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June 7, 2006 Everyone has seen them: the anti-drug commercials depicting different teenagers in various dangerous, often deadly, situations. The commercials vary from a girl, passed out from smoking too much pot, about to get raped at a party, to a group of teenage boys leaving a drive thru, also having smoked too much pot, running over a little girl on her bike. Some of them are positive: "Music is my anti-drug'. Some of them are falsely horrifying: "Just tell her parents you lost her cause you were too busy getting high." Most of them are reminiscent of such movies as "Reefer Madness", they're all exaggerated, ridiculous, and fairly untrue. I've made it somewhat obvious in my previous articles that I am for the legalization, or at the very least, decriminalization, of marijuana. But this article is not about whether or not it should be available in a store near you. This is about the government's unhealthy obsession with one drug, when there are many other drugs recieving little to no attention. It's the equivilant of concentrating solely on a child stealing candy from a store when there is an armed assailant holding up the cashier right behind you. I was in my late teens when I saw an anti-heroin commercial. Other than that sixty second spot, I have not seen another one since. I have never seen a commercial against crack, cocaine, meth, ecstacy, or LSD. Including heroin, that's six hardcore, class A or B substances that you hear almost nothing about. Even worse, I personally know a few people who have been addicted to one or more of these drugs. I don't think it's okay for a nine - year - old to smoke pot. I do, however, think it's okay for someone over eightteen, just like smoking cigarettes. (If it makes people feel better, make the age limit twenty-one and control it like alcohol.) I don't think marijuana is a gateway drug. I know people who smoke it have done no other drug their entire lives. I don't believe that the government is attacking cannabis so fiercely because they fear it will lead to worse drugs. Marijuana comes from a weed, weeds can grow anywhere, and you can't tax what you can't control. I know potheads and I know junkies, and let me tell you, the pothead is far less likely to rape a girl at a party, beat up some elderly woman, or overdose. The junkie, while very unlikely to commit rape, will lie, cheat, steal, rob, and in some cases, abuse, if they think it's necessary. They are very, very likely to overdose. Do I think that a lack of anti-dope commercials is responsible for any random addict OD'ing in an alley? No, I don't, but I do believe we need to concentrate far more on narcotic education and rehabilitation than we do. Start from the beginning, when they're young. If it's already too late, set up better outreach programs, push for less methadone clinics and better detox and rehab facilities. Use the state - funded D.A.R.E programs to show the actual problems these drugs can cause. If you need to bring an addict to speak the truth, then do so. I would much rather have my child learn from a junkie than become one. Worry less about the window boxes in the back closets of some weed dealer's house and worry more about the amounts of crack and heroin being smuggled in and sent out to be sold. If you want to try to prevent the kids from smoking pot, then go for it. But go at it in the same way you try to get them not to drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes. Concentrate on the problem at hand, people. Maybe some don't care about the junkie-tweeker-meth head population cause it's so dirty and taboo. But those people are someone's kids. Proper education, prevention, and concentration on the REAL problems may be the beginning of the end for the addiction epidemic right under our noses. Stop showing exaggerated anti-marijuana commercials, we're all sitting around and laughing at their stupidity. Show me an anti-narcotic commercial and show me the truth, don't exaggerate. Show me a strung out junkie sitting in his room nodding out. Show me what someone will do to get just enough money for a fix. Show me dope sick. Show me a guy stealing from his parents, show me a girl standing on the street ready to sell herself. Show me the truth! Scare me, disgust me, disturb me. Just get me to pay attention! Because the stuff you're showing now is a joke, you know it, and so do I. ------------ Email L.J. Chapman: scarlett_sugar80@yahoo.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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