FIGHT TERRORISM-GROW YOUR OWN POT!

Drugs And Terrorism And Insulting Ads

It was only a matter of time: A new television ad campaign suggests
that if you drive a sport -utility vehicle, you are helping terrorism
by putting money in the pockets of oil-producing, terrorism-sponsoring
countries like Saudi Arabia and Iraq. One of the commercials cuts from
a man at a gas station to a map of the Middle East to video footage of
a terrorist training camp, while a little girl's voice says, "These
are the terrorists who get money from those countries every time
George fills up his SUV."

The commercials, which started to air on Sunday, are already causing
controversy. Some local television stations have refused to run them
because of concerns about their accuracy. Spokesmen for the auto
industry have been dismissive, and even Senator John Kerry of
Massachusetts, a leading proponent of tougher fuel efficiency
standards, has distanced himself from the ads' accusatory message.

While I don't drive an SUV, I have little sympathy for anti-SUV
rhetoric, which often replaces facts and reasoned analysis with a
quasi-religious zeal to denounce America's sins of excessive
consumption. The ads linking SUV ownership to terrorism are the latest
manifestation of this mindset, and one can point to numerous problems
with their premise.

Drivers of small cars fill up at the same gas pumps as SUV owners;
it's not just what you drive, it's how much you drive. ("I say if your
drive your offspring to any superfluous activity besides school,
you're supporting terrorism," a friend of mine sarcastically
suggested.) Critics point out that some of the wealthy sponsors of
these commercials live in vast, oil-heated homes, have fleets of cars,
and fly private jets.

In one sense, however, the ads are most welcome-as a parody of the
even more ludicrous commercials from the Office of National Drug
Control Policy, which assert that anyone who uses drugs is helping
support terrorism.

The "drug money funds terrorism" ad campaign was launched by the
government a year ago. First, there were the ads in which clean-cut
teenagers and young adults stared into the camera saying things like
"I helped blow up a building." A new series of ads, currently on the
airwaves, shows two men in suits discussing the connection between
drugs and terrorism. The younger man, who looks rather clueless, tries
to argue that it's a complicated issue; his older- and wiser-looking
companion quickly sets him straight, and he concludes, "Not that
complicated."

It's hard to think of a more blatant insult to the intelligence of the
American public than this crass attempt to exploit the tragedy of
Sept. 11 for the antidrug agenda.

Do terrorists sometimes benefit from drug profits? The answer is yes.
The heroin and opium trade in Central Asia has been identified, in
particular, as a source of funding for terrorist groups including the
Taliban and Al Qaeda. But there really is more than one side to this
issue. The Taliban also profited from our war on drugs, receiving $43
million from the US government in 2001 for the purpose of eradicating
Afghanistan's heroin-producing poppy fields. And whatever one thinks
of the various pros and cons of drug legalization, it's hard to deny
that prohibition is what allows criminal groups, including terrorists,
to profit from the drug trade.

Meanwhile, as the Drug Policy Alliance notes, the federal authorities
have yet to come up with conclusive proof of a single case in which
proceeds from drug dealing in the United States went to Middle Eastern
terrorists. And some claims about the drug-terror link are downright
misleading. Thus, drug war zealots have cited evidence that Ecstasy
trade has a Middle Eastern connection, obviously implying a terrorist
link. In fact, the organized crime groups allegedly involved in
Ecstasy trafficking consist of Israelis from the former Soviet Union-
who may not be nice guys, of course, but can hardly be suspected of
funneling money to the Al Qaeda.

Surely, Americans who get locked up for growing marijuana plants in
their basements have not given any aid or comfort to international
terrorists. Yet somehow, I doubt that we'll see an ad campaign with
the slogan, "Fight terrorism-grow your own pot!"

In the past two decades, the US government has expended billions of
dollars and untold human effort on the War on Drugs. Just when the
terrorist threat might have made us question the wisdom of this
investment, the drug warriors quickly piggybacked onto the War against
Terrorism. Come to think of it, it's not that complicated.

Cathy Young is a Reason contributing editor and the author of Growing
Up in Moscow: Memories of a Soviet Girlhood. This column appeared in
the Boston Globe on January 6, 2003.