Harper Government's 12-Week Anti-Drug Ad Blitz Cost $7 Million

OTTAWA - Newly released figures show the Conservative government spent more than $7 million on a 12-week anti-drug advertising campaign that ended earlier this month.

That's more money than Health Canada spent advertising all its programs and services combined in the previous 2013-14 fiscal year.

A government response to an order paper question by Liberal MP Scott Simms says the ad campaign to raise awareness of the harms of marijuana and prescription drug abuse among youth cost $7,026,822.

The campaign's target audience, according to the government response, was parents.

The taxpayer-funded TV and Internet ads by Health Canada ran parallel to a partisan radio ad campaign, paid for by the Conservative party, that attacked Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau over his promise to legalize marijuana.

The $7 million spent on the government's anti-pot ads dwarfed the $5.2 million Health Canada spent advertising in the previous year on a host of issues, including food safety, immunization, adverse drug reactions and the health and safety of Canadians.

Health Canada had approached three national medical organizations last summer to endorse the anti-drug campaign.

However the medical groups declined, stating publicly that they could not "support or endorse any political messaging or political advertising on this issue."

our tax $$ well spent....sheesh.....come on Harper. open your eyes!

I think all drugs should at least be decriminalized. Spend our money on rehabilitation , not incarceration. Sending addict's to jail doesen't teach them how to manage their addiction and doesen't address the real issue at hand. It dries them out, but provides them with no tools to improve. Take an addict, who clearly already has problems, lock them up in a 6x6 cell and let them only interact with murderers, other addicts and dealers ..yeah..that will fix them.


Fuck your anti drug ads Harper. Spend some money on fixing the problem, cause clearly the commercials aren't working. We all know alcoholics, coke heads and the like. They're everywhere. You think a crack head will watch a commercial and be like "ohhh I get it now, better clean up"... Jokes.

nsbudca said:

You think a crack head will watch a commercial and be like "ohhh I get it now, better clean up"... Jokes.

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Actually Stevie say's his target audience is parents...most of the parents I know, from in their 20's to 60's, smoke weed and know it's harmless.

that's a boatload of money and so was the amount they wasted threatening mmar patients last year

Medipuffs said:

that's a boatload of money and so was the amount they wasted threatening mmar patients last year

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they don't waste money they invest it...

Medipuffs said:

that's a boatload of money and so was the amount they wasted threatening mmar patients last year

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an investment in stressing out mmj patients....hmmm why?is that like twisting the knife once its already in?

What I wouldn't give for someone in the house of commons to ask " Can Mr. Harper provide not only a reason as to why he felt it was necessary to spend $7 million of our tax payers dollars, but I would also ask that he provide the results of this money being spent. Show us the data on how this helped reduce drug use in ANY way"

it did zero to help out any cause in any way...
except for brain bong designs for those who do the hashes