"The community treatment parameter estimate was significant (?=?0.51, p=0.026), indicating that community-level treatment lowered the propensity to use marijuana at the last measurement occasion over and above the effect of the 'Above the Influence' campaign. There was no evidence that school-level treatment affected the marijuana use at the last measurement occasion. Neither the community-level nor the school-level treatment for the 'Be Under Your Own Influence' campaign provided evidence of an effect on the linear rate-of-change for marijuana use.

"The extent of exposure to the ONDCP 'Above the Influence' campaign (RQ1) was assessed by cross-tabulating the measures of self-reported exposure to this campaign with each of the four treatment/control cells at the fourth wave of data collection, the point by which such exposure would have taken place for all study participants. Of youth in the control community/control school cell, 73% said they definitely had seen the ONDCP 'Above the Influence' campaign. The self-reported exposure to the ONDCP campaign was similar in the three treatment cells (68–79%).

"The media campaign was authorized by the Drug-Free Media Campaign Act of 1998.² This law, less than two pages in length, instructed the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (commonly referred to as the 'Drug Czar') to 'conduct a national media campaign ...

"A well-designed and executed multiyear study of the impact of the ONDCP [Office of National Drug Control Policy] anti-drug media campaign on teen initiation of drug use, or cessation of drug use, shows disappointing results for the campaign. The study provides no evidence that the campaign had a positive effect in relation to teen drug use, and shows some indications of a negative impact."

Regarding exposure to ONDCP's National Anti-Drug Media Campaign and marijuana use by 12-18 year olds, a report prepared for NIDA by Westat and the Annenberg School of Communication determined: "In sum, the data do not support claims of favorable Campaign influence on any of the four original cognitive outcomes.

"Westat's analysis of the relationship between exposure to campaign advertisements and youth self-reported drug use in the NSPY [National Survey of Parents and Youth] data for the entire period covered by its evaluation -- assessments that used statistical methods to adjust for individual differences and control for other factors that could explain changes in self-reported drug use -- showed no significant effects of exposure to the campaign on initiation of marijuana by prior nonusing youth.

"The NSPY [National Survey of Parents and Youth] did not find significant reductions in marijuana use either leading up to or after the Marijuana campaign for youth 12 to 18 years old between 2002 and 2003. Indeed there was evidence for an increase in past month and past year use among the target audience of 14- to 16-year-olds, although it appears that the increase was already in place in the last half of 2002, before the launch of the Marijuana Initiative.