Teen Anti- Cannabis Cages

 “Don’t Be a Lab Rat!” is the catchy slogan of the new anti-cannabis
campaign designed to discourage underage youth from consuming cannabis.
However, the simple enough message is being enforced in a very blatant way.
Large “lab rat cages” have been installed around Denver near the downtown skate
park and public library. The cages are human sized and feature a large water
bottle and several informational posters.

The idea is that teens can go inside the cages and read about how
Colorado has become a testing ground for cannabis legalization, and if they
participate, they are in turn the lab rats. The cages source disputed studies
that suggest that cannabis causes problems in teens such as memory loss and
schizophrenia. Once inside the cage, the message is profoundly heavy handed.

The cages aren’t the only piece of the campaign. “Don’t Be a Lab Rat”
has active social media pages and a TV spot that quotes: “Scientists at Duke
University discovered that marijuana permanently decreases the IQ of teens.
Some dispute that study. But what if, years from now, you learn those
scientists were right?” Many people have come out in support of the idea of the
campaign, but opposed the disputed facts and blunt direction.

It took less than a week for teens to take notice of these installments
and subsequently vandalize them. Signs at the skate park installation were
vandalized just days after it was installed, altered by crossing out and
replacing various words. One even wrote, “Smoking weed saved my life.” Teens
are taking notice to the cages in a negative way, but they also seem reluctant
to become “lab rats.”

Before this campaign was
implemented, a set of new studies showed a drop in teens smoking cannabis in
Colorado. According to the Colorado Department of Public Health and
Environment, cannabis usage among high school students has dropped from 22% to 20%
post legalization. For now, the installations remain up as well as a website
for campaign.