I hereby decree…
Make those horrible, mind-numbing, downright insulting anti-drug ads go the fuck away!
I swear, I want to break something and stab the nearest kitten in the eyes whenever an anti-drug ad comes on TV. Especially that particularly bad one they’ve been running that’s apparently about a boy watching his sister smoke pot in her room and the sight somehow traumatizing him and the ad somehow implying the pot is harming him just as much as her… What?! I haven’t the slightest idea what it’s supposed to mean, if anything. I’m quite sure the sole purpose is to make people whose IQ’s are above 50 want to take a few hits off a bong to ease the pain of the sheer stupidity, just so the Office of National Drug Control Policy can be like “oh noes, so many more people are smoking pot, pot will KILL YOU!!!11!”
Therefore, I have a secondary decree. I want you to take all your life savings, and even start soliciting money from other people you know, and give it all to one or more of the following organizations or similar ones:
Students for Sensible Drug Policy
NORML
Marijuana Policy Project
Drug Policy Alliance
Why? Because these organizations are among the ones working against the absolutely ridiculous “war on drugs”, which these brain-raping ads are a part of. And giving to these organizations would at least be balancing out what you’re already giving to the anti-drug people anyway. That’s right. It is OUR tax dollars funding these insulting ads and their fucked-up anti-freedom campaign. It is our own government indoctrinating us with lies upon lies about marijuana, fooling those who don’t know any better and absolutely trashing youth in the process. The blood of an ignorance campaign is on all our hands.
For that reason, I’ve wondered why these drug policy reform organizations haven’t been putting on ads opposing the lies of the ONDCP, showing people that there are in fact two sides to the drug debate and that they aren’t only hearing from the hysterical anti-drug morons. Of course, they don’t have the funding to put out nearly as many as the ONDCP does, but there should be at least some.
And while I’m on the subject, the anti-drug ads have been appearing even in the most inappropriate times. I swear, I was watching Cartoon Network one time around mid-morning, when much younger viewers would generally be watching, and I saw an ad warning parents that teens are stealing their prescription drugs to get high. Seriously, this one showed a 14-year-old boy being nice to his grandmother and getting her medication for her, but then pocketing some of her pills, and giving the nonsense warning that all teens are doing this. It’s one thing that this ad is spreading more paranoid bullshit than I care to count, but they’re showing this to EIGHT YEAR OLDS?!
Hang on. I think we’re starting to see a pattern here. I mean, we all know marijuana is illegal for everyone, right? Then, if these assholes who claim they are just trying to protect people and encourage people to obey the law are really trying to do just that, then where is the ad showing the little boy watching his adult MOM smoking pot and being traumatized by it apparently? Where is the wife thanking her husband for invading every single aspect of her life to make sure she’s not doing drugs, because it means he loves her so much? Where’s the ad warning sick kids that their DAD may be stealing their prescription meds to get high (a FAR more common occurrence than the other way around)?
Alright, forget what I said earlier. Don’t give a dime to the drug policy reform orgs I listed a bit ago (well, except maybe for SSDP, they’re cool). NORML has an interesting little disclaimer in their literature that they only want marijuana legalized for those 18 and older and that they still support strict drug prohibition from anyone younger (although they probably only say that to cover their asses). Same deal with MPP. A few years ago they were working on getting recreational marijuana legalized in Nevada. For people 21 and older. And a cute little part of that potential legislation was INCREASED penalties for any marijuana users under 21.
Therefore, even if those organizations are successful, the ridiculous anti-drug ads shall remain, because the people blamed as being the bad guys in them would still be bad guys either way.
So, instead, give all your life savings and then some to NYRA! Because even though NYRA doesn’t have much actual involvement with the war on drugs resistence (except maybe with the drinking age, if that counts), it is our efforts that will take the venom out of the anti-drug morons. Through our work, it will no longer be acceptable to blame young people for all of society’s ills. This, paired with the drug policy reform efforts, should significantly curb the “above the influence” filth we are inundated with when we just want to watch a little TV or listen to the radio or read a magazine. And it just further goes to show that when you solve a problem for everyone except young people, you do not solve the problem at all.
I know you like wikipedia, and this post reminded me of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:BEANS
Yeah, I strongly suspect that NORML just says that to cover their asses. I’m more skeptical about MPP though.
Can you imagine the controversy that would surround any ad that, rightly or not, could be labeled pro-marijuana? Even though probably most people don’t have much problem with marijuana (not the case for “hard drugs”), ONDCP and other anti-drug groups would stir up such an outcry that we’d never hear the end of it. I would expect calls (hopefully without accompanying action) to criminalize the ads as dangerous and “inciteful to illegal activity,” free speech be damned. Drug policy reform organizations probably haven’t taken that step yet to avoid such controversy.
This was the best ranty entry in a while now. :b:
Hehe. Thanks.
As for the ad, it would depend how it is done. It could not so much be “pro-marijuana” as maybe suggesting it is wrong to have so many people’s lives ruined over such strict drug laws, or at least providing some actual facts about the stuff to counter what ONDCP is pulling out of their asses and putting on TV. As for criminalization, I seriously doubt that, since it’d be explicit political speech depending on the angle.
I’ve contacted NORML about their adults-only policy. I haven’t received a response yet, but once I get a policy statement I’ll bring it up (unless they specifically request I don’t).
> It’s one thing that this ad is spreading more paranoid bullshit than I care to count, but they’re showing this to EIGHT YEAR OLDS?!
AGEISM!!!
No court would ever allow to stand a law criminalizing ads or other speech advocating the legalization of marijuana, true (thank Zeus), but that doesn’t mean that the moral busybodies wouldn’t loudly complain that such speech is legal when it very conspicuously hits them in the face on TV.
I know. Let ’em complain. 😀
Oh, by the way, I never got a response from NORML. I’ll email them again, but I don’t expect an answer.
Well, you got to realize that if it is in fact a covering their asses thing, they couldn’t very well be telling any random person who emails them the truth. I mean, if someone emailed me asking me if NYRA only says to lower the voting age to 16 as a “safe” move and that we really want to abolish it, I would not say we want to abolish it! I’d stick to our official, public stance on it.
You know I recently saw an ad about not being a patsy. But honestly being a patsy is better then being these anti-drug poeple. Even if patsy is anti-drug.
I mean, why not just legalize all drugs? If someone else is trauma inflicted for my own actions, that’s their problem.