ANTI-POT ADS DECEIVE YOUTH

Most people have become so habituated to seeing commercials that media
advertisements are viewed uncritically regardless of content. However, a
recent series of anti-marijuana propaganda ads begs analysis.

The portrayal of drug use in the commercials paid for by the White House
Office of National Drug Policy show the "reality" behind drug use. But these
commercials are intentionally misrepresentative. The conservative right, in
an attempt to continually make pot controversial, has no other recourse but
to lie to ensure that drug prejudices will remain in the mainstream's
convictions.

The commercial stars two teenage boys smoking marijuana when one boy pulls a
gun from a drawer. The other asks if it is loaded. A gunshot is heard. Fade
to black.

"Marijuana can distort your sense of reality," flashes across the screen.

The ridiculousness of this ad is the irrational leap it asks the viewer to
make. Does smoking pot really make fully loaded handguns materialize out of
thin air? Of course not! If it did, the Black Market would be obsolete and
Cheech and Chong would be the biggest terrorist threat in the world. The
real issue at hand in this commercial is gun control, not marijuana abuse.

But false corollaries like these are necessary in temporarily scaring away
potential drug users. However, fabrications are readily defused, their
preventative efforts effectively neutralized.

Labeled the harmful "gateway" drug by D.A.R.E, the social stigma of
marijuana has lead many impressionable minds to believe that pot is as
dangerous as dousing yourself in gasoline and daring your friends to throw
matches at you. And yet it's this depiction of marijuana that inadvertently
encourages people to smoke.

The terrible stigma marijuana has maintained can be traced back to racial
issues that originally sparked its prohibition. Between the years 1915 and
1937, 27 states outlawed marijuana. According to Charles Whitebread,
Professor of Law, USC Law School, the conception of marijuana early in the
20th century predesignated it as a Mexican indulgence.

Whitebread goes on to say that not only was marijuana falsely branded as
making Mexicans "crazy," but also made hostility towards minority groups an
acceptable reaction; rather than judging an entire ethnicity as inherently
bad, discriminating against them because of a substance they consume,
judging the action rather than the person, becomes justified.

In other words, marijuana was not an acceptable recreational pastime because
white people didn't use it.

European monks, on the other hand, invented beer, so getting drunk is okay.

However, to still believe that marijuana induces insanity or that minority
groups still only use it is extremely ignorant. Marijuana has become a part
of mainstream American culture, not just an infraction committed by ethnic
minorities. Marijuana is ubiquitous and a walk down Central Avenue will
confirm its omnipresence.

Children by their very nature want to rebel against everything their parents
have told them. And if we as a society continue to portray marijuana as a
delinquent activity, should we really be surprised if people want to flirt
with disaster? Part of drug's appeal is not only the high, but also the
moral implications: people like to feel as though they're doing something
wrong, but not too wrong. Drugs are a happy median.

While legalization is the ideal solution, America isn't ready. Until
American authority figures are willing to relay the good and the bad, the
facts about marijuana rather than the fallacies, people will continue to
abuse pot out of sheer curiosity.

If teachers and parents were upfront, the youth would be less inclined to
rebel. Rather than hyping drugs up as the bogeyman, rather than scaring
children to deter experimentation, an objective, unskewed education of drug
awareness is desirable.

If students were told, "Marijuana makes you light headed, laugh hysterically
and eat lots of junk food, but it's also highly carcinogenic,
psychologically addictive and can potentially make you sterile," instead of,
"Marijuana is the first step to a life of ruination, sleeping in gutters and
doing the unmentionable with pederasts in subway bathrooms, so crack open a
beer because it's safer," they might be better equipped to ethically weigh
their options. This type of education must be used for legal and illegal
drugs alike.

That the majority of Americans still believe legalizing marijuana will lead
society into decadence reflects a larger problem; if our society were as
advanced and sophisticated as we've been lead to believe, why do we still
fear allowing people to make decisions for themselves? Are we thoroughly
incapable of instilling a sense of moderation and responsibility in today's
youth? Are the methods used in child rearing and education so crude and
antiquated that we, as Americans, are unable to instill good decision-making
skills? Are scare tactics the only deterrent we can find?

America has always inherited closed-minded moral beliefs. Until we are
willing to break away from traditional stigma, marijuana's legalization will
be dangerous and premature. When we reach a point where we trust future
generations to set their own limits, a point that will only be achieved via
unbiased education, honesty and access to the full truth, outdated
prohibitions will disappear. Only then will the legalization of marijuana
become a viable option for America.