ANTI-POT ADS ARE LAUGHABLE

This Super Bowl marked the debut of yet another mindless continuation in
the ongoing anti-marijuana advertising campaign. This commercial starts off
looking like it's for a home pregnancy kit -- a young couple is in the
bathroom, holding a pregnancy tester, nervously awaiting the results.
Slowly, the camera pans away to show a young girl huddled on a bed crying;
the words "They will be the youngest grandparents in town" flash across the
screen. The commercial ends with a voiceover stating, "Marijuana impairs
your judgment. It's more harmful than we all thought," while the phrase
"Knowledge, the anti-drug" is displayed in the background.

It seems the only goal of this ongoing campaign is to top the previous
commercials, in terms of how ridiculous, unfounded and unbelievable they
are. The Web site for the sponsor of these ads, Freevibe, goes for a hip,
we're-cool-so-kids-please-listen-to-us look, with stylized graphics and
photos. The site also attempts to explain the baffling logic behind such
commercials as the teen pregnancy one.

The page begins "You've heard it before, someone goes out, gets high on
marijuana, lowers their boundaries and does something they really, really
regret afterwards.

"Unfortunately, this happens more than you think." I'm sorry, but the last
time I heard of someone getting high and doing something they regretted the
next day, it involved ordering one slice of pizza too many, or laughing in
someone's face because they were too high to control themselves.

Truth be told, I've never heard of weed being an aphrodisiac before; for
most, it has the opposite effect.

In fact, an old anti-marijuana campaign, based on different lies and even
more outrageous claims once said that smoking marijuana could lower a man's
sperm count, and even make him "turn homosexual." Personally, I don't know
any homosexuals who go out there and impregnate young teenage girls, or, as
was implied in one commercial, get a girl so high that she passes out so
that he can fondle her unconscious body. Usually, that's what happens with
alcohol.

Back to Freevibe. The three reasons it lists for marijuana being linked to
pregnancy are as follows:

1. Teens who use drugs are five times more likely to have sex than are
those teens who do not use drugs.

2. Teens who have used marijuana are four times more likely to have been
pregnant or to have gotten someone pregnant than teens who have never
smoked pot.

3. More than one third of sexually active teens and young adults report
that alcohol or drug use has influenced a decision to do something sexual.

Clearly, no one running this site has ever taken a basic psychology class
and learned of the problem between correlation and causation.

An example -- some serial killers own dogs. If I were with Freevibe, I
could then say that owning a dog makes you more likely to become a serial
killer. Concerning their statistics however, was it ever taken into
consideration that maybe, just maybe, the type of teen who goes out and
gets pregnant is also the type of teen who would experiment with drugs? One
did not cause the other, rather, they were the reckless, rebellious type
who didn't stay home on Saturday nights to watch TV with mom and dad.

Interestingly enough, reason number three mentions alcohol -- surely a much
bigger factor in teen pregnancy, domestic violence, destruction of the
family and overall deterioration of society as a whole than marijuana. But
where are the anti-booze ads? Save for the "drink responsibly" message
tossed into the last 2 seconds of a beer commercial, I don't remember the
government telling me what I'm supposed to think about drinking, except
that it's only OK if I'm 21.

Although bizarre, the teen pregnancy ad was good for a laugh. But it's
still not my favorite anti-drug commercial, a title still held by the one
where a bunch of kids are sitting in the parking lot of a fast food
restaurant getting high and ordering food -- until one day they run out of
money. (Running out of money is a real problem when it comes to taking
illegal drugs; why don't they ever touch on this?) So anyway, the kids run
out of money and speed out of the parking lot, running over a little girl
on her bike on the way out.

The first time I saw this was before a movie, and even though it earned me
dirty looks from most of the other patrons, I laughed my head off.

This commercial was so unrealistic, and, not to mention, had so little to
do with problems associated with drug abuse, that I had no choice. Last
time I checked, people on cell phones are a lot more dangerous behind the
wheel than people smoking blunts.

I'm not saying that marijuana is a safe drug, though it is better than
alcohol, and come to think of it, if everyone who went out and got drunk
just got high instead, the world would be a better place. But this isn't
the issue.

The government spends millions of dollars on commercials that either make
no sense or have no effect on people.

Why don't they point out some of the actual, scientific problems associated
with weed? Like, it can trigger depression, bring about schizophrenia (in
those already prone to the disease) and cause respiratory and heart
problems. The "Truth" anti-tobacco campaign has been effective because it
focuses on real facts, real statistics and real problems, not fictitious
events too outrageous to even be considered urban legends.