Washington State Recreational Marijuana Legalization: Parent and Adolescent Preferences for Prevention Messages in a Sample of Low-Income Families

Introduction: In 2012, Washington State became one of the first to legalize recreational marijuana use for adults and, in the summer of 2014, retail outlets began selling marijuana. As youth exposure to and availability of marijuana increases, one possible consequence is increased adolescent marijuana use (von Sydow et al., 2002). To try to mitigate this potential adverse consequence, state officials are implementing marketing campaigns designed to prevent youth marijuana use. While there is evidence that carefully designed, community-wide advertising campaigns can reduce youth marijuana use (Palmgreen et al, 2001), creating such a campaign in the age of recreational marijuana legalization is uncharted territory.

Methods: As part of an ongoing prevention trial, a subset of parents and youth participated in focus groups to gather qualitative information on knowledge and concerns surrounding marijuana legalization. Based on themes emerging from these discussions, 9 marijuana-focused messages were developed as potential radio, newspaper and television messages. These fell into three general categories: those providing information about the law, those offering general advice to parents and youth, and those with an explicit prevention focus. These messages were then tested through an online survey of participants in the larger study (276 parents and 279 teens) who were asked to rate each message on 10 dimensions ranging from acceptability to usefulness and also to provide qualitative feedback on each message.

Results and Conclusion: Analyses show that parents rated messages containing information about the law (mean=7.1) significantly (p<.05) higher than advice (mean=6.9) or prevention (mean=6.9) messages. This was true for both parent users (n=73) and non-users (n=201); parent users rated prevention messages lowest, whereas parent non-users rated advice messages lowest. Youth rated information (mean=6.4) and prevention (mean=6.5) messages significantly (p<.05) higher than advice messages (mean=6.0). Youth users (n=75) and non-users (n=201) both rated informational messages significantly (p<.05) higher than advice messages. This general preference for messages based on information about the marijuana law supports prior research which shows that knowledge levels about basic aspects of the law are relatively low (Mason, et. al in press). It also highlights the need for informational media campaigns to be established as a first step in the marijuana legalization process. Although research has shown that informational messages alone may not be effective (National Cancer Institute, 2008), our study emphasizes the need for states legalizing recreational marijuana to initially develop media campaigns that increase knowledge and awareness of the basic facts of the law.