momentum among its audience because its Facebook site ATI has surpassed 1.3 million likes recently hence making it a major Facebook community with teen targets among the non-profit organizations of the youth and Federal government.

In addition to the use of social networks, the Above the Influence Campaign has used billboards to capture the teens’ attention and educate them on the issue of substance abuse. Billboards can convey quite a lot of messages just from a picture since pictures carry a lot of messages. The billboards act as constant reminders to the teens to refrain from drugs whenever they come across them since they are located in the areas that teens are most likely to visit (Leukefeld & Logan, 2003).

The rhetorical strategies in the campaign in sending the message involves engaging communities in a direct way by providing training to community organizations and technical assistance through webinars and conference workshops. These efforts are used to reach out to the communities and teens and they have shown quite productive results since there have been efforts to implement the campaign by more than 80 established partners at the local community. In addition to that, technical assistance has been offered to nearly a thousand organizations in the community (Hanson & Fleckenstein, 2012).

The campaign also uses supplemental strategies including prescription drug abuse action plans to help reduce prescription drug abuse through monitoring, educating and enforcing the plans to ensure that people do not turn to prescription drugs in order to abuse drugs. There is also the need to control the porous boarders which serve as a channel to receive the illicit drugs which end up in the hands of the teenagers (Leukefeld & Logan, 2003). There is therefore a need for sharing intelligence and enhancing collaborations internationally because it is through such efforts that drug trafficking can be fought.

While analyzing the campaign wholly, it can be true to say that the strategies the campaign has used to ensure that the teens are educated on the effects of drugs and are made aware of the existence of drugs in the society and how they can affect them have been quite effective (Hanson & Fleckenstein, 2012). This is because, some of the recently published independent research studies have shown that the Above the Influence Campaign has had its success in addressing its target audience through the analysis published online in a journal that was peer-reviewed. The analysis came to a conclusion that the campaign targeting the teen was successfully reducing the use of marijuana.

In addition to that, the analysis also showed that those teenagers who were exposed to this campaign were less likely to start taking marijuana compared to those without the campaign’s exposure. Another study from the American journal on Public Health showed consistency with other forms of data with positive findings for early adolescent teens in the study who embrace anti-drug beliefs once exposed to the campaign at an early age (Leukefeld & Logan, 2003).

Above the Influence Campaign has also been something of great value to the communities because the partners from the community have embraced the campaign and they have used the campaign as a way to involve the teens in dialogues about the negative impacts of drug abuse. In addition to that, they also use the campaign to anchor individual programs of youth substance abuse preventions hence furthering the missions of respective youths. Such activities have made the teens and youth to be part of something that keeps them busy and prevents them from interacting with people of bad influences in their lives who turn them into abusers of drugs (Hanson & Fleckenstein, 2012).

In conclusion, the statements concerning anti-drug campaigns through the Above the Influence Campaign are well supported with evidence data showing the effects of the campaign over time by comparing the teens that are exposed to the campaign with those who lack such an exposure. In addition to that, the campaign helps increase awareness among adults on the drug abuse impacts among the teens and at the same time encourage parents as well as other adults who bare interest in the campaign to talk to the teenagers around them and make them aware of the dangers associated with the use of drugs. The most cost-effective way to fight drug abuse is preventing its use before it even begins in order to promote a healthy and safe society. It can also cut down the costs that are associated with drug abuse including healthcare costs and prosecution costs (Leukefeld & Logan, 2003).

Works Cited

Hanson, G., Venturelli, P. J., & Fleckenstein, A. E. (2012). Drugs and society. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Leukefeld, C. G., & Logan, T. K. (2003). U.S. drug policy: A reference handbook. Oxford: ABC-Clio.