Originally published December, 2006
I recently saw yet another anti-marijuana public service announcement on TV last night. This one was absolutely ludicrous. In this commercial the new drug fad that kids are getting into is putting leeches on themselves. What’s really funny about this is you’d have to be high to come up with that. And then at the end it tells us to be above the influence. “Above The Influence” is the latest anti-marijuana ad campaign to be seen. It doesn’t say pot is bad, but if you smoke pot you are under the influence of others. These ads have gotten more and more ambiguous as time has gone on.
In the 1930’s the message was if you smoked reefer you would go insane and kill people. I remember seeing a movie made in the early 60’s where some kids smoked weed and drove to a gas station. They then got out of their car and started trashing the gas station. Now I am not a habitual cannabis user, but I have had experience with the drug. I do know that if you go to a gas station and you’re high, it’s incredibly unlikely you’re going to start doing anything malicious. You’ll probably buy some food in the mini-mart and go back to your car and stare at your steering wheel.
Marijuana isn’t a completely harmless drug, I will admit that. It does have the potential to make you lose ambition and lower your sperm count. However, there are far more addictive and dangerous drugs. One such drug is actually legal. It’s called alcohol. I’m pretty hesitant to bring up the fact that alcohol is worse than marijuana because I love it very deeply. It is a drug that understands me. My relationship with alcohol aside, it has caused thousands of people to die in car crashes from drunk drivers. It has caused thousands of people to get into drunken brawls. It has caused thousands of people to humiliate themselves by peeing in inappropriate places. And lastly it has caused thousands of people to sleep with others who could easily qualify as the missing link. I have only heard of people getting robbed by crack heads, speed freaks, and junkies. I have never heard of anyone getting robbed by a pot head who needs to feed his pot addiction.
So, maybe harder drugs should be the focus of anti-drug campaigns. If that does happen, I really hope they don’t use commercials; they’re simply not convincing enough. If you want someone to not do drugs, show them movies like “Requiem for a Dream”, “Trainspotting”, or “Spun”. These films show the real horrors of drug addiction. Whenever the idea of doing heroin crosses my mind, I just think of that scene in “Trainspotting” where Ewan Mcgregor has to search through a turd filled toilet bowl to get some painkillers.
The whole “Above the Influence” campaign isn’t going to stop anyone from smoking pot. The whole idea is flawed because influence isn’t the reason people smoke pot. They smoke it because it gets them high! In the commercial where the kids put leeches on themselves because it’s popular isn’t anything like smoking marijuana, because leeches don’t get you high. I also feel that “Above the Influence” is a bit of a hypocritical slogan since the campaign is trying to influence us to not smoke marijuana. So as far as I can see, money is being wasted on a problem that isn’t really a problem. But I can truthfully say that I am above the influence. Because when I occasionally smoke pot, it’s not because I’m influenced by others, it’s because I want to get high. So until next time my loyal readers, stay happy and always know that I love you.
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