Pot is bad, kids, m'kay?
Is it just me, or have we been flooded with anti-pot ONDCP commercials on TV lately? They seem to be aimed at kids, which is fine ("Just tell her parents you weren't watching her because you were getting high"). Kids are the most important and fertile audience for such ads.
My problem is that kids aren't dumb. And they can see as well as me that you could substitute "drinking" for "smoking pot" in any of the commercials, and they would still make perfect sense. Don't drink/gethigh and drive. Don't drink/gethigh and watch kids. Don't drink/gethigh and [insert attention-requiring activity here].
Oh, and the tag liine: "Marijuana is more harmful than you think." Really? You mean marijuana is just as bad as beer? That'll deter a 16 year-old.
My problem is that kids aren't dumb. And they can see as well as me that you could substitute "drinking" for "smoking pot" in any of the commercials, and they would still make perfect sense. Don't drink/gethigh and drive. Don't drink/gethigh and watch kids. Don't drink/gethigh and [insert attention-requiring activity here].
Oh, and the tag liine: "Marijuana is more harmful than you think." Really? You mean marijuana is just as bad as beer? That'll deter a 16 year-old.
Comments
<packs bowl> "Hang on a sec" </chokes one down>
They are my nemesis.
Oh the memories.
I was raised by my parents, not the TV. I can make up my own mind. Don't tell me what to think.
Originally posted by DMBand0026
Kids don't get it. They are dumb. And I'm allowed to say that, I don't smoke/drink, never have and never will.
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don't criticize
What you can't understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is
Rapidly agin'.
Please get out of the new one
If you can't lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin'.
- Bob Dylan, The Times They are a Changin' (1963)
Why does marijuana remain the big bogeyman amongst intoxicants? Do people still believe in that "reefer madness" nonsense?
Originally posted by sammi jo
Whats the deal here? Anti-marijuana ads all over...but anyone seen an anti-crystal meth ad? Or an anti ecstacy ad? Or an anti GHB ad? Or an anti-crack/ anti-cocaine ad? Or an anti-booze ad?
Why does marijuana remain the big bogeyman amongst intoxicants? Do people still believe in that "reefer madness" nonsense?
I think it's because they feel it's the "Gateway drug".... and if they stop it at the source, they'll lessen the problem.
Originally posted by sammi jo
Whats the deal here? Anti-marijuana ads all over...but anyone seen an anti-crystal meth ad? Or an anti ecstacy ad? Or an anti GHB ad? Or an anti-crack/ anti-cocaine ad? Or an anti-booze ad?
Why does marijuana remain the big bogeyman amongst intoxicants? Do people still believe in that "reefer madness" nonsense?
Modern attitudes about marijuana are the closest thing to a chink in the anti-drug establishment's armor. Why spend money telling Americans that crack is bad if they already believe it? Marijuana, however, must be different....
Why is kind bud portrayed as the bad bogeyman? Because too many people think of it as kind bud!
Obviously this means our collective minds must be changed! Enter television...
THANK YOU, anti-drug establishment!
<prozac>
The city where I live just passed a law (by citizen initiative) directing our police department to make enforcement of marijuana possession laws its lowest priority.
Perhaps the anti-drug forces are feeling defensive?
peace,
dglow
Man, it makes me appreciate the anti-drug commercials there used to be, "I'm not a chicken, you're a turkey" "I learned it from watching you", etc. Ah man, the "I wanna be a junkie" ones were great.
We drink, we know it's bad (if overdone). We smoke cigarettes, and we know unequivocally that it ain't doing the body any favors. We take other elicit drugs and know they're bad too, but that's besides the point: let us deal with solely with drugs in various states of toleration or legality throughout the world.
It's all about marketting. Kids smoking weed today, for the most part are either stupid or ignorant, or both. Let's be clear, I'm not contesting the issue of whether or not an adult should be able to smoke a relatively benign joint on occassion, just the marketting campaign that has promoted weed from counter culture recreational drug to general health tonic in the minds of many many young people.
Don't believe it? I can't tell you how many teens I've heard repeat with the upmost sincerity that smoking weed is "safer" than cigarettes, because it's "natural" or that it's less addictive than alcohol or nicotine. Long term use of marijuana combines some of the worst effects of both -- slowing the mind in much the same way as alcoholism and doing the same damage to heart and lungs as tobacco.
So, within the confines of a conservative anti-drug policy, what exactly could the propagandists do? They have to re-familiarize people with negatives -- health, not legal negatives -- rather than let the general pop stupidity prevail.
I haven't seen the ads, or haven't noticed, which bodes poorly, cause I make it my business to notice these things. I don't exactly what they drive at, but rest assured, pot most assuredly is bad for you (no sarcasm needed)
I wonder, though, if we stepped out of that mode, and did less politically invested analyses of marijuana, that we might stand a better chance of education and control through de-criminalization, legalization, and ultimately taxation.
It's ludicrous that there's a huge advertising campaign to deter people from smoking pot when alcohol and cigarettes are 100 times more lethal.
Then they give you the "gateway drug" B.S.
Here's a question... what do kids try BEFORE they smoke pot... ALCOHOL and CIGARETTES... the true gateway drugs.
People need to be realistic... you can't go telling kids not to do drugs when you're sitting there drinking a beer and smoking a cigarette.
Marajuana is the gateway drug because it is. If it weren't around there would be another refered to as the gateway drug.
Disclaimer: Seriously drugs have negative effects and most people can't cope with them or use them safely. I think it is a bad idea for anyone to use drugs or hang out with people under the influence of them.
I didn't want this to sound like I'm an advocate because I'm not, I just think it's stupid and illogical to think they are as bad as some people do and think that there is a definate need to crack down on the less harmful ones.
Originally posted by chu_bakka
Here's a question... what do kids try BEFORE they smoke pot... ALCOHOL and CIGARETTES... the true gateway drugs.
Ding. Ding. Ding. Ding.
Originally posted by Matsu
I can't tell you how many teens I've heard repeat with the upmost sincerity that smoking weed is "safer" than cigarettes, because it's "natural" or that it's less addictive than alcohol or nicotine. Long term use of marijuana combines some of the worst effects of both -- slowing the mind in much the same way as alcoholism and doing the same damage to heart and lungs as tobacco.
these particular people you spoke with do seem a bit misguided. tobacco is naturally found in nature, just like marijuana. well, actually, i believe that marijuana smoking is less harmful than tobacco, does that make me stupid? i've read studies (scientific ones, too) about marijuana's danger, and tobacco's. They have located and discerned more carcinogens in marijuana (iirc, a lot more). But, oddly enough, these carcinogens, which independant of cannabis can be really dangerous, don't tend to be as harmful in marijuana. There's a study from Johns Hopkins (mentioned here). In it they say that marijuana does not cause cancer in the same degree that tobacco and alcohol (!) do. Of course, he does mention in the article a study with opposing findings, but then it comes down to which study you (want to) believe. There is evidence that marijuana is not as harmful as tobacco (or alcohol!), and I don't think someone has to be stupid to believe it.
there is also evidence that marijuana is not as addictive (physically addictive, as opposed to emotionally or mentally addictive) as tobacco (nicotine) or alcohol, or most anything else. In this article, they have two charts of the relative effects of withdrawal, reinforcement, tolerance, dependance, and intoxiction for several drugs, including alcohol, tobacco and marijuana. (those 5 metrics being those which quantize the Amer. Phychiatric Assoc.'s definition of addiction) Marijuana is the weakest in near all categories.
Originally posted by chu_bakka
Here's a question... what do kids try BEFORE they smoke pot... ALCOHOL and CIGARETTES... the true gateway drugs.
That's a good question, but I think it's even worse than that now. If you've been taking drugs to create and control moods since you were in kindergarten (Ritalin, etc.) you're familiar with the idea of doping yourself up to achieve a desired effect long before you crack your first beer or turn green attempting a drag on your first cigarette. For the few kids that might genuinely need those drugs it's a necessary evil, but I don't know anyone who doesn't think they're wildly overprescribed.
I credit the fact that I was and remain a relative teetotaler (I do have the occasional drink) to the more general fact that I hardly ever took drugs of any kind - even over the counter stuff - growing up. Now, I'm not going to pretend that this is because of some great moral superiority. The plain fact is that I was lucky enough to be healthy enough that I hardly ever needed any sort of intervention. But I still wonder if the habit of mind that doesn't even think of buying antacid or even aspirin to fix something has extended into the stronger stuff. I just don't think "I'd like X to feel Y."