HARMFUL DRUGS, HARMFUL ADS

When I was young(er than I am now), anti-drug commercials starred Ninja
Turtles and sported catchy, youthful slogans such as "I'm not a chicken,
you're a turkey." The most intense ad that I can remember is the famous
egg-frying commercial that clearly demonstrated the difference between my
brain and my brain on drugs.

Last year, soon after Sept. 11, anti-drug commercials started to change.

The National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign began by running a few
commercials that linked marijuana use with supporting terrorism.

These and many other ads in this campaign are frighteningly radical.

They often distort the truth and sometimes (as is often the case with the
terrorism-themed commercials) seem to miss the point entirely.

One of the most shocking commercials in this campaign features two boys, one
of whom is holding a smoking water pipe, clearly getting high. They converse
for a bit, saying "pothead" things like, "Dude, your sister's hot." Finally,
one of them picks up a gun, saying, "Check this out." "Cool, is it loaded?"
"Nah." The image fades and a shot is heard as the message, "Marijuana can
distort your sense of reality," appears.

It is replaced by the question that many of the commercials in this campaign
end with: "Harmless?" What is lacking in this and other commercials that
take the approach that smoking pot can result in physical injury to oneself
and others is statistical evidence.

There probably have been murders, suicides, car accidents, and other
tragedies that occurred in conjunction with marijuana consumption, but there
simply isn't scientific evidence in support of a link between such
occurrences and the consumption of marijuana.

To anyone who has seen the cult 1930s film Reefer Madness, the above
commercial should seem familiar.

Inspired by the anti-marijuana campaign of Henry Anslinger, the first head
of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, the film portrays various healthy,
capable teenagers turning into violent criminals or sex maniacs under the
influence of pot. Anslinger orchestrated a vigorous slander campaign against
marijuana that was epitomized by such writings as his 1937 article,
"Marijuana: Assassin of Youth." In this article, among other things, he
said, "No one knows, when he places a marijuana cigarette to his lips,
whether he will become a joyous reveler in a musical heaven, a mad
insensate, a calm philosopher, or a murderer."

Anslinger's campaign was a total failure.

In fact, some attribute the rise in marijuana use following the campaign's
start to the interest that it generated in youth because of Anslinger's
extreme claims and because of the size of his audience.

If unreasonable scare tactics failed to curb marijuana use in the past, how
can they succeed in affecting today's more-informed, experienced teenagers?

The most curious aspect of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign is
that its commercials often carry a hidden, obviously unintended message.

In one such commercial, two boys are shown getting caught smoking in a
bathroom stall at a concert.

The intended message: "Marijuana can get you busted. Harmless?" The
unintended message: "If marijuana weren't illegal, you wouldn't get busted."
The same applies to the commercials that link marijuana use to funding
terrorism and to violence associated with drug smuggling.

The "Harmless?" line of commercials, specifically, creates room for an
exercise in logic that its engineers surely didn't foresee.

Admittedly, marijuana, like every legal and illegal drug from aspirin to
heroin, is not harmless. But, is it fair to assume that if something is not
harmless, it should be illegal or even that it shouldn't be used for
recreational or therapeutic purposes under controlled circumstances?
Alcohol, tobacco, and caffeine are all drugs that are not harmless but are
legal and frequently-used substances. By reducing the question of marijuana
use to one of whether or not it is harmless, the National Youth Anti-Drug
Media Campaign is leaving itself open to such basic criticisms. The focus of
such commercials should not be trying to prove that illegal drug use can
have terrible unforeseen consequences. Instead, they should try, as they did
when I was younger, to provide young Americans with effective methods for
resisting peer pressure or with a reasonable understanding of the damaging
effects of substance abuse on a person's health.

And, there is no reason why the focus of such commercials should be illegal
and not legal drugs. While there are, indeed, anti-smoking ads, the
mysterious absence of commercials condemning alcohol use is inexcusable.

Indeed, not all of today's anti-drug commercials are as absurd as those
described above.

Some provide tips for parents on being an "anti-drug" for their children.

This is reasonable. A commercial that links marijuana smoking to homicide is
not only unreasonable and unfounded but also chilling to watch.

Anslinger's campaign failed, and it should not be revived.