{"id":110091,"date":"2015-08-24T16:01:16","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T22:01:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/state-rebrands-anti-pot-campaign-for-kids\/"},"modified":"2015-08-24T16:01:16","modified_gmt":"2015-08-24T22:01:16","slug":"state-rebrands-anti-pot-campaign-for-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/state-rebrands-anti-pot-campaign-for-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"State rebrands anti-pot campaign for kids"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"This
This image, made from a website launched by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, shows part of the state\u2019s new campaign to educate youths about legal recreational marijuana. Colorado launched the rebranding effort Thursday that seeks to keep people younger than 21 away from pot. The \u201cWhat\u2019s Next\u201d campaign aims to send the message that marijuana can keep youths from achieving their full potential.<\/span>Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment via AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Marijuana isn\u2019t evil, but teens aren\u2019t ready for it: That\u2019s the theme of a new effort by Colorado to educate youths about the newly legal drug.<\/p>\n

Colorado launched a rebranding effort Thursday that seeks to keep people younger than 21 away from pot. The \u201cWhat\u2019s Next\u201d campaign aims to send the message that marijuana can keep youths from achieving their full potential.<\/p>\n

The campaign shows kids being active and reminds them that their brains aren\u2019t fully developed until they\u2019re 25. The ads say that pot use can make it harder for them to pass a test, land a job, or pass the exam for a driver\u2019s license.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a second try for Colorado when it comes to keeping minors away from marijuana. The state Health Department was criticized last year for a youth pot campaign called \u201cDon\u2019t Be A Lab Rat,\u201d which included erecting human-sized rat cages outside schools and libraries.<\/p>\n

The campaign angered marijuana activists, who said it recycled Drug War-era scare tactics. At least one school district declined to display the campaign\u2019s human-sized rat cages. Some teens skewered the campaign by photographing themselves smoking pot inside the cages, then posting the images on social media.<\/p>\n

The new effort seeks a more thoughtful tone. Health Department officials talked with more than 800 minors through focus groups, school visits and phone interviews to craft the campaign.<\/p>\n

One ad shows a teen girl working out on a basketball court and the tag line, \u201cDon\u2019t let marijuana get in the way of ambition.\u201d Another ad shows a boy rocking out on a drum set with the tag line, \u201cDon\u2019t let marijuana get in the way of passion.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a news release touting the campaign, the Health Department said that its research showed that teens \u201cwant credible information to make their own health decisions and don\u2019t respond to \u2018preachy\u2019 messages or scare tactics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado already has a pot-education campaign for the general public that includes pointers for parents unsure how to talk about the now-legal drug. The \u201cGood To Know\u201d campaign encourages parents to stay positive but to initiate a conversation about weed.<\/p>\n

\u201cTeach them that marijuana use is not something to build an identity around,\u201d that campaign suggests.<\/p>\n

Colorado has also launched a Spanish-language education campaign. That one uses similar messages as the \u201cGood to Know\u201d campaign \u2013 health warnings and reminders not to use pot in public or before driving.<\/p>\n

The education campaigns are funded by Colorado taxes on recreational marijuana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

image, made from a website launched by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, shows part of the state\u2019s new campaign to educate youths about legal recreational marijuana. Colorado launched the rebranding effort Thursday that seeks to keep people younger than 21 away from pot. The \u201cWhat\u2019s Next\u201d campaign aims to send the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":110092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5742,5735],"tags":[304,21,174,738,781,222,13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-110091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","tag-animas-river","tag-cortez","tag-environmental-cleanup","tag-environmental-issue","tag-environmental-politics","tag-environmental-pollution","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110091"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=110091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}