POT MAY BE DOPE

When it goes to selling a product, advertisers known that fear is a great motivator.  Take a look at almost any ad today and you'll see how it tries to instill the fear that if the consumer does not buy that certain product then their lives will be horrible.  If you don't use Clearasil then you'll have bad skin and you'll never get a girlfriend; without a Brinks security system, your family is vulnerable; don't use Deep Woods Off- then prepare for West Nile virus.  This tactic is not only useful in selling products but in selling ideas as well and possibly the most accurate example of that can be found by those who support marijuana prohibition.

Former Congressman Bob Barr, one of the most aggressive anti-marijuana zealots, stated in 1999 [while he was still in Congress], "It is truly sad to see marijuana legalization activists using seriously ill patients as props in their campaign to make dangerous, mind-altering drugs legally available.  All existing research strongly indicates that smoked marijuana has no medical benefits, and in fact significantly damages the health of those who use it.  It is despicable for legalization advocates to offer false hope to the sick in a cynical effort to legalize marijuana" Barr's statement is full of buzz words such as "mind-alerting" and "false hope" but what's missing is factual evidence.  That same year the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine issued a report that proclaimed, "We conclude that there are some limited circumstances in which we recommend smoking marijuana for medical uses." Marijuana is used to treat patients who suffer from AIDS, cancer, and glaucoma, among other illnesses.

So marijuana has medicinal benefits, how could anyone justify denying patients medicine but keeping it outlawed? Marijuana prohibitionists are not ones to give up easy.  There still remains the myth that the legalization of medical marijuana will increase teen use.  Yes, it is quite easy to see how a sixteen year old would want to smoke pot just because a cancer patient smokes to keep from vomiting after chemotherapy [sarcasm mode turned off].  This claim is so baseless that it could have been taken from the Reefer Madness script.  California passed its first state medical marijuana law, Proposition 215, in 1996; teen use of marijuana has since skyrocketed, right? Not at all.  California's Attorney General, Bill Lockyer released the results of the 2003-2004 California Students Survey this August.  The study reveals that marijuana use among teens is significantly lower than in 1996.  The percentage of ninth graders who have used marijuana in the past six months has dropped nearly fifty percent, from 34.2 percent to 18.8 percent.  Bruce Mirken, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, stated that claims saying legalization of medical marijuana will increase teen use "are false, as eight years of experience in our nation's largest state has now demonstrated."

Perhaps the most nauseating anti-marijuana campaign is the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign.  This is the group behind those "anti-drug" commercial most of us have seen on television.  The ads depict how marijuana smoking will ruin lives and feature such scenarios as a young girl getting pregnant and a child poised to fall into a pool because whoever was supposed to be watching her was busy getting high [but it would be ok if they were busy watching anti-drug commercials on TV, right?].  However the hysteria gets even worse if you visit their website www.theantidrug.com.  Among sections such as "Drug Lingo" and "Where are Drug Paraphernalia Sold" is perhaps the most interesting section, the "Watch List for Parents".  This handy list includes things to look for they indicate that they are using drugs ( the list seems to primarily be geared toward marijuana use ).  Some of the things to look for are, "use of incense", "new use of mouthwash", "bottles of eye drops", and "new fascination with clothes that highlight drug use".  I won't deny that pot smokers will use eye drops and mouth wash to rid themselves of bloodshot eyes and bad breath; but is this not just another excuse for lazy parent to feel like they're making a difference.  That by keeping tabs on the mouthwash and an eye peeled for "clothes that highlight drug use" [whatever that may be], they're doing their best to keep their kids off drugs.  Today's parents shouldn't waster their time worrying about their kid's clothes and incense use for the same reason that the previous generations parents shouldn't have wasted their time being concerned with tie-dye and headbands.  Accessories to a supposed lifestyle are not necessarily an indicator of who that person is or what that person does.  Does everyone who wears "clothes that highlight drug use" use drugs? And if they don't, does that automatically mean that they don't use drugs.

The importance of parents' role in a child's life is impossible to overstate.  Some kids will experiment with everything they can get their hands on; just as some of their parents generation did decades earlier.  You can tell your children that todays pot is stronger than it was in the 1960s, but all that's just something grown-up former pot smokers say in an attempt to keep kids from doing the exact same thing they did.  The use of false information and scare tactics shows that the anti-marijuana crusaders are not far removed from failed campaigns in the past [remember Just Say No?].  And it's not very hard for anyone ( yes, even teenagers ) to see that.  Kids [and adults for that matter] need to be educated on the truth about marijuana; why are the marijuana prohibitionists so afraid to tell it to them?