National Youth Anti-Drugs Media Campaign

Chris Middleton "Say no to Drugs": The United States Congress created the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign in 1998 to prevent and reduce youth drug use. The Media Campaign has two distinct areas of focus: a teen-targeted Above the Influence (ATI) Campaign, and a young adult-targeted Anti-Meth Campaign.

The recently redesigned, youth-targeted Above the Influence campaign balances broad prevention messaging at the national level with targeted efforts at the local community level. This new approach allows the campaign to continue to reach all teens across the country with a highly visible and effective national messaging presence while encouraging youth participation with ATI at the community level. Youth-serving organizations, such as Drug-Free Community grantees, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, SADD Chapters, Girl’s Inc., Girl Scouts, Community Anti‐Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA), the National Organization for Youth Safety (NOYS), ASPIRA, and Y’s (formerly YMCAs), work directly with the Media Campaign to implement on-the-ground Above the Influence activities with teens.

ATI is valuable to communities and local engagement with ATI is amplifying the Campaign’s effects. ATI community partners are able to use the ATI campaign as a valuable, nationally-recognizable asset to which they can anchor their individual youth substance abuse prevention programs, thereby furthering their respective youth development missions.

The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign also conducts an Anti-Meth Campaign targeting young adults ages 18-34, as well as adult influencers of meth users. The Anti-Meth Campaign targets those areas of the country hardest hit by meth and delivers messages conveying the risks of meth use, the effectiveness of treatment, and the possibility of recovery from meth addiction.