Drug Propaganda Thursday

Radley Balko | February 1, 2007

The latest from ONDCP is just weird. I guess the message is, if you smoke pot, you may lose your paramour to an intergalactic, inter-species romance.

Which I suppose is the kind of thing Rick Santorum warned us about.

Comments

|2.1.07 @ 2:36PM|#

Looks more like he's holding a steaming turd. Or is that the connection they're trying to make?

|2.1.07 @ 2:41PM|#

I like the dog one better. Honestly, the dog one is probably the best anti-drug PSA I've ever seen, especially because it basically involves a dog talking WHICH IS JUST THE SORT OF AWESOME THING YOU MIGHT IMAGINE IS HAPPENING WHILE SMOKING POT!!!!

David McElroy|2.1.07 @ 2:41PM|#

It looks to me as though the writer/animator of this thing was on drugs when he dreamed up the idea. There's no logic to it.

|2.1.07 @ 2:46PM|#

I guess the message is, if you smoke pot, you may lose your paramour to an intergalactic, inter-species romance.

Which is true, but not for the reasons they think. The truth is that the alien already has super awesome space-pot, and what girl is going to stick around for a toke of our puny, human made weed?

Of course, I wish the best for the happy couple, even if their union will never be recognized in the US.

|2.1.07 @ 2:49PM|#

What I think is funny is how even ONDCP is tries to cop the hip type of weirdness that typically springs from drug culture. Not exactly a direct contradiction but it's a bit like being a christian death metal band.

Warren|2.1.07 @ 3:00PM|#

I think the message is:
This is the sort of lame animation that comes from the sterile uninspired mind of someone who doesn't do drugs.

|2.1.07 @ 3:00PM|#

The truth is that the alien already has super awesome space-pot

your mean..moonijuana!

|2.1.07 @ 3:09PM|#

Or is the message that if you date people who smoke pot you will meet non-pot smoking aliens who will "save" you.

Anyway I dated a pot dealer and no such thing ever happened.

By the way isn't this the exact thing that happened in the "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy"?

|2.1.07 @ 3:13PM|#

Rick Santorum's response:

"Obviously this has to do with our unprotected borders when any alien can come down in a flying saucer and make off with our women. The dirty Grays probably sold him the joint in the first place. How else could they afford those saucers?"

Graphite|2.1.07 @ 3:14PM|#

I love how low her standards are. "Oh, he refused pot, I'm instantly in love with him!"

|2.1.07 @ 3:15PM|#

Warren-

I have to disagree there. I think we may be viewing something more subversive. Who did they ONDCP have to hire to make these ads? Artists! Who went to art school! So the chances of them not being pot smokers of some sort are pretty much nil.
They give these "artistic types" the task of creating an anti-weed commercial, and receive the most absurd, pointless drug spot you've ever seen. Except that it somehow makes just enough sense for the ONDCP to think it must have a good message and run it. Meanwhile the guys who made the ad are going "Oh my god, dude, they totally bought it! Bwaaahahahaha!"

|2.1.07 @ 3:16PM|#

I really ought to start previewing my comments for typos.

tros|2.1.07 @ 3:26PM|#

Okay, this is the last gasp of anti-herb propaganda. Because this is the only real reason not to smoke, basically. If you smoke you won't be able to cue in the nods and mmm hmmm's to your uptight girlfriend's unintelligible blather, and she will get pissed off at you, and then you won't get laid. Alternatively, if you're single, herb will make you too lazy to jump through the customary hoops of going out and getting laid.

Fundamentalists hate cannabis because it makes women get off. Seriously, to them this is the worst thing that could ever happen. So everyone light up a spliff and get in on the world orgasm for peace.

Warren|2.1.07 @ 3:42PM|#

Dave,
Interesting theory. Unfortunately I've known too many artists to believe that any of them could be that clever when it comes to selling out.

I have encountered a growing subset of young artists that enchew drugs. They inevitably produce crappy art. Except for Zappa of course.

|2.1.07 @ 3:57PM|#

Mrs. Lurker and I wondered if whoever approved that ad was on drugs when we first saw it.

Slightly OT: This may be an urban legend, but I heard Disney stopped drug testing, at least for their animation division, because they couldn't hire or attract otherwise qualified people for their animator jobs.

brian423 (not Brian24)|2.1.07 @ 4:04PM|#

Is that alien Roger from American Dad? If so, the poor girl has no gaydar.

The anti-pot message is basically adapted from an anti-draft message of the '60s: "GIRLS SAY YES to boys who say NO." Fortunately, it will continue to be bullshit in the case of marijuana as more and more women discover how good it is for relieving PMS and facilitating orgasms.

|2.1.07 @ 4:12PM|#

"young artists that enchew drugs"

Please tell me more about this method of delivery. It sounds pretty awesome.

brian423 (not Brian24)|2.1.07 @ 4:29PM|#

pinko:
Please tell me more about this method of delivery. It sounds pretty awesome.

Have you heard about the illegal suppository being sold on the sreets? It's called butt crack.

|2.1.07 @ 4:35PM|#

The lesson learned here is that girls who don't smoke pot are fickle sluts who will dump you for an inter-species tryst.

Viper|2.1.07 @ 4:37PM|#

Haven't repeated studies shown these anti-drug advertisements either have no effect or increase drug usage? Perhaps the Drug Warriors are just trying to increase consumer demand for "law enforcement services".

|2.1.07 @ 4:44PM|#

tros and Brian423, got a link to the info about facilitating orgasms? Yeah, yeah, I'm too lazy to google it myself, I, well, you know....and gimmee some cheetos too.

|2.1.07 @ 4:49PM|#

The latest from ONDCP is just weird. I guess the message is, if you smoke pot, you may lose your paramour to an intergalactic, inter-species romance.

Well god blees the ONDCP.....If the girls boyfriend wasn't stoned he would have been able to slap that alien bastard down and prevent the alien mind control ray from making her fall immediately in love/lust! No doubt shes is being violently "probed" as we speak!

Another Marijuana related tragedy!

brian423 (not Brian24)|2.1.07 @ 4:51PM|#

Lurker Jack,
You're on your own for Cheetos, but
http://www.changetheclimate.org/news/sex.php

|2.1.07 @ 4:52PM|#

What a stupid alien!

|2.1.07 @ 4:54PM|#

I like that the ONDCP's heads are so far up their asses that they don't even bother to argue anymore.

"People who smoke pot and people who don't smoke pot often have different social lives."
That's not a reason to smoke pot, that'll just end up preventing the emotional stress of otherwise well-meaning stoners who would have dated non-stoners. So basically: why wasn't this commercial put out earlier?

|2.1.07 @ 5:03PM|#

"Haven't repeated studies shown these anti-drug advertisements either have no effect or increase drug usage? Perhaps the Drug Warriors are just trying to increase consumer demand for "law enforcement services"."

I reamember being in a Midwest Sunday School class as a 13-year-old back in the 60's. For Not a one of us at that age even knew a drug user, yet for some reason they decided to teach us about the dangers of drugs.

After going through the pamplets with our teacher, most of us were confiding to one another that if it has the Sunday School teachers so concerned, it must be really, really cool. Within a year, the majority of the class became drug users. One kid even died in a drug-related car crash a few years later.

The more you know...

|2.1.07 @ 5:07PM|#

Meh ... they just aren't trying anymore. Even they aren't buying their MJ bullshit. Did the ONDCP do the meth commercial with the catchy little jingle and the lady cleaning her grout with a toothbrush? That was spot on. See, it's a bit easier when there is some truth thrown in there.

Anyway, everyone knows young girls want to get with the guys that will drive their father crazy. Even the good girls. Smoke up Johnny!

|2.1.07 @ 5:24PM|#

Sam,

>"People who smoke pot and people who don't smoke pot often have different social lives."

Exactly. When I was a big pot smoker I dated guys who were big pot smokers. Now that I'm not anymore, and the time and energy that pot smokers give to their marijauna is a big bore to me, I don't date them anymore.

|2.1.07 @ 5:31PM|#

"Exactly. When I was a big pot smoker I dated guys who were big pot smokers. Now that I'm not anymore, and the time and energy that pot smokers give to their marijauna is a big bore to me, I don't date them anymore."

Exactly how much energy is required? That MJ saps one's energy is an urban myth. And as far as dosing is concerned, it's about as time consuming as taking a birth control pill.

And speaking of pills, can you believe that Sally Field's Boniva (sp) commercial where she says, "A friend told me she had to set aside one day a week to take her calcium meds" Taking a pill takes just a few seconds for cying out loud!

|2.1.07 @ 5:45PM|#

Widow White,

You hate me! You really hate me!

As for these weird anti-drug ads, why does the dog have a flag with his face on it? Is the ONDCP trying to prevent dogs from getting high? Is it so they will have drug sniffing dogs? Wouldn't the dogs be more likely to find drugs if they knew they were going to get high off them?

You know what disappoints a dog? Not dropping your cheeseburger.

Love,

Sally

brian423 (not Brian24)|2.1.07 @ 5:51PM|#

When I was a big pot smoker I dated guys who were big pot smokers. Now that I'm not anymore, and the time and energy that pot smokers give to their marijauna is a big bore to me, I don't date them anymore.

What the Widow White said. I'm not claiming to be psychic or anything, but I've recently written a blog post about someone misremembering the pleasures of the past.

|2.1.07 @ 5:59PM|#

Why does the alien spaceship have a halo of flies?

The Wine Commonsewer|2.1.07 @ 6:09PM|#

Saw that last night and, yes, I thought: WTF?

Ryan|2.1.07 @ 6:35PM|#

The maker of that ad is clearly using the product. Aliens? Space ships? That is clearly the most pro-drug anti-drug ad I have ever seen. I think it is directed at people who are actually high when they watch it, even though they would just find it funny.

|2.1.07 @ 7:15PM|#

Pot smokers, at least the ones I still socialize with, tend to want to do things like go back to someone's apt. and smoke two doobs between dinner and the club and then run their mouths and listen to this song, or watch this hilarious clip of some tv show. Or maybe if that is too inconvenient even for them, they want to go sit in someone's car in the cold and smoke, which is hell on my allergies. There also tend to be issues around getting pot -- complications of getting everybody's money together, and who is going to get it, or I don't like going to that creepy guy's house by myself will you come with me, or what happened to my dealer he's not returning my calls...

I will put up with that stuff for people I've known and loved for years, but in a new person the trait is off-putting.
MJ didn't sap my energy for many years, but eventually it did...and it started making me paranoid, and depressed...none of which I'm suggesting is going to happen to you or any particular individual, but it happened to me so I certainly don't buy that it's a myth.

However, I don't remember all those years and experiences as bad ones. I have quite a few great memories of pot-fueled evenings, stupid things done and said that were hilarious at the time. I have similar memories of getting drunk in high school. But you know, I just can't take it anymore.

But anyhow, the point was, big deal? Some people don't smoke and others do. And people tend to be attracted to others who do the same as them. It needn't affect a smoker's life in a negative way.

lunchstealer|2.1.07 @ 8:10PM|#

What's up with the flies hovering around the spaceship? What's he got in the trunk, the last 4 humanoids who thought he was hot for not smoking out?

dhex|2.1.07 @ 11:11PM|#

the most pro drug anti drug commercial i saw was one of those "music is my anti-drug" and the track was boy/girl song by aphex twin. why not pick a bardo pond track and throw in the towel?

|2.1.07 @ 11:11PM|#

So, the ONDP is now sponsoring ads that the viewer has to be stoned to understand? Is this some kind of weird reverse psychology, where the feds try to MAKE people smoke pot so they can understand anti-drug ads, thereby eliminating its coolness factor?

|2.1.07 @ 11:38PM|#

He's better off without her. Who wants a chick who'd go off with a guy in a 1950s model spaceship? I mean, it didn't even have a cool paint job!

Pat|2.2.07 @ 8:30AM|#

Anal probes vs. a joint.

As if they are not raping enough people in American prisons now they have to sell alien anal probes as preferential to smoking a joint.

What is it with this anal fixation at the ONDCP?

Pat|2.2.07 @ 8:39AM|#

Headline: Bush: Anal probe better than pot

Pat|2.2.07 @ 8:44AM|#

The drug war has always been the paramilitary arm of the right-wing culture war in America. Denigrating pot smoking culture is simply part of the natural intolerance for diversity that the drug war is all about. Conform, conform, conform or die.

Bethmeister|2.4.07 @ 12:54PM|#

wow, that ad really makes me want to smoke up...

|2.6.07 @ 9:13PM|#

I think they've just given up. The ONDCP have realized their commercials are completely ineffective, so they've resorted to cutting their advertising budget down to construction paper and crayons and hired a four-year-old with down syndrome as their creative director. With all that money saved they could hire a lot of DEA agents to simply lock up the kids who are smoking pot as opposed to trying to convince them not to with their inane commercials.