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-Caveat Lector-
January 13, 2003
ONDCP's anti-marijuana ad campaign
By Rich Lowry
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/richlowry/rl20030113.shtml
If you want to see drugs and violence on television, you don't need to
bother tuning in to "NYPD Blue" or loading up a game of "Grand Theft Auto:
Vice City." You can just watch one of the Office of National Drug Control
Policy's latest anti-marijuana ads.
Two teenagers in a marijuana-induced haze sit in a family den, foggy with
smoke. After some typical silly banter ("your sister is hot"), one of the
kids pulls out his father's gun, says it's unloaded, and to prove it, aims
at his friend's head and fires.
ONDCP, showing some residual good taste, spares viewers the splattered
brains, but we are supposed to learn that smoking pot will kill you. Other
spots suggest that smoking pot will get you raped or make you a rapist,
prompt you to run over children on bikes, and otherwise transform you into
a rampaging beast.
Thus is the sensationalistic dishonesty of the War on Drugs broadcast for
all to see in a saturation-ad campaign coinciding with the NFL playoffs. No
kid will be dissuaded by these ads from trying marijuana, since the ads are
so at odds with nearly everyone's experience with the drug. But ONDCP can't
produce more tempered and truthful ads about pot -- because it simply isn't
that scary.
There is, of course, an extremely slim chance that someone smoking pot
might be shot by his bong-mate. The odds, however, are probably equally
great of smoking dope, writing a hit song about it and becoming (at least
temporarily) rich and famous -- which was Afroman's experience with his
2001 song "Because I Got High."
In fact, alcohol is more likely than pot to be associated with all of the
ONDCP tragedy scenarios, since it is a drug that tends to induce aggression
rather than passivity. The ONDCP would never admit this because it raises
the question of why pot is illegal and alcohol isn't.
Rather than rationalizing drug policy, ONDCP, under the leadership of Bush
nominee John Walters, is more interested in demagogy. Last year's ads
airing during the Super Bowl maintained that drugs users support terrorism.
The illegal markets created by drug prohibition create this niche for
outlaws in the first place, but never mind.
Now the latest batch of ads recall the over-the-top propaganda of the
cult-classic movie "Reefer Madness." An honest anti-pot campaign would
stipulate that smoking the drug might make you feel a mild euphoria, but
ultimately you should have better things to do with your time. No ad
campaign will ever say this, which is one reason that they are so roundly
disregarded by kids.
Corporate-funded anti-drug TV ads started running in major buys in the
early 1990s, and youth marijuana use took off.
Operating on the theory that if something doesn't work, it should be funded
by taxpayers, the federal government essentially took the ad campaign over
from the private sector in mid-1990s.
The emphasis on marijuana in the current spots might seem odd, given how
benign it is compared to truly dangerous drugs like heroin, but the
campaign has a political point. Marijuana is the weak link in the War on
Drugs, and the Bush administration is hoping to shore it up.
The Washington, D.C.-based pro-legalization group, National Organization
for Reform of Marijuana Laws, has obtained a Nov. 1, 2002, letter from
White House aide Scott Burns to prosecutors across the country urging them
to crack down on pot, because "no drug matches the threat posed by marijuana."
Drug warriors have long tried to blunt criticism about drug-war overkill by
arguing that no one is ever arrested just for using marijuana. That line of
argument is apparently inoperative. One of the new ONDCP ads features two
kids smoking dope before the cops swoop in to bust them. Here, finally, is
an accurate depiction of one of the potential harms of marijuana: Smoking
it can get you arrested.
Why that should be the case is one of the great mysteries of the past 70
years.
Rich Lowry is editor of National Review, a TownHall.com member group.
©2003 King Features Syndicate
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DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
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