I stopped into a sub (sandwich) shop to grap a sandwich to go.
By the cash register was a display of decks of “playing cards”.
Each deck featured 52 cards, each with a truely gross drawing of dead or dying spectors.
They came in two themes:
Anti-smoking
Anti-drugs
This was in San Francisco, across from GG park, approx 1.5 miles from the legendary Polo Field.
Quite depressing.
I used to like the the sandwiches from that shop… 
Faster! … Faster!
So, OK, how DO you warn kids about the dangers of marijuana use? And please do not tell me that dope is not dangerous, 'cos I’ve got enough anecdotes to fill a Mims Annual with warnings, side-effects and contraindications.
Dope is NOT always cool for every person. While most of us can smoke it occasionally and even perhaps regularly without any long term ill effects, there are others who cannot. It CAN precipitate psychotic episodes, it DOES contribute to lung disease, it DOES engender a type of apathy in users that sees them unable to discern the predicament they might be in. THC is a toxic drug, just like many others, and does have detrimental effects. I believe it is as addictive as some other drugs like alcohol and speed…but not as addictive as tobacco or heroin. In that vein, I suggest that there SHOULD be warnings about its effects. Whether the media is doing it properly is another matter. So, all you defenders of dope, how do you reckon it should be dealt with??
Just tell them the truth. Say that, like alcohol, it may be toxic for their systems, and that, when they’re adults, they may decide for themselves. (Note that it doesn’t contribute to lung disease if you bake it in brownies.)
If you’ll check out www.erowid.org, it has some fine, fairly objective, FAQs and such about marijuana and many other drugs. You’ll find that its addiction potential is limited to psychological addiction. Alcohol, however, is both psychologically and physically addictive. In fact, in hospitals, alcoholics may actually be given alcohol because a person who is addicted badly enough can DIE from lack of alcohol.
If marijuana was legalized, it could also be standardized. The better the pot, the less you have to smoke. The less you have to smoke, the less it harms you. Not to mention that the price could be much lower, making it feasible to use it in cooking (which takes inordinate amounts of pot, which mostly only dealers can afford) thereby reducing the toxicity to the body.
Instead of scare tactics, the facts should be used to at least make marijuana use safer. Let people know that a water bong is healthier, “shotguns” (smoke is blown forcibly to another from the end of the joint) are worse for your lungs as well as holding the smoke in your lungs for long periods of time. People who want to smoke pot are generally gonna do it no matter what anyone says, but they should be informed about safer smoking.
I apologize for a lack of particular cites for information, but I make a point to thoroughly research what I use. Since I have permanently scarred lungs from a hospital mistake, I have to be extra careful about smoking pot, and probably really shouldn’t do it. However, I have been researching it for years, and I’m certain that my information is accurate.
Not to mention much experimentation with myself as the test subject. Purely for anecdotal information, of course. Ahh, the things I do in the name of science. 
I’m pretty anti-drugs, have no use for pot and find people who smoke it tend to become pretty dull and moronic (at least, while they’re high). But even I rolled my eyes at that commercial so hard that I nearly needed medical attention.
On the other hand, it would’ve made a pretty good gun-control PSA . . .
Hmmmm… Wait I see it all now.
We open on that same room:
Two Kids sitting in dad’s room playing with a gun.
Lil’ Billy: Hey Look at this!
Lil’ Willy: Cool, guns are so cool.
Lil’ Billy: And ownership is a protected right too!
Lil’: Willy: That ain’t loaded is it?
Lil’Billy: What kinda moron do you think my dad is? Do you think he’d leave a loaded gun in an unlocked drawer in a room he knows we play in?
BANG!!
Billy shoots Willy and in a picture montage we see as he is sent to jail, meanwhile Willy survives the wound but is in debilitating pain.
While in Jail Billy is exposed to Pot while Willy requires it for Medicinal reasons.
PSA ends with the Slogan:
Guns cause drug use in more Children than Alcohol and Smoking combined.
The only time I’ve ever had a loaded gun held to my head, I managed to get permission to smoke a joint as a last request. The gunman eventually had a toke and started mellowing out and I was able to reason with him and disarm him. Since then, I always carry a joint on me, no matter the situation, you never know what mean-ass drunken assholes are out there. Pot saved my life, most assuredly. Make a commercial out of that.
Props to Meatros who says that the government shouldn’t lie to kids. Another effect of this lying is that if the government lied about smoking up, maybe heroin or pharmacrap is worth the risk too.
Also, in the “chain of events” type ads, why stop there, who comes after the cartels?
Well, I guess the most accurate statement in that quote is that pot isn’t for everyone. It’s not. A tiny percentage of people are prone to something akin to “panic attacks” after smoking pot. Others don’t like the paranoia. Still others simply don’t like the feeling of being stoned.
Very heavy pot use can indeed precipitate psychotic events in susceptible individuals, but then so can heavy alcohol drinking.
As far as lung disease goes, common sense would tell you that combusting plant matter and inhaling the resultant smoke can’t be the healthiest thing in the world. Not exactly a newsflash. What you fail to mention is that, unlike cigarettes, there are ways to use marijuana without risking cancer. THC vaporization is one such method. Ingesting pot-spiked food products is another.
This is simply wrong. Alcohol kills brain cells. Pot doesn’t. Early studies that “proved” it did were based on extremely flawed methodology, to say the least. Subsequent studies have been unable to replicate their results. Anti-drug propaganda still points to the old studies to “prove” their point, ignoring the fact that they have been refuted numerous times.
Indeed, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, one chemical in cannabis is actually a potent antioxidant that can help prevent brain cell loss in stroke victims.
And exactly what ass did you pull that little gem out of?
The key phrase in that statement is “I believe.”
As has been noted by other posters, marijuana isn’t phyiscally addictive like alcohol and amphetamine. Ever heard of a pot smoker with the DTs? Neither did I.
Just have Snoop Dogg, in a PSA for the “Don’t Smoke Pot” Commercials. If anyone knows Reefer it’s Snoop, Stopped, Quit, Done Smoking and he is Recognizable.
And he’s been busy
I figure that the best way to teach kids about it puffing pot is to level with them. Let them know that there are dangers to smoking pot (man breasts anyone?) and that they are free to make the choice to use it or not. I would also tell them that, no matter how good it feels, pot is a controlled substance in the eyes of the government and that they could be in it deep if they are caught with it. The lesson would be don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time. Teens are a lot smarted than these PSAs make it appear. Another approach could be that it is a somewhat expensive habit to get into, and when you’re smoking pot, you could be doing other things that might serve you better. Carl Sagan might have been hitting chiba, but he was doing physics too.
Another theory that I have long held though is that with enough giant public executions, people will stop doing everything.
At least the real Reefer Madness was hilarious.
You want a real example of idiocy, check out The Truth which is a supposed indictment of tobacco. Their email rocks, however. 
Have you seen those Parent: the Anti-Drug commercials?
I was eating dinner with my parents the other night (I am 22, btw) and one came on, and my dad in a jokingly serious voice turned to me and said “[Jin], do you use drugs?” after it went off. I said no.
Then he started laughing real loud and said he knew I didn’t use drugs, they’re too expensive and I’m too cheap.
:mad: :rolleyes:
Yeah, but getting high off the fumes from paint thinner doesn’t make you shoot people either. It just makes everything very funny (mostly because your hand-eye coordination is *completely *shot. You touch things way sooner than your brain thinks you will) and it makes you sick to your stomach and dizzy.
You probably won’t be able to aim a gun.
On that note, I wonder if we could sue my former summertime employers for endangering us by having us clean up a gallon of spilled paint with Opps in a poorly ventilated room…of course, there were some people who would ask for the job of cleaning paint out of the carpets :rolleyes:
I don’t get it. No one’s suggesting that we force people to smoke pot. The thing is, it’s not addictive, so people who don’t like it will stop. It is psychologically addictive for people who like it simply because they like being high so much. I’ve smoked plenty of pot, but I quit years ago because it wasn’t making me feel good. It wasn’t like I made a decision to quit - it was just easy to turn down something I didn’t like.