Cannabis News NORML - It's Time for a Change!
  New Ads Hint at Change in War on Drugs
Posted by FoM on February 20, 2002 at 10:20:12 PT
By Dawn Turner Trice 
Source: Chicago Tribune 

justice Have you seen the new anti-drug ads from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy that have been running in newspapers across the country? Two similar 30-second television spots aired during the Super Bowl this month.

One newspaper ad shows the tightly cropped face of a young man who's staring at you and saying, "Yesterday afternoon, I did my laundry, went for a run and helped torture someone's dad."

Farther down on the page are the words: "Drug money helps support terror. Buy drugs and you could be supporting it too."

This new approach linking the illegal drug trade with terrorism is a $10 million government-sponsored campaign to package and market the war on drugs in a new way.

Like the "Just Say No" campaign of the 1980s and the "This Is Your Brain on Drugs" campaign in the 1990s, this one is aimed at teens and their parents.

But unlike those campaigns, this one appeals less to our notions of how drugs harm the individual user than how they harm the country as a whole by helping bankroll narco-criminals and terrorists worldwide. As part of the campaign, teaching materials are being sent to schools across the country.

The ads exude patriotism and social responsibility.

U.S. drug czar John Walters told me that the campaign has resonated so much with teens and their parents that what was originally a six-week campaign has been extended through mid-April.

The campaign is clever and compelling, and while it has its problems, I think it would be more effective if it was broadened to highlight the parallels between the war on drugs and the war on terrorism.

The similarities lie in the battle. And by connecting the two, the anti-drug campaign could take advantage of what we know to be true about fighting the war on terrorism: It has to be fought vigorously on many fronts. It demands money, patience and commitment. And the battle must be a sustained effort.

The same has always rung true for the war on drugs.

But for years the fronts that we've dealt with most have been law enforcement--drug offenders make up 60 percent of federal prisoners and 26 percent of Illinois' prisoners--and reducing supply rather than reducing demand.

Melody Heaps, president of Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities, said misguided sentencing practices have sent thousands of non-violent drug abusers to jails and prisons when they would have been better placed in community-based drug treatment programs.

"We've had a policy of get tough on drugs and we're seeing that didn't work," said Heaps, whose organization helps provide treatment for non-violent drug offenders. "It's not only a law-enforcement issue, but a public health issue as well."

There are signs that things are changing.

In outlining his drug control policy last week, President Bush called for cutting the demand for drugs by a quarter over the next five years.

The Bush budget, sent to Congress earlier this month, seeks $19.2 billion for fighting illegal drugs next year, an increase of about 2 percent over current spending, and would allocate $3.8 billion for drug treatment, increasing that funding more than 6 percent over the current fiscal year.

The increases, particularly for drug treatment, are fantastic.

But we know it takes more than money. We've thrown billions at the war on drugs along with massive manpower for years and have made little headway.

Families and entire communities continue to be devastated by illegal drugs.

Certainly, a person hitting the crack pipe, shooting heroin or popping methamphetamines probably won't be all that concerned about how he or she is helping underwrite terrorists, whether in Colombia or Afghanistan.

Critics say the campaign has other shortcomings--it plays the terror card and unduly blames America's youth for terrorism.

But if this campaign, in appealing to one's patriotism, prevents even a handful of youngsters from going down the road to addiction, then it's a definite plus.

Mary Schmich is on vacation. Dawn Turner Trice's column appears Mondays.

Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Author: Dawn Turner Trice
Published February 20, 2002
Copyright: 2002 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact: ctc-TribLetter@Tribune.com
Website: http://www.chicagotribune.com/

Related Articles:

Bush's $19 Billion Antidrug Plan
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11997.shtml

New Low in the War on Drugs - A. Huffington
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11943.shtml


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Comment #21 posted by shrox on February 21, 2002 at 10:55:17 PT
Bodyguards don't impress me.
Louis Farrakhan is hardly the model of an America the founding fathers had in mind. He has a lot of energy though...

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #20 posted by Prime on February 21, 2002 at 07:50:45 PT
Link for Libertarian Ad
Heres the link where you can view the ad. Its pretty powerful.

http://www.lp.org/issues/drugczarad.html

Not to solicit funds for them but if you wanna help cover the $69,000 bill, go here.

http://www.lp.org/contribute?prog=drugwarad

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #19 posted by Sam Adams on February 20, 2002 at 21:23:40 PT
Nice DdC!
I read the whole thing - beautiful! I checked out the web page as well...I am ready to move to the Republic of Ganjastan! Will Portland be the capital? Here's a sample of the charter fir everyone else:

"3. Defend the Homeland from outside aggression as well as the mushrooming of antidrug and anti-freedom forces within the borders of the Homeland. Anti-drug bigots must always be watched for and exposed."

Prime: I would really like to see the email address for the Libertarian ad campaign, I stand ready with my credit card! (I checked the website and it doesn't mention it).

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #18 posted by Jose Melendez on February 20, 2002 at 19:43:40 PT:

on drugs and hypocrisy

Mormons, Green Jell-O & Other Drugs

By Sara Rimensnyder

If there's something non-believers know about Mormons, it's that they treat their bodies like a temple. And that caffeine, alcohol, and drugs have no place in an individual's house of the holy. So the news that Utah, where 70 percent of residents accept the Plates of Nephi as scripture, leads the country in use of anti-depressants (not to mention sugary green Jell-O), was met by many with surprise -- or smug satisfaction.

It needn't surprise. Americans may worship more gods and monsters than the Greeks, but we share a national devotion: weird hypocrisy about drug use. When Mormons shrink in horror from Starbucks but pop Paxil like Pez, they're indulging the same kind of mystification that decides U.S. drug law. Or, for that matter, that can lead pot smokers who say they self-medicate to denounce those "drones" on artificial anti-depressants.

Sara Rimensnyder Reason's assistant editor.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #17 posted by Elfman_420 on February 20, 2002 at 19:22:05 PT
LATE BREAKING NEWS
Colombian President Andres Pastrana says he's ending peace process with leftist rebels.

the FARCs hijacked a plane and kidnapped a senator today.

This, of course, is typical of the violent behavior of habitual drug users.



[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #16 posted by Jose Melendez on February 20, 2002 at 19:19:09 PT:

Yahoo!
be sure to post links to the new ads...

:)

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #15 posted by Shishaldin on February 20, 2002 at 19:05:45 PT
Booyah!
I knew there were some creative minds over at the Libertarian camp that could counter those idiotic ONDCP ads!

Thanks Prime and Welcome!!

Peace and Strength,

Shishaldin

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #14 posted by The GCW on February 20, 2002 at 18:43:32 PT
Prime
Please post that link you mentioned. This sounds like another chip off the old wall. It has crushing potential.

I am totally psyched.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #13 posted by kaptinemo on February 20, 2002 at 17:56:13 PT:

Greetings, Prime
Always glad to 'see' a new face! And you needn't have waited so long to post anything; we may argue amongst ourselves from time to time, but we are family, of a sort. Glad to have you join us!

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #12 posted by Prime on February 20, 2002 at 17:35:17 PT
Libertarians to take the offense
Recieved this today from the LP mailing list... and the wall came down... oh yeah... my first post here... although I have been a huge fan for a long time now...

excerpt...

The ONDCP's strategy is clear: It's trying to take the September 11- inspired hatred of terrorists, and use it to bolster the failing War on Drugs.

And, by implication, it's suggesting that if you oppose the War on Drugs, you help terrorists.

Well, we hate terrorists, too. In fact, we hate them so much we'd like to squeeze their funding down to almost ZERO.

We'd like to see the $40 million the U.S. government says the Taliban raised from heroin dwindle down to a FEW PENNIES. We'd like to see the $300 million that Colombian rebels raised from cocaine shrink down to a HANDFUL OF PESOS.

Can you imagine how destitute terrorists would be if marijuana sold for the same price as lettuce? If poppies were worth the same as tulips? And if cocaine-producing coca plants were no more valuable than Brussels sprouts?

If the War on Drugs did not artificially inflate their prices by 17,000%, that's exactly what would happen. And many terrorists would be penniless.

We Libertarians understand that. We know the War on Drugs gives terrorists the money they use to kill Americans.

But how do we get that message across?

How do we reach the American people -- when those full-page ONDCP ads are spreading lies and distortions?

Then we had a brainstorm: We'll create our OWN ad.

And that's what we did.

At first glance, it looks just like the ONDCP ad.

But in OUR ad, the face of Drug Czar John Walters is staring out.

And OUR text says...

"This week, I had lunch with the President, testified before Congress, and helped funnel $40 million in illegal drug money to groups like the Taliban."

Bang. We take the Drug Warriors' ad -- and throw it right back in their faces.

At the bottom, our ad says: "The War on Drugs boosts the price of illegal drugs by as much as 17,000% -- funneling huge profits to terrorist organizations. If you support the War on Drugs or vote for the politicians who wage it, you're helping support terrorism." We give a website address for more information.

Can you imagine John Walters' reaction when he sees our ad?

Can you imagine the squawks of outrage from the Drug Warriors?

The ad is ready to go. At the end of this message, I'll give you a link so you can see it for yourself.

We want to run it in two newspapers: USA Today and the Washington Times.

USA Today reaches 2.1 million people. It's the nation's most widely read newspaper.

The Washington Times has a circulation of only 105,000. But, as the capital's "conservative" newspaper, it reaches EVERY Republican House and Senate member.In fact, it's one of the six newspapers President George W. Bush reads each day.

Can you imagine President Bush's face when he sees our ad staring at him from the pages of the Washington Times?

When the ad runs, we'll shift into overdrive to try to leverage it into ADDITIONAL news coverage.

excerpt...

I sent in some dough to help em place the add... what a kick that'll be

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #11 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on February 20, 2002 at 16:33:32 PT
$10 million? For this??
>>Certainly, a person hitting the crack pipe, shooting heroin or [forging a prescription for Xanax] probably won't be all that concerned about how he or she is helping underwrite terrorists, whether in Colombia or [Peapack, New Jersey].<<

Someone's gotta have the print ads online somewhere - somewhere outside the ONDCP's cookie-crunching zone. Please?

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #10 posted by The GCW on February 20, 2002 at 15:33:42 PT
Yukky material...Dawn Turner Trice
The concept of preventing even a handful of youngsters from going down the road to addiction, as a definite plus, when we flush humans down the drains, en mass, just doesn’t cut it.



[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #9 posted by DdC on February 20, 2002 at 15:05:49 PT
Just Say NO MORE BORING LIES!!!
New Ads Hint at Change in War on Drugs http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread12062.shtml

"Another weapon I discovered early was the power of the printed word to sway souls to me. The newspaper was soon my gun, my flag - a thing with a soul that could mirror my own." Adolf Hitler

So far the only true American I've heard lately is Louis Farrakhan. These wimpy flag jerking Nationalist are boring and bully's and no one believes it anymore outside of a few American Leagon beer gardens and gunazi militias who voted for Bushit or Buckcannon or Duke. Trying to ride on the phoney polls taken at the same Legion Halls and Cross burnings. Yup, 80% of drunk GOPers like Bushit. Surprize Surprize Surprize! Two sides of a three dollar bill agree WoD is phoney, its destructive and we should continue it for the good of the kids and profits have nothing to do with it. Its the kids stupid! Certainly not anyone on the planet getting shafted by Unkle Scams exploitation and drug war products wants it to continue, the true forced silent majority. I shutter and can only grin and shake my head hearing Libertarians talk of Liberty and Republicans of claiming God's ok to bombing clinics, defend Enron or Monsanto and try to blame it on big government alone and environmentalist. While their pre-borns die of pesticide runoff or asthma and they escape the shuns and stigma calling it misscarrage instead of abortion. Like their naive kids dying unnecessarily on adulterated street drugs or what cause more young men to die each year is perverts selling them beer. That was before this new recruitment for future cannon fodder protecting more fascist Korpses poinsoning us for profits, incarcerating us for profits. Censoring us to keep profits no matter what it cost us in health and well being. The Korpses are not citizens and should not have the right to harm us or take our heritage. Yet now our resident apointee is selling bombs to our "new friends" so they can aid us winning this new war on terrorism. Previously called the cold war and the commie war before that. Fighting antifascist was the order after the world war backed by the Wall Street and Hearst Yellow Journals. Sure band aids are costly but stopping the cuts and lacerations would also prevent the band aids while removing beforehand only infects the wound and greater cost down the road. Nothing starts with nothing. Oppression creates rebellion. Energy can not be created or destroyed, only converted. That is as clear as gravity and yet global warming and sulfer and CO2 emmissions are still considered debatible before treating? Cannabis has been tested more than any plant in history and each new fascist bastard stalls the patients and alternative re-creators with more test and more arrests in the meantime.

What W is doing to the planet was shown in what he did previously to Texas. Yet he still got votes. Not enough to get elected but that isn't important. His de-regulations and refunds did't save a dime for the workers tax load. It was simply shifted and inflated. So now the 2% you get kicked back can buy that bag a reefer and a case of brew while the 2% of 19 $billion earned by Bushits friends Korpses perpetuating the WoD will run the debt to his banksters collecting even more than the $200 billion a year they collect now. Creating more pollution disease to treat with more chemical drugs they do sell legally and on top of it all they say its for the kids heatlth and that bit you got will cost you more next year. The U.S.,unlike the Pope has no infalibility clause in the Declaration or Constitution. The pseudo balance of power is only believed by talking heads on TV, it holds no truth with 95% of cannabis trials taking pleabargins. It is not balanced of your peers when some get paid to sit on juries while others lose a day's wage. Manditory sentencing, why waste taxes on judges, survelance camera's can replace the grotesque addition of uniforms in public so they can spend their time out in the wilds removing cannabis that is 99% rope.

Now removing products with trace amounts of thc found in homegrown food processing sometimes, not enough to get you high but thats besides the point, this wars points are all moot. Now will they remove poppy seed or Cocaine Cola giving that Pep-si feeling? Or when Safeway doesn't get its produce and meat and fish cause the truckers ain't doing the black beauties driving straight through. Speed helped win double u eleven and Laudenum was the fav of the Womans Temperance League. Codine or Caffine or Chlorine or Bovine raging hormones in the meat lobbying with the chemical grain industry to add this ridiculous new seed "drug" as a narcotic. Well I know the fascist and naive may not believe me but in 5 years of wearing hemp I haven't step stoned to harder fiber and I can take them off every night without a problem. And if it weren't for the right wing neighbors forcing me to wear them outside I'd cut my use down drastically. The biggest problem with my jeans, isn't the strength or softness, like my ganja its the price.

While Americans go bankrupt to Korpses Frankenfoods grown in chemicals not dirt. My jeans have to come from outside of our soverign soil. For the good of the kids Americans must drive vehicles run on OPEC fossil fuels and shun hempcars bio-mass and bio-diesel, cause the presidented sells the crude and the VP does too. Herbal treatment is not prudent in Bush Cheney Pharmaceutical circles. Stimulating the economy selling our ancient sequias for Japanese particleboard when hemp could make the same product? Like their buds Kenny boy and the Donald (Searl Aspartame) Rumsfeld. Bakker testing drugs or Walters selling Pisstest and laundering money through Philanthropy round ups. Unolocal's gas pipeline through Afghan property now the ambassidor Bush appointed is the x CEO. How conveeeeenient they want it transparent as a glass of milk. Presidented discretion in what they do with your money behind closed doors.
Call out the instigator...they'res something in the air!
Smells like a New Weird Odor of the W.T.Orchestrations Thousand Points of Darkness.
Peace, Love and Liberty or D.E.A.th
DdC

Official Green Panthers Homepage
http://www.greenpanthers.org/
http://www.greenpanthers.org/new-welcome.gif
The Declarations of the First Independent Stoner Homeland
http://www.greenpanthers.org/homeland.html

About the Green Panthers
http://www.greenpanthers.org/about-gp.html
Republic of Ganjastan
http://www.greenpanthers.org/embassy.html

THE DECLARATION OF INDIVIDUAL AUTONOMY
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=337.topic

medical marijuana in MD Now we know Joy-ce's angle...
All of you in MD, like me, might be interested in this article. Looks like we have a chance to let our representatives know we support the use of marijuana as medicine and make a difference!
http://www.msnbc.com/local/whag/M150219.asp

The Pot TV News for Monday, February 18, 2002
ED Rosenthal Interview
http://www.pot-tv.net/archive/shows/pottvshowse-1197.html Running Time: 32 min

WE'VE WAGED AN 85-YEAR WAR AGAINST ECCENTRICITY
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n897/a07.html?1780



[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #8 posted by CorvallisEric on February 20, 2002 at 13:24:43 PT
48 Hours
Something is still amiss about the 48 Hours schedule. TV Guide for KOIN Portland and WCBS New York gave the following for Feb 22, 8 PM (eastern and pacific):

48 Hours
Sleep Tight
60 min.
“Sleep Tight” is a report on dozing drivers. Also: a look at sleepwalkers. Dan Rather is the host.

Then, on a CBS page:

A Special Interactive 48 Hours, Wed., March 6, 10 p.m. ET/PT: Four compelling stories. Four difficult questions. What would YOU do? You'll have the chance to vote online. Watch the broadcast, and then go online and be heard. Then at the end of the broadcast, see what others thought. - I'm fairly sure this is the one we want. But the picture that goes with it says Feb 22.
http://cbsnews.com/now/section/0,1636,3410-412,00.shtml

TV Guide has no details for the March 6 show.


[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #7 posted by Nicholas Thimmesch on February 20, 2002 at 13:12:49 PT:

Hope Mary Schmich gets back from vacation soon...
....can't stomach inane comments like these from Dawn Turner Trice:

Critics say the campaign has other shortcomings--it plays the terror card and unduly blames America's youth for terrorism.

But if this campaign, in appealing to one's patriotism, prevents even a handful of youngsters from going down the road to addiction, then it's a definite plus.

Mary Schmich is on vacation. Dawn Turner Trice's column appears Mondays.

Let's see: a "handful" of "youngsters" can't be more than, say, two dozen or so @$3.4 million just for the ad buy (never mind what O&M charge to produce it) that's, well, we see how much it costs American taxpayers to keep these "handfull" from doing heroin.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #6 posted by kanabys on February 20, 2002 at 12:30:28 PT
Oh Thank You So Much
I was really afraid the ONDCP or something of their ilk banned it from TV or something. All you here are so helpful and thoughtful. I really do appreciate all that all of you are doing. You are all, except maybe joyce, are the best of humanity. Keep on fighting the good fight, as will I. Peace to you all :-)

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #5 posted by FoM on February 20, 2002 at 12:26:28 PT
It's the 22nd we didn't miss it whew!
http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,328174-412,00.shtml

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #4 posted by FoM on February 20, 2002 at 12:23:11 PT
kanabys
I'll go look but I thought it was to be on the 22nd! I hope we didn't miss it.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #3 posted by kanabys on February 20, 2002 at 12:20:17 PT
Yeah, this is getting old FAST!!!
Just like all other "campaigns" the usg spits out, the lie gets old very quickly. I'm really trying to ignore this tripe but it's very hard sometimes.

Off subject, what happened to the 48 hours on the kid whose gets cannabis from his mother to help his mental disorders? I thought it was supposed to be on feb 18, but the story was something else. FoM, can you help with this, anybody???

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #2 posted by FoM on February 20, 2002 at 11:24:29 PT
Oh kapt!
I agree with you. I had a heck of a time posting this. It's like locking up children who get caught experimenting with drugs is ok and somehow that's going to keep some kids off drugs? No way. It doesn't work that way. Wake up America please!

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on February 20, 2002 at 11:14:39 PT:

Oh, boy, here we go again
I don't know about you, but I am getting sick of this. Another purported 'journalist' seemingly blissfully ignorant of the facts concerning the War on Drugs.

" U.S. drug czar John Walters told me that the campaign has resonated so much with teens and their parents that what was originally a six-week campaign has been extended through mid-April.

Engaging in a little fawning, Ms. Trice? I'll bet you wriggled all over like a happy puppy when Mr. Ashcroft deigned to 'tell' you...lies. Which you in your pathetic earnestness to please - rather than confront - allowed to stand unchallenged.

"Resonated with teens and their parents", eh? A resonance can be positive...or negative, Ms. Trice. Just ask any maker of glasswear what happens when fine crystal begins to resonate with a high C note. The same kind of thing is happening with these ads. People who before swallowed uncritically all kinds of DrugWar tripe are now asking if the government is going to ridiculous lengths in 'reaching' like this. The implication that their children, through 'experimental' use of marijuana (just as so many of their parents 'experimented' frequently, eh, Ms. Trice?), are funding terrorism cuts awfully close to home. And forces them to make the kinds of observations you, a supposed journalist, seem incapable of making. Observations that no amount of propaganda or jails or bullets will stop the illicit drug traffic.

But what's worse is, the person who wrote this is African-American...a member of one of the groups deliberately targeted by the proto-DrugWarrior Anslinger and his ilk to be the direct recipients of his Jim Crowe racist oppression dressed up in the robes of Law. And she is blindly mouthing the sayings of the chief prosecutor of this failed war as if she's the chief stenographer of a modern-day Burning Bush. Talk about the kicked dog licking the hand of it's assailant.

Many of you have wondered why I hold so many members of the 4th Estate in such low regard. This is why.

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