Games People Play

I've started playing Equilibria the last couple of days. I must be in some kind of funk. I haven't played it in a long time. I notice an ad for Above The Influence in the side bar, and something about the ad prompted me to click on it. I get to the website and I recall that I've seen ad's on TV for this same program. I Google it, and I find a GAO (Government Accountability Office) Report that has this statement in 40 point type on the front cover:

It gets better on the inside:

Between 1998 and 2004, Congress appropriated over $1.2 billion to the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) for the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign. . . .Given that Westat’s evaluation stated the campaign did not reduce youth drug use nationally, Congress should consider limiting appropriations for the campaign, beginning in the 2007 fiscal year budget until ONDCP provides credible evidence of a media campaign approach that effectively prevents and curtails youth drug use. ONDCP’s written comments on our report generally disagreed with the findings. Specifically, ONDCP does not believe the Westat findings reflect the campaign’s effectiveness. We believe the Westat study is sound. (my emphasis)

How's that for facts? So this report is from 2006. The government spent $200 million a year on this campaign, and here it is 2010 and this is the first I've heard of it. Of course, I'm not their target demographic, so that might be understandable. I do wonder how much they spent on it this year. Criminals.

We really do need that sarcasm font.

Update February 2017 replaced missing image.