Aliens Stole My PSA Money

Jacob Sullum | December 18, 2007

Students for Sensible Drug Policy reports that the omnibus spending bill the House has approved and the Senate is considering cuts funding for the federal government's obnoxious anti-drug ads by 40 percent, allocating half of what the Bush administration requested. (Congress had to get the money for projects like the Charles B. Rangel Center for Public Service somewhere.) Here SSDP briefly reviews two decades of anti-drug propaganda and questions Slate writer Seth Stephenson's judgment that the latest batch of TV spots is "very possibly the most effective, and least offensive, anti-marijuana campaign ever created."

Comments

Plant Immigration RIghts Suppo|12.18.07 @ 8:05PM|#

I am not sure I would blame aliens. One of the Herritage Foundation's beefs is that it isn't hard enough on Aliens. From thier site:
"2. A Threat to Border Security

The bill places new restrictions that will delay and in some cases prevent construction of the full border fence. The bill removes specific locations included in the Secure Fence Act and adds extra layers of bureaucracy that will make building a border fence more difficult."

|12.18.07 @ 8:10PM|#

Well, thats about the only good thing the Democratic Congress has done.

Plant Immigration Rights Suppo|12.18.07 @ 8:15PM|#

I do have a question: Will American Samoa be exempted from this bill?

|12.18.07 @ 8:16PM|#

The bill removes specific locations included in the Secure Fence Act and adds extra layers of bureaucracy that will make building a border fence more difficult."

If I can't get impossible, I'll have to settle for more difficult.
PIRS you don't really think a border fence is going to accomplish anything other than enrich the politically connected builders of the damn thing, do you?

Plant Immigration RIghts Suppo|12.18.07 @ 8:18PM|#

J sub D, I am not a supporter of this bill. I was merely playing off the title of this blog entry. I oppose building the fence, especially if the federal government has use eminent domain to build it.

Plant Immigration Rights Suppo|12.18.07 @ 8:20PM|#

I mean I am not a supporter of building the fence.

|12.18.07 @ 8:24PM|#

Forgive me PIRS, for I have erred. ;-)

ww|12.18.07 @ 8:33PM|#

化工机械
电加热器

Plant Immigration Rights Suppo|12.18.07 @ 8:43PM|#

WW, I am sorry but I cannot read Chinese. It seems to be a couple of appliance companies.

Plant Immigration Rights Suppo|12.18.07 @ 8:44PM|#

J sub D, no problem, even I have made mistakes in the past :-)

|12.18.07 @ 8:55PM|#

The guy in the video is right about talking animals, but there are talking or singing animals in seemingly every other TV commercial I've seen recently. The first time I saw a commercial with a dog talking with CGI (rather than the old peanut butter in the mouth technique), it was kind of funny. But then you add in talking deer, singing wolves, squirrels, and birds, etc, and it gets really old really quick.

|12.18.07 @ 9:16PM|#

"very possibly the most effective, and least offensive, anti-marijuana campaign ever created."

Well, he may be right, but it's not like he's setting a very high bar there.

|12.18.07 @ 9:19PM|#

If we don't keep the hysteria high enough over illegal drugs there might be some people who would support actually legalizing them. We couldn't have that could we?

|12.18.07 @ 9:24PM|#

Let me repeat ad nauseum: anti-drugs ads have not been a failure. People only say they've failed because they think their purpose is to decrease drug demand and use. If you remember that their purpose is to maintain fear and anti-drug sentiment (oh yes, and give congress critters an easy/sanctimonious way to distribute loot), then you understand why they go on forever.

^|12.18.07 @ 9:39PM|#

Is

||12.18.07 @ 9:40PM|#

Is REASON going to post on the Democrats banning lightbulbs, mandating unsafe cars, and funding massive corporate welfare programs today? Bush signs it tomorrow so you can blame him for it.

|12.18.07 @ 10:00PM|#

Bush would sign anything as long as it keeps his Iraq "legacy" going for another few months.

Conversely, the Dems will vote to fund any war as long as they get to regulate and spend here at home.

They do make a great pair, don't they?

Plant Immigration Rights Suppo|12.18.07 @ 10:02PM|#

"banning lightbulbs"

The incandescent king? Will I be an outlaw? I honestly have not heard of this. I knew this was going on in California and Cuba but did not know it was going to happen nationwide. When you criminalize incandescent light bulbs only criminals will have incandescent light bulbs.

|12.18.07 @ 10:15PM|#

I actually like the PSA's that tell you that smoking pot makes you lazy. And that if you smoke too much, your girfriend will leave you. It's a lot better than the usual fear-mongering that goes on in these ads. Plus it has the bonus of being mostly true.

Dave B.|12.18.07 @ 10:21PM|#

Pot doesn't help much with laziness or romance, but I've never met a dog that doesn't love a pot head.

Also, what's this about mandating unsafe cars?

|12.18.07 @ 10:22PM|#

If I get high enough will I get so lazy that I won't care if Charlie Rangel leaves?

|12.18.07 @ 10:28PM|#

These are a great idea!

http://www.squidoo.com/compactfluorescentbulbs
A CFL that is not broken/cracked does not pose a health risk. A CFL bulb should be disposed of at a local hazardous waste collection location.

If a CFL Breaks



Do Not inhale the vapor

Do Not use a vacuum for cleanup. This increases the fumes and your risk.

Obviously you want to sweep the pieces with a broom - not your hand.

Clean up the the glass with a damp rag or towel and place the contents in a plastic bag and seal it.


Take the broken remains to your local collection point for hazardous household waste

|12.18.07 @ 11:08PM|#

Do not taunt Happy Fun Bulb.

Plant Immigration Rights Suppo|12.18.07 @ 11:08PM|#

And don't let your dog or cat near the pieces. Yea, CFLs suck. I don't know as much about the big LED lights that CCradio is selling but they are not promoted as much by the green mafia so they are probably much better.

Plant Immigration right suppor|12.18.07 @ 11:12PM|#

I mean that C. Crane is selling.

|12.18.07 @ 11:51PM|#

I actually have all CFLs at my place now. I don't understand the antipathy some people have toward them...yes, they cost much more to start with, but they last much longer and save on energy costs, so they more than pay for themselves. (of course, I think it stupid for the govt to be passing laws against incandescents)

I can see if you have kids or other light bulb breaking entities in your house, that you'd rather have cheap bulbs if they're likely to be broken.

|12.19.07 @ 12:14AM|#

crimethink,
My house is full of CFLs as well. I did it for the long life, energy savings and most of all the lower heat emission. It is hot enough here in the deep south. (my favorite oxy-moron)But if i break one, it's goin to the dump with the rest of the trash.

|12.19.07 @ 1:51AM|#

I actually like the PSA's that tell you that smoking pot makes you lazy.

Pot doesn't make people lazy. It can help lazy people stay lazy, but if you're not a lazy person, pot's not going to make you lazy.

White Trash|12.19.07 @ 4:22AM|#

if i break one, it's goin to the dump with the rest of the trash

Hey now, bo'!

|12.19.07 @ 7:58AM|#

I like the commercial with the talking dog but without the aliens. If my dog started talking to me when I got high, I'd smoke up a lot more often! Even if my dog asked me not to.

|12.19.07 @ 8:51AM|#

Can they do anything about the much more obnoxious "Truth" anti-tobacco ads, like maybe a Waco-style assault on the ad agency?

T|12.19.07 @ 9:43AM|#

Pot doesn't make people lazy. It can help lazy people stay lazy, but if you're not a lazy person, pot's not going to make you lazy.

How many times do I have to implore you people not to bring this up? I've been blaming my laziness on past pot use for years (amotivational syndrome, baby!). If you keep blabbing, someone (aka the wife) might figure out it's all bs and I'm just a lazy sod.

Episiarch|12.19.07 @ 10:03AM|#

"Reality is for people who can't handle drugs."

--Tom Waits on Fernwood 2 Night, 1977

Rhywun|12.19.07 @ 11:05AM|#

Also, what's this about mandating unsafe cars?

I believe he's referring to cars with higher gas mileage, which in these parts are called "unsafe cars", because although we have limitless faith in technology to ensure that some form of energy or other will continue to power these internal combustion engines forever, we do not believe it will ever become technologically possible to wring more energy out of the same amount of gas without turning cars into tin cans. Or something.

|12.19.07 @ 11:13AM|#

Also, what's this about mandating unsafe cars?

Motown reasonoid to the rescue!.

CAFE standards are rising From here
H.R. 6 contains the cornerstone of Hill's CAFE legislation - significantly increasing CAFE standards while maintaining separate standards for cars and trucks. The bill would increase fleetwide CAFE Standards by 40 percent to 35 miles per gallon by 2020.

Less massive cars improves mileage. They also increse occupant risk in an accident. Make no mistake about it, the government is trading lives for reduced oil consumption. That alone doesn't really bother me ("lives" on the negotiating table happens all the time) as much as the market skewing that this legislation is going to cause. When the government interferes with the market, it is generally to the consumer's detriment.

LarryA|12.19.07 @ 11:29AM|#

A CFL that is not broken/cracked does not pose a health risk.

I can see it already. In 2000 the government forced you to spend a kazillion dollars to remove every trace of asbestos from your building. In 2005 it was another kazillion dollars to remove lead. In 2010 they'll mandate CFL removal for the new radium light bulbs.

|12.19.07 @ 11:59AM|#

Back to topic: has anyone seen the latest anti-drug ad with the two girls texting back and forth about another friend who was at a party, "got high, got stupid and now she has HIV?" It is the most blatant scaremongering anti-drug as I've ever seen since the original "this is your brains on drugs." So, pot=HIV? I mean come-fucking-on. And I won't even get started on the "truth" ads...

(as for the CFLs: do they make them so they work with dimmer switches? Just looking for personal experience, not a "yes, absolutely" from a Home Depot employee)

|12.19.07 @ 4:24PM|#

They should have a PSA where an 18yo kid smokes pot, joins the Army while high, and then gets killed in Iraq.