DRUG COMMERCIALS FILLED WITH FALSE INFORMATION CAUSES EXTREME HATRED

Disclaimer: I do not condone the use of any illegal substance. All opinions
stated in this column are based on the extreme hatred of false information.

That being said, few things make me as mad as the current anti-drug
campaigns, for no other reason than the fact that they are filled with
false information.

I have known a lot of people who have smoked pot at some point in their
life, and none of them have ever shot anyone, ran over a little girl on her
bicycle, or ran into a brick wall at sixtyEmiles an hour.

Here are the facts: marijuana might make you stupid. I've met a few
burnouts in my day. It will probably give you an appetite for junk food -
anyone who has ever watched a movie with pot smokers in it could tell you
that. But the chances of killing someone after smoking pot are nonexistent.

But a group campaigning with the word "knowledge" tagged onto their
commercials has seemingly ignored common knowledge in hopes to spread
ignorance and lies about the use of the illegal substance marijuana.

Just one quick example: these would-be informative sources show a group of
guys smoking marijuana at a concert, then getting arrested. Reality check:
that never happens. I've been to quite a few concerts in my lifetime and I
have never seen anyone arrested for smoking pot at a concert.

I've seen out of control drunks get arrested, but I've never seen the cops
busting someone who was puffing the magic dragon. Most concerts I've been
to, the cops just looked the other way, because it wasn't the pot smokers
who were causing trouble.

In closing, I'm not against all anti-drug campaigns. To tell you the truth,
there are some I'm quite fond of. The one where the kid is dressed "weird"
(for lack of a better term) and the parents ask him about where he's going
and what he's doing is one of the best.

The slogan on that commercial is "Let your kids be themselves, but know
what they're doing" (or something to that effect). I think that that is a
wonderful message to send to America's youth - "you can be yourself and we
won't judge you - also, drugs can make you stupid, so watch out." To me,
that seems a lot better than blowing the facts out of proportion.