Drugs in Film

The presence of illicit substances such as marijuana in film has been around for some time now, but an age of increasing acceptance of seeing this recreational drug use has brought about a casual attitude towards how these substances are viewed. As more and more films portraying careless drug use are directed at teenagers and young adults, the question is: how do these movies and their drug use affect the target audience?
This issue needs to be researched in order to determine whether or not such portrayal of drugs is in fact influencing the audience to engage in drug use.

Dale Denton (Seth Rogen) and Saul Silver (James Franco) share a joint in "Pineapple Express"

My research group, consisting of Ji Sung, Jenn, Rebecca and myself, are examining this topic for our Communications 111 class in order to try and find a link between these films and teen drug views, as well as any resulting habits. In order to answer this question, we have to look at the sources which we have collected and try to establish whether or not modern drug portrayal does in fact have a negative effect on today's youth.