Ryan H. Sager

The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, a government program instituted in 1998, seeks to combat teenage drug use through television advertising. In the following viewpoint, Ryan H. Sager argues that media campaigns and other government programs do not deter teenage drug abuse because they fail to address the reasons teens turn to drugs. Sager is a college student and former intern of the Cato Institute, a public policy research foundation whose goal is to limit the role of government and protect individual freedoms. As you read, consider the following questions:

1. According to Sager, how do teens view anti-drug advertisements?
2. Why do teenagers turn to drugs, in the author’s opinion?
3. In Sager’s view, what keeps young people from using drugs"

On Thursday, July 9, 1998, President Bill Clinton launched the...