MAYOR CALLS METH TV ADS 'PABLUM'

A $2-Million Commercial Tastefully Encouraging Parents to Talk to
Their Kids About Crystal Meth Is "Pablum" According to Gord Robson.

The Maple Ridge mayor was quoted as saying such on Global news Wednesday night.

By Thursday afternoon, after having an evening to digest the pablum,
Robson conceded that any publicity surrounding the ills of
methamphetamines is worthwhile, but the provincially funded ads, he
said, don't go far enough.

"Sadly, in our society a lot of the kids don't have that kind of
parent, and they're the ones that are usually at risk."

Robson's wife Mary, who chairs the local Crystal Meth Task Force
echoes her husband's comments and said she's "disappointed in the approach."

Mary suggested that the money would have been better spent producing
ads similar to those done by the Montana Meth Project. The gruesome
ads seem like 30-second horror flicks, with one depicting a girl
getting ready to go to a party taking a shower. Behind her, crouched
in the tub, is her future self, naked, scabby, bleeding and begging
her not to do it. Not to try crystal meth even once.

While there's nothing wrong with the "parents talk to your children"
message, Mary said, "from my standpoint with the Crystal Meth Task
Force, it's not hitting it where we need it."

The message and the images must be "extreme," she said if they're
going to have any impact at all.

"We're talking about a poison. We're losing more and more kids to
this poison. It's not like it's pot. It's not like it's alcohol, it's
highly addictive and this kills them."

Gord said that those in charge of creating the ads seem to have shied
away from using scare tactics. The argument, he said, is that scare
tactics didn't work on pot, they didn't work on alcohol so they won't
work on meth. But that's wrong, he said.

"It's now proven pot doesn't kill you. Crystal meth is different. We
should at least be telling them that they're getting it in their
ecstasy. I don't accept the fact that we shouldn't scare them."

The most recent ad, he said, is comfortable, safe, but "it doesn't grab me."