KNOWLEDGE IS POWER: SO KNOW WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON

I saw a very interesting commercial the other day. It started off with a
middle-aged woman looking at a pregnancy test. The stoic hubby waited in
the next room. The flash of words across the bottom of the screen: "There
will be a new addition to their family soon." Then, the pregnancy test
comes out positive.

More flashing words: "They will be the youngest grandparents in town."
Hubby joins woman in the bathroom and both look over at a teenage girl,
disappointed and dejected.

Then not just words, but a speaker recites to a surprised audience:
"Marijuana can inhibit your judgment. Marijuana. It's more harmful then we
all thought.

Knowledge is power."

Another interesting commercial: There were two "dummies" driving a car and
smoking marijuana.

After they take a toke, they subsequently crash into a wall. Then, the
voice again, "Marijuana. It's more harmful than we all thought. Knowledge
is power." I couldn't help thinking about how these commercials would be
perfect as "responsible drinking ads." This commercial caught me by
surprise, because when I first saw the "pregnancy" ad, I thought the ad was
about responsible drinking.

There really are no anti-drinking ads.

There are plenty of anti-marijuana and anti-cigarette ads. An
anti-cigarette smoking ad, in fact, talks about how many people a year die
from cigarette smoking.

I thought about alcohol related deaths.

Another cigarette commercial talks about how tobacco companies target young
audiences. I thought about Budweiser frogs and how damn cute they are. The
problem is that there are virtually no responsible drinking ads. I think
the ratio of anti-drug/cigarette commercials to responsible drinking ads is
very unfortunate because most of the reasons for not participating in
cigarette/ganja smoking (causes unwanted pregnancy, driving accidents,
death) is a small following compared to the oldest big brother that is
alcohol consumption. Television does not warn the general population
against very real consequences from alcohol abuse. (And the microscopic 5
pt. print "drink responsibly" at the bottom of the screen doesn't count).

There are, however, plenty of ads promoting alcohol.

It is unfortunate that America's youth, who are greatly influenced by the
media, get to see ads demoralizing marijuana for unwanted pregnancy when
stronger studies have been made about the effects of unwanted pregnancy
related to alcohol. Research in Brief Scientists Maria Testa, Ph.D. and R.
Lorriane Collins, Ph.D. state that women are more likely to have sex with
men they have just met that day when they have consumed alcohol than if
they were not drinking. (www.ria.org). Further research also suggests that
41% of women have one-night stands when they are drunk
(society.guardian.co.uk).

But there are no ads describing these statistics. The public gets to see
ads displaying pot as related to car accidents when, according to the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, "An estimated 513,000
people are injured in alcohol-related crashes each year... approximately
one person every minute." Compare that to a study in 1998 published on
www.forreal.org saying that 77,000 people under the influence of marijuana
are involved in injuries or car accidents.

Over six times more people are injured in car accidents from alcohol than
marijuana.

I must have missed that ad too. According to the Center on Alcohol
Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University (www.camy.org), "America's
youth are 60 times more likely to see a commercial for an alcoholic
beverage in 2001 than they were to see a responsibility ad purchased by the
alcohol industry." Now, I don't know about you, but I can't even remember
when I last saw a commercial for responsible drinking, except back in the
early '90s with the "Friends don't let friends drive drunk" campaign.

The Web Site www.hea-lth.org made public that in 1998, there were 105
mil-lion people consuming alcohol and 14.8 million using mar-ijuana. So,
there are over seven tim-es more people using alcohol than marijuana, over
six times the car acci-dents associated with alcohol than marijuana and
lowered sexual inhibitions under the influence of alcohol.

There. A perfect sales pitch.

Now, where's the commercial?

Finally, a study by the Department of Pharmacology University of Sydney,
Australia shows that under the influence of alcohol, people are more likely
to make hasty responses, which may lead to risk-taking behavior, as opposed
to the slower more deliberate response to problems under the influence of
marijuana. I don't see why there can't be more alcohol awareness ads on
television, unless industries are scared that the ga-gillion dollars they
receive from Budweiser would be cut. Without a doubt, there are more
detrimental side effects than we all thought about alcohol.

Knowledge is power, people.

Knowledge is power.