A Seattle nonprofit has found a different way to talk to teenagers about tobacco and cannabis. Instead of leading with warnings, it starts by teaching young people how to recognise targeted tobacco and cannabis marketing when they see it.

The Center for MultiCultural Health (CMCH) runs a youth-led initiative called STAND, which stands for Speaking Truth and New Direction. The programme works with teens across Washington state to help them understand how tobacco and cannabis companies use social media, digital advertising and cultural messaging to reach young audiences specifically. Founded in 1976, CMCH has long focused on serving communities of colour, immigrants, refugees and people with limited English proficiency, and STAND carries that same focus into its work on targeted marketing and prevention.

A Different Starting Point

Programme director Kerry Holifield-Alcantara explained that CMCH’s broader mission centres on reducing health disparities in communities of colour, and that STAND applies an intersectional lens to cannabis and tobacco prevention, one that treats young people as capable of understanding their own agency rather than simply warning them away from risk.

That distinction shapes how the programme operates day to day. Rather than relying on fear-based messaging, STAND helps teens unpack the advertising tactics, algorithms and cultural stereotypes shaping their choices. Holifield-Alcantara described the goal as helping young people see past what’s in front of them online and reconnect with the strength of their own culture and community, rather than accepting how outside narratives portray them.

Understanding history plays a central role in recognising targeted tobacco and cannabis marketing today. Past STAND sessions have examined how tobacco companies specifically promoted menthol cigarettes in Black communities for decades, and how cannabis advertising now uses similar strategies to normalise use among young people. Holifield-Alcantara said understanding this history helps teens recognise when they are being deliberately targeted, rather than simply marketed to like any other consumer.

Crucially, the programme avoids judgement. Holifield-Alcantara was direct that STAND does not vilify young people who use or misuse substances, pointing to a real and often justified historic distrust of the medical system within many of the communities STAND serves. The aim, she said, is simply to equip youth with enough information to make informed decisions, while making clear that support exists if they need it.

From Participant to Programme Leader

For Ana-Liyah Dumas, that message became personal well before it became a career. Dumas joined STAND as a teenager and now works as the programme’s youth coordinator, guiding the next generation of participants through the same material that once reshaped how she saw the world.

Dumas said the programme taught her things about tobacco and cannabis she hadn’t previously understood, particularly around physical and mental health effects that substance use had normalised in her environment. She also said learning how companies specifically targeted her community through advertising changed how she interpreted the marketing around her, moving her from passive exposure toward active decision-making. Now on the other side of the programme, she acknowledges that reaching today’s teenagers looks different from when she was a participant herself, with engagement and enthusiasm harder to sustain than before.

Finding Belonging Through Prevention

For Divaa Nkanatta, an international student who moved to the United States in 2024, STAND offered something beyond marketing literacy: a sense of community at a moment when she had little.

Nkanatta described how easily accessible marijuana and tobacco were within her new school environment, and how tempting it became to join in simply to fit in during a difficult adjustment period. She credits STAND with helping her make choices grounded in her own values rather than social pressure, and with helping her hold onto her sense of identity during a vulnerable transition. She now encourages other young people to define their own sense of purpose, rather than measuring themselves against generational stigma or misconceptions tied to their background.

Reach and Impact

STAND’s approach, built around discussion, creative projects, presentations and peer-led community outreach, has helped its youth leaders reach more than 700,000 people across Washington through schools, community centres and places of worship, spreading awareness of targeted tobacco and cannabis marketing well beyond the programme’s direct participants.

As CMCH continues expanding the programme, Holifield-Alcantara said her optimism comes directly from the young people she works alongside. Whatever else is happening externally, she said, she finds herself consistently inspired by the energy and insight of the youth in her community.

Source: Seattle Medium