POT MAY BE DOPE

When it goes to selling a product, advertisers known that fear is a great
motivator. Take a look at almost any ad today and you'll see how it tries
to instill the fear that if the consumer does not buy that certain product
then their lives will be horrible. If you don't use Clearasil then you'll
have bad skin and you'll never get a girlfriend; without a Brinks security
system, your family is vulnerable; don't use Deep Woods Off- then prepare
for West Nile virus. This tactic is not only useful in selling products but
in selling ideas as well and possibly the most accurate example of that can
be found by those who support marijuana prohibition.

Former Congressman Bob Barr, one of the most aggressive anti-marijuana
zealots, stated in 1999 [while he was still in Congress], "It is truly sad
to see marijuana legalization activists using seriously ill patients as
props in their campaign to make dangerous, mind-altering drugs legally
available. All existing research strongly indicates that smoked marijuana
has no medical benefits, and in fact significantly damages the health of
those who use it. It is despicable for legalization advocates to offer
false hope to the sick in a cynical effort to legalize marijuana" Barr's
statement is full of buzz words such as "mind-alerting" and "false hope"
but what's missing is factual evidence. That same year the National Academy
of Sciences' Institute of Medicine issued a report that proclaimed, "We
conclude that there are some limited circumstances in which we recommend
smoking marijuana for medical uses." Marijuana is used to treat patients
who suffer from AIDS, cancer, and glaucoma, among other illnesses.

So marijuana has medicinal benefits, how could anyone justify denying
patients medicine but keeping it outlawed? Marijuana prohibitionists are
not ones to give up easy. There still remains the myth that the
legalization of medical marijuana will increase teen use. Yes, it is quite
easy to see how a sixteen year old would want to smoke pot just because a
cancer patient smokes to keep from vomiting after chemotherapy [sarcasm
mode turned off]. This claim is so baseless that it could have been taken
from the Reefer Madness script. California passed its first state medical
marijuana law, Proposition 215, in 1996; teen use of marijuana has since
skyrocketed, right? Not at all. California's Attorney General, Bill Lockyer
released the results of the 2003-2004 California Students Survey this
August. The study reveals that marijuana use among teens is significantly
lower than in 1996. The percentage of ninth graders who have used marijuana
in the past six months has dropped nearly fifty percent, from 34.2 percent
to 18.8 percent. Bruce Mirken, director of communications for the Marijuana
Policy Project, stated that claims saying legalization of medical marijuana
will increase teen use "are false, as eight years of experience in our
nation's largest state has now demonstrated."

Perhaps the most nauseating anti-marijuana campaign is the National Youth
Anti-Drug Media Campaign. This is the group behind those "anti-drug"
commercial most of us have seen on television. The ads depict how marijuana
smoking will ruin lives and feature such scenarios as a young girl getting
pregnant and a child poised to fall into a pool because whoever was
supposed to be watching her was busy getting high [but it would be ok if
they were busy watching anti-drug commercials on TV, right?]. However the
hysteria gets even worse if you visit their website www.theantidrug.com.
Among sections such as "Drug Lingo" and "Where are Drug Paraphernalia Sold"
is perhaps the most interesting section, the "Watch List for Parents". This
handy list includes things to look for they indicate that they are using
drugs (the list seems to primarily be geared toward marijuana use). Some of
the things to look for are, "use of incense", "new use of mouthwash",
"bottles of eye drops", and "new fascination with clothes that highlight
drug use". I won't deny that pot smokers will use eye drops and mouth wash
to rid themselves of bloodshot eyes and bad breath; but is this not just
another excuse for lazy parent to feel like they're making a difference.
That by keeping tabs on the mouthwash and an eye peeled for "clothes that
highlight drug use" [whatever that may be], they're doing their best to
keep their kids off drugs. Today's parents shouldn't waster their time
worrying about their kid's clothes and incense use for the same reason that
the previous generations parents shouldn't have wasted their time being
concerned with tie-dye and headbands. Accessories to a supposed lifestyle
are not necessarily an indicator of who that person is or what that person
does. Does everyone who wears "clothes that highlight drug use" use drugs?
And if they don't, does that automatically mean that they don't use drugs.

The importance of parents' role in a child's life is impossible to
overstate. Some kids will experiment with everything they can get their
hands on; just as some of their parents generation did decades earlier. You
can tell your children that todays pot is stronger than it was in the
1960s, but all that's just something grown-up former pot smokers say in an
attempt to keep kids from doing the exact same thing they did. The use of
false information and scare tactics shows that the anti-marijuana crusaders
are not far removed from failed campaigns in the past [remember Just Say
No?]. And it's not very hard for anyone (yes, even teenagers) to see that.
Kids [and adults for that matter] need to be educated on the truth about
marijuana; why are the marijuana prohibitionists so afraid to tell it to them?