Boulder Schools Nix Giant Rat Cages Intended to Scare Kids About Pot

Charlotte's Web / Youtube

Boulder, Colorado, public schools have decided not to install a giant rat cage intended to frighten kids away from smoking pot. That's great—but why was a giant rat cage ever a possibility?

Reason's Jacob Sullum wrote about the curious "Don't Be a Lab Rat" anti-drug campaign last week. The campaign was dreamed up by the state's Department of Public Health and Environment; as Sullum notes, its agenda is "relatively subtle." It purports to warn kids that the negative side effects of marijuana are still unknown, and by using the drug they are unwittingly becoming test subject.

Less subtle was the giant rat cage that state officials wanted to erect inside schools. Boulder school district administrators released a statement stating that no such cages will be featured on school property, however, according to The Daily Camera:

Boulder Valley School District, for one, already has announced it will not participate in the campaign.

"We had concerns about the use of human-scale rat cages being an effective tool for getting 12-to-15-year-olds to understand the risks involved with their developing brains," BVSD spokesman Briggs Gamblin said.

Superintendent Bruce Messinger emailed all district principals prior to the launch of the cages in Denver, informing them that the BVSD administration would formally oppose "Don't Be a Lab Rat" on the grounds that "a human scale 'rat cage'" may not be the most effective prop for the campaign's message.

I guess this counts as a slight win for prohibition sanity?

Hat tip: Greg Campbell / The Daily Caller

Comments

[EDG reppin' LBC]

It purports to warn kids that the negative side effects of marijuana are still unknown, and by using the drug they are unwittingly becoming test subject.

BULLSHIT!!! It's to warn children that smoking weed will land you in prison and destroy your liberty. It's a blatant statement the State is sending to it's most precious citizenry; The Children.

[Almanian!]

smoking weed will land you in prison and destroy your liberty

Which is true for an unfortunate number of people in prison due to the WoD.

Fuck the state.

[Free Society]

Fuck it hard.

[Anomalous]

Fuck it with a chainsaw.

[Free Society]

It purports to warn kids that the negative side effects of marijuana are still unknown, and by using the drug they are unwittingly becoming test subject.

Just because they are troubled to find any effects that aren't sufficiently scary, doesn't mean they are unknown. Anti-carcinogenic properties among others of both positive and negative health consequences. Not exactly like meth and heroin.

[Rhywun]

Yep, and the notion that MJ hasn't been studied to death is flatly unbelievable.

[Fist of Etiquette]

So, what are they doing with the human-size cages then? I could use a couple. Uh, for decoration.

[Free Society]

But are these cages small enough to fit inside an RV or nondescript full size van?

[paranoid android]

Could Billy Corgan be reached for comment?

[Episiarch]

NEEDZ MOAR RAGE

[Marshall Gill]

As I recall, caged rats to the face is what finally broke Winston. Who can blame this district for attempting to try something that is proven to work?

[GILMORE]

""We had concerns about the use of human-scale rat cages being an effective tool..."

Because that was the problem with them. If they'd been *effective* in indoctrinating people about some bullshit? well then FINE!! Use away!

I am afraid this does not count as 'a slight win' if bureaucrats can say things like this and not be saying so from inside a courtroom where they are being sued.

That said =

I find my own slave-orphans respond well to The Cage as punishment for failing to meet their diamond mining quotas

[Jordan]

You'd think that Colorado would have gotten out of the advertising business after their shit Obamacare ads. Actually, they could easily modify this campaign to fit Obamacare:

"BUY SOME SICK BROSURANCE OR WE'LL THROW YOUR ASS IN THIS CAGE"

[Root Boy]

CO seems like a hilarious place. I just moved here and they have a cage in Denver next to one of the skate parks.

I'm sure the kids I see there (who smoke regularly) and the hippies in the adjacent park are taking the cage lessons to heart.

Also, see this article on CU Boulder and more ethnic wars about Redskins:

http://dailycaller.com/2014/08.....n-english/

They tell me I've moved to Coolorado.

[Dances-with-Trolls]

Somewhere along this path of insanity there was a meeting held where a group of college educated people agreed that this was a great idea.

[bassjoe]

I'm going to smoke pot with my kids and I want to be the first person they do it with. Since I live in urban California, it will probably be when they're relatively young. Why? Well, I want to make sure they don't do anything too stupid the first time they're high.

And because I don't want it to be a big deal -- heck, I won't mind if it makes my kind think it's borderline UNCOOL to do drugs; these fear-based campaigns will only promote teenagers to experiment in "dangerous" substances...dangerously.

Clearly, I'm a terrible parent.

[Heroic Mulatto]

I'm going to smoke pot with my kids and I want to be the first person they do it with. Since I live in urban California, it will probably be when they're relatively young.

I hope, for you and your kids' sake, that you are posting using Tor from behind at least seven proxies.

[Jordan]

I plan on letting my daughter have alcohol from time to time. No pot though, since I don't partake and I don't want my dogs to be murdered by the baboon army of occupation.

[JParker]

Are their plans still on for the giant frying pan and egg?

[Robert]

HTTPS this: soundcloud.com/neilcic/mullet-with-butterfly-wings

Despite all my rage, I still get the weekend off.

[pronomian]

The "effective tool" to teach children is the truth. The lies of the 60s and 70s did nothing to teach anyone of the affects of cannabis. All these attempts by narrow-minded hypocrites only shuts down effective communication, it does nothing to decrease use.