Pubdate: Thu, 21 Aug 2014
Source: Boulder Weekly (CO)
Copyright: 2014 Boulder Weekly
Contact:  http://www.boulderweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/57
Author: Leland Rucker

BOULDER VALLEY SCHOOLS WON'T SUPPORT GOV'S 'RAT CAGES' CAMPAIGN

As you probably know by now, the Governor's Office has launched a 
"Don't Be A Lab Rat" campaign. Targeted at 12- to 15-year-olds, it 
kicked off Aug. 11 with lots of TV coverage, as well as ads on 
YouTube and before films in movie theaters. Large human-sized cages, 
complete with giant plastic bottles to simulate laboratory cages, 
have been placed in locations around Denver, each with various 
messaging about cannabis' possible dangers on the young brain, all 
leading to the question: "Do you want to be a lab rat and find out?" 
The campaign was created by Denver's Sukle Advertising & Design to 
the tune of $2 million, and is sponsored by the City and County of 
Denver, funded by grants from the State Attorney General's Office, 
the Anschutz Foundation and the El Pomar Foundation.

Although you can find the cages all around the state, you won't find 
them on Boulder Valley School District property. BVSD Superintendent 
Bruce Messinger announced the district won't be allowing any cages to 
be installed on school properties over concerns about parts of the 
campaign officials feel might stigmatize some students.

"We don't see human-scale rat cages as something that's going to be 
seen as a positive or intelligent way to approach young people," 
explained BVSD Director of Communications Briggs Gamblin, adding that 
BVSD works with a number of city, state and county groups and 
organizations to reduce drug abuse among its students. "We worry 
about some of the messages and possible links to schizophrenia and 
that how they are worded could feed into stereotypes, especially 
since that is a time when peer approval is so important. We do share 
the view that 12- to 15-year-olds shouldn't be using marijuana, and 
it's not allowed on school property."

There aren't any cages in Boulder yet, either, but that could change. 
Ashlee Herring, who works with special events and communications for 
the City of Boulder, said that the city has been in contact with the 
governor's office. "We are in conversations trying to determine if 
it's feasible, and if it is, what the best locations will be."

The ulterior motive behind the campaign is the belief that now that 
cannabis is legal, teenagers will be more likely to try it because 
they won't think it's dangerous.

"From the most recent Healthy Kids Colorado Survey, we know that the 
percentage of high school kids who think using marijuana poses risks 
to their health has gone down," Governor John Hickenlooper said in a 
press release, "which has raised the concern of health experts who 
worry the normalization of marijuana in Colorado could lead more kids 
to try it."

It's the old "health experts worry" argument, despite recent 
statistics which indicate no real upswing in reported teen use of 
cannabis in states where it's legal medically or in Colorado. 
According to the federal government's own Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Assessment, cannabis 
use by teens dropped from 24.8 percent to 22 percent between 2009 and 
2011, the latest year for which figures are available. Numbers can 
lie, but nothing in recent research indicates an uptick in teens 
using cannabis.

Apparently, focus groups of young people were used to help develop 
the strategy, in consultation with the Colorado Department of Public 
Health and Environment and come up with something that won't 
automatically turn off teens.

That's a tough one. "Don't Be a Lab Rat" claims not to want to just 
scare kids, and this is definitely a step up from Reefer Madness or 
"this is your brain on drugs." But I'm with the school district on 
this one. For all its sophistication, it's still rooted in the 
tactics of fear. I'm all for helping steer teens away from cannabis, 
but I also think that teens are smarter than the "health experts" who 
"worry" so much about them and try to devise ways to deceive them. If 
I were the governor, I'd be just as worried about adults and parents 
who allow, directly or indirectly, teen access to pot. How about a 
campaign aimed at adult responsibility in helping curb teen use?

You can hear Leland discuss his most recent column and Colorado 
cannabis issues each Thursday morning on KGNU. 
http://news.kgnu.org/category/features/weedbetween-the-lines/
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom