CAN WE PLEASE RETHINK OUR ANTI-DRUG COMMERCIALS?

PALESTINE - Have you ever seen that Above The Influence commercial
where a young Hispanic girl is talking on the phone to her friend?
Basically, she comes out of her house and says the following: "Hey
girl, que pasa? Last night was crazy, from what I can remember. Hold
on, slow down chica. A picture of me? You have to send it to me right
now." At this point she takes the phone away from her ear and looks at
what we're supposed to assume is a revealing or embarrassing picture
of her. She puts the phone back up to her ear and says, "This must be
from Saturday night. I was so high." Kids gathered around her look at
their cell phones and at the girl, while a presumably cool dude in a
white tank top stares at her like he's disappointed.

What about the one where another girl is milling about in her kitchen.
Her dog jumps up on the counter and begins speaking to her. "Hey
(insert girl's name here), I really wish you wouldn't smoke pot.
You're not the same when you smoke, and I miss my friend. I'll be
outside." The dog jumps down and runs to the door while the bewildered
girl just stares into space.

Then there's the one where we see a boy pushing a full-length mirror
through his neighborhood, eventually to his school, down the hallway,
and into the lunchroom where he wheels it until it's directly in front
of one of his friends. The voiceover then says, "Sometimes your
friends can't see what drugs do to them." The friend looks up and sees
himself in the mirror and just like that a revelation has come upon
him. He looks upset and embarrassed, and we all know that he's going
to change his ways very soon.

Are you laughing yet? You should be.

Not at the message of these commercials or what they're trying to
accomplish, that's not humorous, but at the way they're done. The war
on drugs, in particular the war to keep kids from using marijuana, has
been a very difficult struggle, and all kinds of advertisements have
been dreamt up and plastered on our television screens. But has it
worked? I doubt it. In fact, it's probably encouraged kids to start
smoking pot because they don't want to be like the ridiculous kids on
the screen. Okay, maybe that's a stretch, but let's take a look at
those commercials.

First, the Hispanic girl. I don't think we need to go into how that ad
is inherently a little racially wrong. I mean, just because she's
Hispanic doesn't mean she'll be saying 'que pasa' and 'chica'. Give me
a break. Secondly, I don't know why, but when she says her "This must
be from Saturday night. I was so high" line, I just want to start
laughing. It's so ridiculous and I'll bet quite a bit of money that's
it not deterring any kids from smoking pot. Next up, the dog
commercial. That one's just weird, and I'm not really sure what to
think of it. Lastly, the mirror. Another ridiculous situation made
even more ridiculous by the friend's reaction when he looks up and
sees himself in the mirror. I mean, since the one kid went to such
drastic measures as pushing a mirror into school, we're assuming that
just talking about the friend's problem hasn't worked, which makes it
absurd that by looking into a mirror, all of a sudden he sees the
errors of his ways and decides to change them. Please.

I feel I need to emphasize that I'm not advocating marijuana usage
before I get an angry e-mail telling me that pot is a true musician
and writes its own lyrics (man, I just can't let that one go).
However, what I am saying is that the way we're going about it now
isn't doing a bit of good. You want to stop kids from using pot? Stop
their access to it. Don't make stupid commercials telling them it's
wrong, go after the dealers and make it harder for them to get their
hands on the drug. Marijuana isn't addicting, and I bet that if it
becomes a hassle for them to get the drug, then eventually they just
won't worry about it because they'll realize it isn't worth it. If you
want to fix a problem, go after the cause, not the effect.

I do want to make special mention of one commercial that I do feel is
effective. In this particular ad, a young boy talks about smoking pot
at his friend's house and then says "And you know what happened?
Nothing. We just sat on the couch for five hours." Now, that's a good
ad. It doesn't go the whole "Drugs are super duper bad don't do them"
route and just says look, if you use it, it more than likely won't
kill you, but it's not going to be anything special for you either, so
why do it. Ads like this, coupled with cracking down on dealers, is
what needs to happen.

I hope everyone has a safe and fantastic Christmas. Take
care.