Rap videos target teen pot smokers

LOS ANGELES — New rap videos aimed at Los Angeles-area teens show a common high school scene: Young people hanging out at a party, empty beer cups strewn about and joints being fired up.

But instead of rapping about hook-ups and going to the club, the teens in the videos warn those lighting up about the downside of marijuana in catchy and sometimes funny lyrics like, “Girls won’t think you’re fly if your bank account is dry.”

The videos are part of a $2 million social media campaign launched Thursday by Los Angeles County officials who hope the teens will more effectively deliver the desired message: “You can’t use your brain if you’re always getting high.”

Though many perceive marijuana as harmless, it can damage young brains as they continue to develop until the mid-20s, according the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The rap videos and others showing teens casually talking about the danger of marijuana use are being directed at young people where they spend much of their time: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat.

“Honestly, social media, we use it more than we watch TV so it’s going to be more effective,” said Lily Larson, an 18-year-old Los Angeles senior who appears in several of the videos and helped launch the campaign at a news conference.

Elijah Gonzalez, another 18-year-old high school student who helped come up with the idea for the rap videos, said he was reluctant to join the campaign at first because he’s tried convincing friends to stop smoking marijuana for years to no effect.

Then he realized he might be able to make a difference by helping come up with a new approach, like the rap.

“Putting myself in their position is exactly what I did,” Gonzalez said. “I imagined myself on my phone scrolling through Snapchat or Instagram and quickly swiping through things and then hearing (the rap). And your brain’s like, ‘Whoa, what’s this?’”

“You start to question and then you start to listen and then you start to think,” he said.

The campaign comes on the heels of marijuana legalization in California for adults over 21.