The U.S. drug czar’s office is running ads implying that smoking marijuana can lead to insanity. But pushing dubious science is no way to persuade teenagers not to do drugs.
By Maia Szalavitz
Parents who read the New York Times or Newsweek this past summer could be forgiven for freaking out when they came across a full-page ad warning them about the effects of marijuana on their teenagers. If the kids were off somewhere sparking up a joint, the federally funded message seemed to say, they were at risk for severe mental illness. Were those parents hallucinating, or was Reefer Madness, long since debunked, suddenly a real problem to be reckoned with?
The latest salvo in the never-ending war on drugs, the ads, which also ran in magazines like the Nation and the National Review, bore a stark warning. Under the headline “Marijuana and Your Teen’s Mental Health,” the bold-faced subhead announced: “Depression. Suicidal Thoughts. Schizophrenia.”
“If you have outdated perceptions about marijuana, you might be putting your teen at risk,” the text went on. It warned that “young people who use marijuana weekly have double the risk of depression later in life” and that “marijuana use in some teens has been linked to increased risk for schizophrenia.” It followed with the sneering question, “Still think marijuana’s no big deal?”
The rhetoric is alarming. But the research data used to support the ad campaign is hazy at best. Though carefully worded, the campaign blurs the key scientific distinction between correlation and causation. The ad uses some correlations between marijuana use and mental illness to imply that the drug can cause madness and depression. Yet these conclusions are unproven by current research. And several leading researchers are highly skeptical of them.