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STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER THREAD
Posted on 01/15/2003 7:24:33 AM PST by MrLeRoy
If most parents knew there was a federally funded organization lying to their children about the effects of drug use, they would likely be appalled and seek to have the organization's funding removed. Yet the frightening truth is that such a group exists, operating under the family-friendly monicker, Partnership for a Drug Free America (PDFA). In its newest line of Public Service Announcements (PSAs), the group equates marijuana use with wrongful death, rape and even murder...crimes that sensible people realize marijuana usage alone would never lead to. Last year, the American public was misled into thinking that every joint they smoked contributed to international terrorism, and recently that using marijuana will almost certainly result in acts of domestic violence.
Lies. The "anti-drug."
PDFA's well-intentioned but inaccurate PSAs feature a variety of scenarios, each ending with someone dying, being raped or going to jail. In reality, only the latter is a likely consequence of using marijuana.
In one of the ads, two male teenagers smoke pot in what appears to be the home office of one of their fathers, and, as the two adolescents continue to smoke, they stumble across a handgun. To see if it's loaded, one of the teens promptly picks up the gun and shoots directly at his friend. The gun is, of course, loaded, and the guilty teen, totally under the "control" of the marijuana, never thought to check for bullets or point the gun anywhere except directly at his friend. The entire grisly scene is followed by the words "Marijuana: Harmless?"
If this television spot sounds totally implausible, even ridiculous, that's because it is, and the others are just like it. The ad would be better-aimed at parents who fail to lock up their handguns. The fact remains that people don't test to see if a gun is loaded by blindly pointing it at their best friend and squeezing the trigger, stoned or not. The ad's message is not simply that marijuana distorts perception and judgement, it is that if you smoke weed, you will be shot or perhaps shoot someone else. This is false.
All of these ads play on what I call a "worst case scenario" fear. The most horrible thing that can happen in any one of the given commercials always does, and, without fail, marijuana is to blame.
Another of the PSAs features a car full of young people at a fast food window smoking marijuana. The teens get their food, and as they are pulling out, a child on a bicycle pulls out in front of them from behind a corner, totally getting run over by the "negligent" driver in the process. If only the teens hadn't been smoking marijuana, the commercial implies, perhaps the little girl on the bicycle would have lived.
The fact that this child appears to be younger than 5 years old and riding a bike without parental supervision along a busy commercial fairway is never addressed. Again, the ad would better serve parents who let their children play in the street unattended. Anyone, regardless of age, who darts in front of a moving car is likely to get run over. Marijuana has nothing to do with it.
Perhaps most intriguing is the spot in which two teens, a male and a female, smoke marijuana at a party. After smoking a few bowls of weed from a pipe, the female begins to look comatose, and her male companion proceeds to rape her in front of all the people at the party. Not surprisingly, no one comes to her aid, and viewers are again asked "Marijuana: Harmless?"
Here, marijuana use leads to an impromptu rape at this poor woman's expense. Mark Tutssel, vice-chairman of Leo Burnett USA, PDFA's ad agency, said in a press release that the company's PSAs dealt with "everyday occurences." I would venture to say that none of the aforementioned scenarios occurs every day, if at all, and PDFA, which prides itself on truth, is willfully misleading the American public about the "dangers" of marijuana.
Here are the facts. The Marijuana Policy Project's Web site, www.mpp.org, lists that 11 of our 50 states consider marijuana to be a medicine and have decriminalized it. Of these states, California alone saves $100 million each year in reduced arrests, according to the group's Web site. Imagine what the extra money could do for California and how much might be saved if marijuana was legalized outright.
In fact, the Web site states that the government has been supplying American citizens with medicinal marijuana for more than 20 years. There is even a pill form of the drug, called Marinol, available only by prescription. So is marijuana the scourge of society and the corruptor of youth? The U.S. government doesn't seem to think so.
When dealing with tough issues such as drug use, one must take the good with the bad. Marijuana can arguably be said to cure more than it causes, and its medicinal qualities cannot be ignored. Could there be negative effects of using marijuana? Sure, but to think that smoking pot will almost certainly lead to accidental death, rape, or murder, you would have to be, well, high.
Key sentence to one reason for marijuana's illegal status. Winners don't do drugs, they just deal them...
Holy crap! I made this exact point in a thread about a month or so ago, and got reemed by some drug warrior for my "insensitivity". LOL!!!
The article is completly correct. All these commercials are complete lies and "worse case scenario" scare tactics. Kids even see through them
Quintessential 'bleeding heart' rhetoric---more proof that Drug Warriors are liberals.
I'm prescribed this for relief of post traumatic arthritis pain and pain associated with Hepatitis C, I contracted from a blood transfusion. It's damn expensive, $1200.00 a month. My HMO doesn't cover any of the costs. It would pay for 80% for the addictive, toxic pain meds. It's not nearly as effective as cannabis, due to the fact, cannabis contains over 40 additional theraputic properties Marinol doesn't contain
These ads are pure propaganda of the worst kind. Taxpayers should be furious about these ads. My State has one of the worst epidemics of meth, yet I see no ads condemning meth use funding terrorists or any of the lies used in the ads.
I believe these ads are aimed at the Canadian Parliament,(for daring to consider decriminalization of cannabis), and States that allow the compassionate use of cannabis by sick people. American government at its worst, in my opinion.
Haven't you heard? Canada's pot laws are going the way of the buffalo, and their Parliament's got nothing to do with it.
Pot Case Tossed - Second Ontario Judge Says No Law Was Broken
Propaganda at its purest.
"The Big Lie" writ extremely large.
What I find hilarious is that these ads are actually counterproductive to their stated purpose. Only a brain dead idiot can't see through them. They are a perfect example of the ONDCP's willingness to lie and manipulate to the public.
Buy do they ever. If anything, these psa's encourage drug use by bringing out the rebellious nature of teenagers.
"If those people are against it, it's gotta be just what we need!"
While I am no advocate of hard drugs(cocaine, crack, heroin)
Nobody on FR is an advocate of hard drugs; some of us recognize that 'cure' of anti-drug laws is worse than the disease of drug use.
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