Action Alert: Cut Those Stupid TV Ads!
Are you tired of your tax money being used to pay for those stupid anti-marijuana commercials? The ones that compare marijuana smokers to terrorists and claim marijuana will make you crazy, get you raped, cause you to shoot your neighbor and give you bird flu? Ok, we made that last one up. But, doesn't it sound like something the government would say?
You can help us take those stupid commercials off the air by taking action now.
As you may know, five government studies have found that the ads have not reduced marijuana use - and two of the studies found that the ads might make some teenagers more likely to start using marijuana. Now, a new study by two researchers at Texas State University-San Marcos finds that 18- to 19-year-old college students who view the TV ads develop more positive attitudes towards marijuana than those who do not. This "boomerang" effect occurs because people tend to rebel against fear-based arguments, factual inaccuracies and messages that don't conform to their perceptions and experiences.
It's bad enough that the government is wasting your money on stupid anti-marijuana commercials. It's even worse that these commercials are backfiring. Over the last four years the Alliance has helped slash the program's annual funding from $180 million to $100 million. With this latest study we hope to finally convince Congress to kill this counterproductive program.
Please fax your member of Congress!
Here is the link:
http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=30046&MS=ONDCPAds-051706-enews(I'm not sure how to do links, so someone is welcome to edit this so it's clickable)
this is what I added to the letter:
I am teaching a Harm Reduction Class to teens this fall telling them the TRUTH about drugs, because we know that some teens, either these teens, or perhaps their friends will try some drugs at some time and we want to make sure they know thing that can reduce the harm it does to them and to their communities. It will teach them that people who choose to smoke marijuana, one time or more than one time, would be safer if they used a vaporizer, or any sort of filter. If they could cool the smoke a bit, if they did it in moderation with trustworthy friends or adults around until they know how it affects them, and at a time when they won't be needing to be responsible to drive a car or work a job or do schoolwork. Ecstacy users need to know that most "ecstacy" is actually tampered with, either not the real thing or containing other things like speed which can addict you faster. They need to know where they can get test kits so they can see if they are really getting ecstacy which they can research the affects of, or something else that will hurt them more permenantly. They need to know to drink lots of water if they use it, and they need to know that they need to rest and allow their bodies to cool because people have died of dehydration and heat from use of ecstacy. This kind of class will save lives and improve the lives of people around the country because it is realistic! This is what I wish I had gotten when I was younger instead of "smoke marijuana one time and you'll get addicted and ruin your whole life" which was the impression I got at age 8.
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