ANTI-MARIJUANA ADS PROMOTE DELUSIONS

(Source:Badger Herald)
07 Oct 2005
Wisconsin
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Many topics have dominated the headlines this semester, from the University of Wisconsin's personnel troubles to stem cells. One of the more salient issues thus far has also been marijuana: with legalization advocates holding their annual Harvest Fest in Madison earlier this week and lawmakers introducing a bill to the state legislature aiming to legalize medicinal marijuana, stoners and the ill alike appear to have high hopes for the future of the plant.

However, such optimism must be checked at the door when we take into account a group of kind activists congregating in Library Mall is extremely unlikely to change decades of abrasive drug laws, and the legislation allowing medicinal marijuana has about as much chance of passing the GOP-heavy legislature as a measure allowing homosexuals to marry.

While police refrained from arresting blatant tokers during Harvest Fest, the rest of the nation fails to embrace Madison's progressive views and continues to perpetuate rash generalizations and stereotypes when it comes to the effects of marijuana use.

The government's anti-drug campaign of the last 20 years or so has consistently stretched the truth to a degree that would certainly break even the most determined Stretch Armstrong doll.

One of the many "facts" the government pounded into our generation's minds through the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program when we were in elementary school was that marijuana is a gateway drug. Better be careful, they said, because once you put your lips to a pipe and inhale, SMACK! You're addicted to heroin.

Unfortunately, things are not always as cut and dry as our government would like us to believe. Taking into account that we attend a university The Princeton Review ranked No. 7 in terms of "reefer madness," it seems justified to assume a fair amount of students have at one point or another indulged. But we have yet to be overrun by a heroin epidemic, nor has crack reared its ugly head on campus.

When individuals recognize marijuana is not simply a stepping stone to harder drugs, they also come to the realization that their government has been less than truthful with them. And once they realize marijuana is not a tool of Lucifer himself, they could possibly question if the government was telling the truth about cocaine. As long as the government lies on one front of the war on drugs, students have no reason to believe they are being truthful on another.

A personal favorite anti-drug ad came during the Superbowl following the Sept. 11 attacks. The commercial ( that cost the government more than $3 million ) said flat out that if you purchase marijuana you're supporting terrorists. Coming on the heels of the attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., this message appeared exceptionally poignant to some. However, this is quite possibly the most egregious case of using Sept. 11 for political gain. The White House capitalized on the post-Sept. 11 mindset and built an argument based on flimsy evidence that has since been widely discredited.

The contention that Osama bin Laden grew the marijuana students at the UW use is absurd. Most of the suspected "dealers" on campus sport dreadlocks coupled with a tie-dyed Grateful Dead t-shirt and a quasi-confused smile, not a military jacket and an AK-47.

While the government's message is full of half-truths and exaggerations, they are nonetheless effective. There was no public outcry for a ruthless anti-drug policy among Americans prior to the 1980s. However, that all changed once Nancy Reagan became the first lady, although it took a few years.

Through her genius "Just say no!" campaign, Mrs. Reagan and her followers created a crisis that simply did not exist. In 1985, The New York Times asked Americans "What do you think is the most important problem facing this country today?" The overwhelming pick was nuclear war, while less than one percent said the most important problem facing the country was drugs. However, after being bombarded with advertisement after advertisement, that number skyrocketed to an amazing 54 percent by 1989. Are we to believe that drug use increased 5,400 percent over the course of four years, or could this possibly be another instance of the government telling the public what to think?

These numbers could possibly be explained by claiming the arrival of crack on American streets was to blame for the feelings, not marijuana. However, during a similar period, feelings toward marijuana steadily became less and less tolerant, as the same poll found 57 percent thought possession of a small amount of marijuana should be treated as a criminal offense, up from 41 percent in 1977.

The government has a duty to be truthful to every citizen. Unfortunately, when it comes to marijuana our government consistently engages in a misinformation campaign. There are almost undoubtedly citizens across the country that view marijuana as an evil substance with extraordinary power that can turn Wally Cleaver into a drug crazed maniac overnight, and until the government wises up and stops lying to its citizens such misconceptions are bound to continue.

i hate propaganda

they are trying to brain wash us all

the propaganda is widespread where i live, anti-pot ads on tv every 2 minutes it seems, and while i agree that it is nonsense, it is important to remember that these ads are funded by the major pharmacueticals to slow down the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes here in the USA. our government doesnt have the money for social security or healthcare, let alone running anti-pot ads, it's the major pharmacueticals spending a pittance of the amount they stand to lose if med pot is legalized, jmho.

Propaganda is nothing new. It's been around as long as mankind has. It's how governments survive - all of them!

For instance, history: History is written by the victors - and the history lessons we learned in American schools are not the same as the history lessons taught elsewhere.

We are inundated by propaganda from the day we are old enough to start understanding spoken language. TV & radio have made it that much more prevalent and we are so used to it that we usually don't even notice it.

Take a step back someday and listen to the words & "hidden meaning" behind the phrases used by our news media (newspapers, radio, & TV). They don't just report the news, they tell you what to think about it and what your opinion should be! This was bad enough when I was young, but it's gotten so much worse that I won't read, listen, or watch the news any longer.

A couple of years after I got out of school, they started teaching a "consumer awareness" class to students on how to interpret advertising and how not to be taken in. My brother passed a lot of what he learned on to me and it's interesting just how useful that has been in "interpreting" our government's B.S.

pharmaceutical companies as a rule don't like unpatented medications

pharmaceutical companies as a rule don't like unpatented medications

as medication exclusitivity equates to HUGE, immense, vast, incredibly large amounts of money for the stockholders, and thats whats most important for them, truth be known, making lots of money for their stockholders.

Medical Cannabis Reduces Patients' Reliance On Other Medications, Study Says.
October 6, 2005

Sydney, Australia:
More than half of Australians who use cannabis medicinally use it to treat symptoms of chronic pain and depression, and more than 60 percent report that it has led to a decrease in their use of standard pharmaceuticals, according to survey data published in the October issue of the Harm Reduction Journal.

One hundred and twenty-eight Australians with a long-term history of medical cannabis use participated in the survey, performed by the University of South Wales' National Drug and Alcohol Research Center. "[R]egular medical cannabis use was frequently reported for multiple medical conditions including chronic pain (57 percent), depression (56 percent), arthritis (35 percent), persistent nausea (27 percent) and weight loss (26 percent)," authors found. "Cannabis was perceived to provide 'great relief' overall (86 percent), and substantial relief of specific symptoms such as pain, nausea and insomnia. It was also typically perceived as superior to other medications in terms of undesirable effects, and the extent of relief provided."

Researchers further noted: "Almost two-thirds (62 percent) of respondents claimed they decreased or discontinued their use of other medicines when they started using cannabis medicinally. ... For some people this was a substantial change, representing a shift away from chronic, high-dose medication use."

Participants in the survey ranged from 24 to 88 years old, with more than half reporting having used cannabis medically for at least six years. Ten percent of respondents reported that they used cannabis on the recommendation of their physician.

Overall, respondents considered cannabis inhalation to be the most "helpful" route of administration for symptom relief, though many expressed concerns regarding the potential health effects of smoking.

"Consistent with users elsewhere, ... Australian medical cannabis users ... claim moderate to substantial benefits from [the drug's] use in the management of their medical condition ... [and] show strong interest in clinical cannabis research, including the investigation of alternative delivery methods," authors concluded.

Propaganda is a specific type of message presentation aimed at serving an agenda. At its root, the denotation of propaganda is 'to propagate (actively spread) a philosophy or point of view'. The most common use of the term (historically) is in political contexts; in particular to refer to certain efforts sponsored by governments or political groups.

Purpose of propaganda


The aim of propaganda is to influence people's opinions actively, rather than to merely communicate the facts about something. For example, propaganda might be used to garner either support or disapproval of a certain position, rather than to simply present the position. What separates propaganda from "normal" communication is in the subtle, often insidious, ways that the message attempts to shape opinion. For example, propaganda is often presented in a way that attempts to deliberately evoke a strong emotion, especially by suggesting illogical (or non-intuitive) relationships between concepts.

An appeal to one's emotions is, perhaps, more obvious a propaganda method than utilized by some other less overt and perhaps even more insidious forms. For instance, propaganda may be transmitted implicitly.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda#Techniques_of_propaganda_transmission

"What to Teach Kids About Marijuana" is pretty classic antidrug propaganda, actually aimed at parents and teachers rather than children. The authors throw around statements like “Three times more potent and toxic than it was a decade ago, marijuana poses a serious threat to the health and safety of young people who use it today,” with no attempt to cite sources.
This is rather ironic considering that one of their tips for “helping your child choose wisely” is to “learn the facts and teach the facts. When you speak to your child, you want him or her to find you believable.”

But the prize for the hands down most ludicrous book has to go to "Danger: Marijuana".
Written apparently for four to eight years olds, it helpfully sounds out words like addicted (a-DIK-ted), stoned (STONED), and marijuana (mare-I-WA-na) which is defined thusly, “A drug that slows down a person’s body and makes him or her see things that aren’t there”. It includes such gems as, “When someone inhales [marijuana] smoke, it goes through the lungs and into the blood-stream (BLUD-stream). Then it reaches the brain. It hurts your body along the way”, and “You probably like to watch TV [apparently this is good] or play with your friends or read. If you use marijuana, you might laugh and act silly for a little while. But when the marijuana wears off, you won’t want to play baseball or ride your bike or see your friends... All you’ll want to do is use more marijuana.” Danger: Marijuana also features a nice picture of what looks like a bag of oregano on the cover, and to illustrate the ‘fact’ that marijuana (and oregano?) makes you feel “tired, sad, and sometimes even sick to your stomach,” it also includes a picture of a woman clutching her stomach in front of a row of empty beer bottles. Methinks the authors are a bit confused.

Madison is one awesome place... i spend alot of time there

There isn't very many anti-pot commercials here in BC. The only ones I see are when I watch american TV. And the difference between american news and Canadian news is substantial...American news doesn't just report the news they interpret it...Canadian news isn't as blatant, just alot less entertaining.