Here Weed Go! It's Pain Management
For children of the 80s and 90s, public health campaigns aimed at curbing marijuana use among teens settled on a simple, easy and ultimately ineffective message: "Just say no!"
Now, with 22 states and the District of Columbia allowing legal sales of weed from state-licensed dispensaries, some states are beginning to use a different, smarter approach.
Dr. Benjamin Brady, director of education and policy initiatives at the University of Arizona's Comprehensive Pain and Addiction Center.
"A 'just say no' message wouldn't make sense in a landscape where use is permissible," said Dr. Benjamin Brady, director of education and policy initiatives at the University of Arizona's Comprehensive Pain and Addiction Center.
The Center was the recipient of a $1 million grant from the Arizona Department of Health Services, the state agency in charge of regulating marijuana, to develop a program that promotes awareness and respect for Arizona’s marijuana laws and to encourage responsible use of cannabis.
According to Brady, the Center wasn't guaranteed the grant, it was something they had to compete for, submitting a proposal to AZDHS in June of last year.
"We found out towards the end of 2022 that we were selected as the agency to develop and provide the educational events and trainings and messaging that are part of this project," he said.
Brady said there was confidence within the Center that the proposal would win out.
"When we saw this request for proposals, we knew that we were well suited to be responsive to it because as a center at the University of Arizona, we are by design an interdisciplinary group... who study and research the pharmacological and toxic properties of various substances, as well as clinicians who work with communities and patients," he said.
The Center's new program won't be like D.A.R.E. or other anti-drug and anti-marijuana public health campaigns of yesteryear, but instead will focus on education: both for children and adults.
It will also focus on how abuse and consequences of marijuana occur on a spectrum, with some people being little-effected by use, while others might feel the brunt of both physical and social consequences.
"Not every form of use is dangerous in the same way," Brady said. "We're going to give examples of what that looks like. We're going to promote personal responsibility and self-directed decision making and not only give examples of what that looks like but articulate for members of the audience, to reflect on their use."
The Center was awarded the grant near the beginning of the new year, and the million dollars is meant to be broken up for use over the nest five years.
So far, according to Brady, the dollars are being used to create educational videos and other content that can be rolled out in schools and other educational settings.
But how will the Center know if it's programs messaging is having the desired effect?
According to Brady, there are metrics built into the program.
"We'll look for increased knowledge and understanding from the trainings, Brady said. "We'll also ask about folks prior practices and then their future intended practices. And then we'll be able to do that over time and so we'll be able to see how many people we're reaching."
However, the best metric of the programs success can be judged by just how wide reaching it's messaging is, Brady said.
