Serious question: why do those stupid drug ads only target weed?

[LostinVA]

They are so stupid and so not true. "I drove over my baby brother."

If they HAVE to have anti drug ads on TV, why not target the drugs that DO destroy a person, like meth, heroin, etc.

Why is it always weed? Something most law enforcement and medical professionals say should be decriminalized? As well as a good chunk of the public?

[FLAprogressive]

1. Because it's the BOOGEYMAN

[slackmaster]

2. I see anti-meth ads all the time

Billboards, sides of buses, etc.

[Ian David]

3. It's a gateway drug. That's why abstinence advertising focuses on masturbation.

:sarcasm:

[crimsonblue]

4. If you hallucinate about driving over your baby brother

it probably wasn't pot.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

5. Did you happen to see which organization sponsored the ad? nt

[LostinVA]

6. I can't remember who does them -- they are on all the time

[Sarah Ibarruri]

9. If we could see which organization, we could find out who sponsored it and the reason why marijuana

It'd be interesting to find out

[LostinVA]

10. It's not an "it," though -- there are a whole bunch of them

Every few months, a new series comes out.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

12. Maybe they're online? The mystery can be solved, I'm sure nt

[Sarah Ibarruri]

20. Okay, I looked up the ONDCP - it was established during Reagan....

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), a component of the Executive Office of the President, was established by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988.

The principal purpose of ONDCP is to establish policies, priorities, and objectives for the Nation's drug control program. The goals of the program are to reduce illicit drug use, manufacturing, and trafficking, drug-related crime and violence, and drug-related health consequences. To achieve these goals, the Director of ONDCP is charged with producing the National Drug Control Strategy. The Strategy directs the Nation's anti-drug efforts and establishes a program, a budget, and guidelines for cooperation among Federal, State, and local entities.

By law, the Director of ONDCP also evaluates, coordinates, and oversees both the international and domestic anti-drug efforts of executive branch agencies and ensures that such efforts sustain and complement State and local anti-drug activities. The Director advises the President regarding changes in the organization, management, budgeting, and personnel of Federal Agencies that could affect the Nation's anti-drug efforts; and regarding Federal agency compliance with their obligations under the Strategy.

However, I think the TV ads are directed at middle and high school kids, not grown adults.

I don't think middle and high school kids should drink or do any drugs. Adults? They should do anything they want.

[LostinVA]

37. Interesting info --thanks

I don't think they should, either, but I hate how the ads LIE about marijuana. It's like "Reefer Madness"in the nuttiness.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

41. You're absolutely right. The ads should say that marijuana and alcohol are bad for kids nt

[The Bakery Wagon]

44. it was established during Reagan....By Joe Biden

"As chairman of the International Narcotics Control Caucus, Biden wrote the laws that created the U.S. "Drug Czar", who oversees and coordinates national drug control policy. In April 2003 he introduced the controversial Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act, also known as the RAVE Act."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden

Holder isn't exactly a fan of drug law reform either

[Sebastian Doyle]

7. Maybe because the Bush Crime Family doesn't make any money from weed?

They're the biggest coke & heroin smugglers on the planet though. And their friends in the pharmaceutical companies profit from pretty much anything else. Including meth, if it's made from over the counter cold medicine.

[LostinVA]

That's actually a really good point

[johnnie]

8. Because

They don't want everyone smoking it so they can win a shitload of medals in the Olympics.

[Kokonoe]

11. Why should we hear about meth and heroin. It's not relevant.

So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that.

[Kokonoe]

13. .

:sarcasm:

[wtbymark]

14. because ExxonMobile and DuPont want it that way n/t

[Siwsan]

15. Big pharma can't make money from it

I can plant a nice poppy garden, but I'd need a massive poppy field full of healthy blooms before I could harvest enough for opium. Then, I'd have to process it. Marijuana can be grown in something as small as planters, and can be repeatedly harvested by the individual. No muss, no fuss. There's no way the pharma people could ever make a profit since you don't need them to provide.

[Jamastiene]

16. It goes against nature to target weed.

I wish I had a "folded arms and smug look" smiley to go here. I mean that though. It really does go against nature. Meth and other synthetic drugs and drugs cut with shit because there is no regulation really are bad for people. Pot is just a plant. Leave pot alone.

[LostinVA]

18. No argument from me!

[Jamastiene]

27. I agree with you.

I think it is strange that they concentrate so much on pot. It's just ridiculous. I always used to talk to my TV and say, "Can I eat my brains now?" :shrug:

[ipfilter]

24. A bird could poop in my yard and deposit pot seeds.

It grows all by itself in nature. It's like outlawing oak trees.

[LostinVA]

36. Or dandelions

[CrispyQ]

31. "It is a leaf."

;)

http://gone-hollywood.com/2007/10/arnold-schwarzenegger-weed-is-not-a-drug/

[oldnslo]

17. My favorite, the drug that's destroyed the most lives, alcohol.......

[tkmorris]

19. Because that's the battle they're afraid they might lose

No one needs to be convinced meth is bad, or heroin. The fact that they are running these ads targeting marijuana means they think they are losing the battle for public opinion on that one. In a way it's a positive sign, though we really need to counter those ads lest they actually be effective.

[Jamastiene]

26. Now, THAT is something I never would have figured out.

You make the best point I have seen yet when I thought about the same question.

[Hubert Flottz]

21. I never knew of a pothead that got so stoned that they lied us

into a trillion dollar war but I remember a drunk doing it.

[librechik]

22. I saw one going after kids who break into mom and dad's medicine cabinet for cough syrup

they should just have anti-stupid ads.

[Uncle Joe]

23. Big Pharma is most worried about weed becoming legal and siphoning money

from their multitude of legal drugs.

[billyoc]

25. It's a matter of extensity. Weed makes more people stupid than the others.

[mitchum]

28. Bullshit...coke is the drug that makes more people stupid...

unfortunately, the attendant grandiosity prevents them from seeing the stupidity in their "great ideas"

[Jamastiene]

33. Ain't that the truth?

There is nothing worse that Coke induced narcissism. It annoys the hell out of me.

[Sequoia]

30. Tell me you're being sarcastic.

"And, yea they partook of the fruit of the tree and their eyes were opened." And Eve says to Adam, "You sure are lazy lying around in the shade thinking up animal names. So get off your butt and get me corn on the cob you lazy brute."

[Jamastiene]

32. ROFL

But apparently still not stupid enough to waltz into a thread about pot and diss pot. :P :evilgrin:

:rofl:

[Mike 03]

29. LOL, those ads do sound stupid/hilarious. In my state, all we see are rather horrifying

anti-drug ads about crystal meth, which is a much scarier drug, to me, than pot.

[LostinVA]

35. They never have meth ads around here -- now, that stuff has NO redeeming aspects

All we see are beyond stupid pot ads.

[FirstLight]

34. have you seen the one with the shadow & the basketball court?

The kids is playing ball and his shadow gets weaker & weaker and the kids runs off the ourt to meet up with an obvious "stoner" friend...and the shadow just sits there with the ball..

I think they are all targeting weed because it's myth as a "gateway" drug. So the people and counselors who work on these inferences and ideas are targeting the ONE easiest drug to get, the one that everybody has tried at least once...if not smokes daily...and then they want to shove the RW agenda that it is EEEEVVVIIILLLL down our collective psyches. It is very deliberate.

[LostinVA]

39. OMG -- I haven't see that one

I think that's a really good theory.

[davsand]

38. Seriously? There are actually still anti-pot commercials?

I never see any of those. I'd probably fall out laughing if I ever did--kinda like I used to do when they showed Reefer Madness on Night Flight. (It is still one of the funniest movies I have EVER seen, and it was unintentional!) We'd fire up, crack a beer, and laugh like hyenas.

Locally we have been absolutely blanketed with the anti-Meth commercials. It has been SO bad that you can't watch an hour of TV and NOT see at least a couple of them. I gotta admit, I DO think Meth is pretty bad juju, but as a kid who grew up hearing that LSD would damage your chromosomes and leave you a vegetable, I tend to be kinda cynical about ANY anti drug advertising.

I think I have almost become a libertarian on this subject as I have aged.



Laura

[bob4460]

40. Henry Anslinger started this shit

he wanted hemp outlawed so it would not compete with his newly acquired forest to produce paper his quote in 1895. “Marihuana is the most violent drug in the history of mankind.” -Henry Anslinger
http://www.scienceray.com/Biology/Botany/A-Brief-History-of-Hemp.277027
The current laws against the cultivation of Hemp can be attributed to three men, Henry J. Anslinger, Lammont DuPont, and William Randolph Hearst, who made growing hemp illegal. Anslinger was the head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, DuPont and Hearst were the owners of the largest chemical company and newspaper, respectively. Hearst began printing outlandish stories with headlines such as "Marijuana goads user to blood lust" and "Hotel clerk identifies Marijuana smoker as gunman". He also took advantage of the country's prejudice against blacks and immigrants by printing that marijuana-crazed negroes were raping white women and by painting pictures of lazy, pot-smoking Mexicans. DuPont's banker Andrew Mellon who happened to be Secretary of the Treasury under Herbert Hoover, also had a nephew-in-law, Henry Anslinger, who had the Marijuana Tax Law of 1937 passed allowing munitions maker DuPont to supply synthetic fibers for the domestic economy without competition.

And it was the NEW billion dollar crop in 1937

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/popmech1.htm

Note: There was so little public attention and notice to the need for a ban on marijuana, or the resulting legislation (Marihuana Tax Act of 1937), that the editors apparently did not realize that it had already been outlawed when they published this article.

[LostinVA]

43. I knew abour William Randolph Hearst

And how they linked pot and those evil blacks and Mexicans.

[ThomCat]

42. Because it takes a huge PR campaign to Convince people that pot is dangerous.

Other drugs don't need a PR campaign. If a drug is really dangerous, people generally know it.

Pot is not dangerous, so they have to go to a whole lot of effort to manufacture the belief.