Hasta La Creative!

Ever since Colorado and Washington state voters legalized recreational marijuana use, Partnership at Drugfree.org has been lobbied to run ads criticizing the decision. But that’s the last thing the group wants to do. “A public-service ad that says: ‘By the way, voters of Colorado, you don’t know what you are doing.’ Come on,” said Steve Pasierb, the partnership’s CEO. Pot legalization is “happening in America,” he added.

Pot’s popularity has been steadily growing, even before the two states voted to legalize it. From 2002 to 2010, marijuana consumption in the U.S. jumped 40% while cocaine use fell by half, according to recently released estimates from Rand Corp. published in a report to the White House. The report found that collective total spending on cocaine, heroin, marijuana and meth has remained relatively flat in recent years at $100 billion annually.

The Partnership is taking a practical approach in Colorado and Washington with an educational PR effort. In July the group hosted a panel discussion in Denver to discuss what pot legalization will mean for kids. Parents have a “critical role to play to ensure that the readily available marijuana in these states do not result in higher levels of use by … their children and young teens,” the group said in August.

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