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New Campaign Should Blame Prohibition, Not Pot Smokers for Violence in Mexico
"Just Say No" advocates have hatched a campaign scheme to blame people who smoke marijuana for the horrifying violence in Mexico. An article in the Wall Street Journal reported that antidrug groups plan to use this message when talking to high-school students and plan to ask the Partnership for Drug Free America ("this is your brain on drugs") and the Obama Administration to make this argument.
Proponents of the campaign hope young people will stop smoking marijuana if they associate the activity with the murder of people in Mexico. This theme is similar to one that former drug czar John Walters used after 9/11. Walters ran TV spots during the Super Bowl and print ads in hundreds of newspapers across the country attempting to link drug use with international terrorism. These ads were roundly criticized across the political spectrum. They were eventually cancelled as a result.
This latest campaign, like the "drug use supports terrorism" deception, is destined to backfire. It will surely be ridiculed and will further discredit the "Drug Free America" crew's credibility with the young people they proclaim to care so much about. The research backs my hypothesis. In 2006, a federally funded study conducted by the research firm Westat and the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication found that antidrug ads linking drug use to terrorism by the ONDCP had no effect on the kids who'd seen them, and in some cases actually made them more interested in marijuana.
There are a few problems with these campaigns: they are inaccurate in some cases and downright dishonest in others. It is disingenuous to connect the average American's marijuana consumption to the horrific violence that is resulting from Mexico's drug war. The average pot smoker's growing and purchasing of marijuana has no relationship to the violence along the border that is the result of large-scale drug trafficking.
For the people who do smoke marijuana that comes from Mexico, it's not too hard to figure out that it's not the marijuana plant or use of it that causes the violence. The violence is a byproduct of drug prohibition that makes the plant as valuable as gold and creates a profit motive that people are willing to kill for.
The drug-free society crowd had their counterparts during alcohol prohibition, who similarly blamed the beer drinker for Al Capone and the violence. People continued to drink during alcohol prohibition, just like people use drugs during drug prohibition. When alcohol was illegal in this country organized crime ruled the streets and violent turf wars resulted in shoot-outs in the streets. Sound familiar? Today no one dies over the sale of Budweiser. People eventually figured out that alcohol prohibition did not prevent people from drinking. But it did lead to out of control violence and a black market that benefited bootleggers who controlled the trade. Today drug prohibition is no different. Tens of millions of people still use marijuana and other drugs. But instead of regulation and control we have more than 7,500 deaths in Mexico over the last year and a half from drug prohibition violence.
The violence in Mexico has led to an unprecedented debate about the failures of drug prohibition and possible exit strategies from the unwinnable war. More and more people are calling for all options to be considered -- including the option of legalization. In February, the Latin American drug policy commission co-chaired by three ex-presidents, Cardoso of Brazil, Gaviria of Colombia and Zedillo of Mexico, broke new ground with a report calling for decriminalization of marijuana and the need to "break the taboo" on open and honest debate.
In the border city of El Paso, the city council passed a resolution in January calling on Congress to debate drug legalization as a way of reducing prohibition-related violence. And the attorney general of Arizona, in response to the growing violence in his state, suggested a debate to consider taxing and regulating marijuana in the same manner as alcohol.
The "Just Say No" advocates are politically astute in realizing that the out of control violence in Mexico has a huge impact on the conversation. It is understandable that they try to blame drug use for the problem. But the ground is shifting fast under their feet. More and more people are challenging 40 years of failed drug prohibition strategies. It is going to be hard to stop the growing understanding and voices that point out that it is not the plant or marijuana smoking, but the prohibition that causes the violence. And one day they will find themselves on the wrong side of history, supporters of a policy that promised a drug free world, but instead led to tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths.
Tony Newman is the director of media relations at the Drug Policy Alliance.
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By the time kids are old enough to want to try drugs, they are old enough to smell BS and propoganda from a mile away. the advent of the internet is so adventageous these days. Kids are no longer forced to take their parents, teachers, principal's or even police's words at face value. They can, and often do research topics of interest, and are able and willing to call adults out on their disinformation campaigns.
The ONLY good thing that came out of Partnership for a Drug Free America was the scantilly clad Rachel Leigh Cook "this is your brain on drugs" commercial
Regardless of all these hugely negative side effects (such as violence), basically, the war on drugs is mainly a total infringement on the rights of Americans in order to pander to the namby pamby nanny voters who don't want anyone else to be able to choose to do anything that they themselves choose not to do.
Where is freedom, if it is only freedom to do what a few people choose to do and not do, instead of the full range of options.
If people can ride motorcycles, skydive, drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes, play football, stay up late, overeat, eat food with partially hydrogenated oil in it, and other potentially dangerous activities, then why are these singled out?
By the way. I don't do any drugs, I don't smoke cigarettes, I very rarely have a beer, I don't ride motorcycles, I don't skydive, or ski, or eat food with partially hydrogenated oil in it. But I really don't give a toot if you or anyone else does.
As long a congress get money funneled to it from the drug cartels, drugs will be illegal. It really is just that simple.
Take it from an ex 'Drug Warrior,' Prohibition is a joke - a gigantic dog and pony show. Treat drug use as a health problem and retire all of the drug enforcement agents.
I remember that Mexican pot went out of style about 40 years ago, when, ahem, better stuff from other countries started arriving...not to mention the notoriously wonderful varieties of west coast and Hawaiian home grown, and One Hit Wonder. I hate to see pot classified in the same category as the truly harmful drugs which come through Mexico from other countries.
Cocaine is truly the American cultural status symbol drug - expensive, rather than mind-expanding, it is ego-enhancing - the type of drug, like meth, you might be able to go to work on - especially if you have a crazy-making, very intensive, high pressure type job like...stockbrokers, MS programmers, mortgage brokers, Wall Street CEOs, maybe...Apologies to the decent people in these occupations.
And, who is using all the heroin - maybe rich, but miserable teenagers with too much time and money on their hands?
It has been said that MILLIONS of American drug users are spending BILLIONS of dollars annually on drugs smuggled in by Mexican cartels. Who are all these users, anyway? Why does it take a Mexican narco war to bring these issues to our attention?
I totallty disagree. While I am fully behind legalization, in the meantime users ARE responsible for the violence committed by those who control the trade. No one should use until the law is changed because of the destruction in poor communities. BUT they should work twice as hard to convince the mainstream that the so-called drug war is a disaster.
Doesn't anyone want to hold the PEOPLE BLASTING EACHOTHER AWAY responsible for the violence? Sheesh.
Just to counter your reasoning, is everyone who owns a car responsible for all the auto related deaths? Is everyone who purchases alcohol responsible for for all alcohol related deaths? And the same for aspirin, caffeine, guns, etc.
No, it's Prohibition and prohibitionists that are to blame for all the violence and deaths, as well as the special interests groups (industry lobbyists, law enforcement) who continue to support prohibition.
Pot Prohibition is not working.
TAKE the INCOME AWAY from cartels and organized crime. Legalize pot now.
It will provide billions in tax dollars
The most pissed off people will be illegal drug dealers ( organized crime) and uptight right wingers.
$200 per pack = $100 in taxes @ 50% rate
Its all well and good to call out some idiotic media campaign, but with 800,000 Americans having their lives destroyed each year is a travesty we should be reading about daily.
if your unsure about Marijuana Legalization visit the link below, take a few min and learn something.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lee-stranahan/watch-5-benefits-to-legal_b_182263.html
Nice post.
"Proponents of the campaign hope young people will stop smoking marijuana if they associate the activity with the murder of people in Mexico."
Ya, but young people are smart. They'll understand right away that it is the prohibition that isn't working.
I'd also like to ad that they may have family members that smoke pot and they do not see them as criminals.
The law is over kill; people are over charged with crimes and over sentenced.
Amen !
While the cartel violence you speak of is certainly enough to justify legalizing cannabis, it's really only the tip of the iceberg. You failed to mention the fact the cannabis has a proven track record for treating a number of diseases and ailments, is many cases much better then pharmaceuticals and with virtually no side effects. The economy would benefit from the tax revenue too. But the biggest reason we need to end this stupid war on weed is for the cause of individual freedom. Pot is harmless, it does not kill brain cells and it's less addictive then coffee. No one has ever died as a result of smoking pot and I challenge anyone to find a case of where consuming marijuana alone was the cause of a violent or domestic crime. Ask any cop in any town in America if that could be said about alcohol. Pot's effect on man is peaceful and deeply spiritual, no government should deny it's people the right to expand their mind.
"Two of my favorite things are sitting on my front porch smoking a pipe of sweet hemp, and playing my Hohner harmonica." - Abraham Lincoln (from a letter written by Lincoln during his presidency to the head of the Hohner Harmonica Company in Germany)
Actually, that quote is made up. The Hohner harmonica wasn't imported into the US until after 1868, four years after Lincoln had died.
Other than that, I agree with your post.
Maybe Lincolon had a Hohner as a gift from overseas BEFORE they were imported for sale here?
Not being on Wall Street, I can't get any bailout funds but I really need some money. Hmm, let me think. What is out there that I can first demonize and get made illegal, so I can then traffic, so I can make millions . . .
Isn't coke more the problem down there? I really am all for us examining our own sources of this demand for narcotics. Whether it is the prohibition or not, we need to start taking responsibility for the demand for this stuff which stokes this trafficking and violence. I am glad to see we're debating this point.
I am sure pot could be legalized, but other narcotics could not be without doing some pretty serious damage to our youth and society. It is just the case, that getting hooked happens too fast with simple experimentation.
Most probably it's methamphetamine. When lawmakers pass more and more restrictive laws and reduce access to precursors, manufacturing moves. Oregon is a great example. In less than 10 years, local producers of "crank" (think bathtub gin vs. distilled liquor) were pushed out and the Mexican Mafia came in with crystal meth, a purer, more potent version of street amphetamines.
Most probably, that is the main cause of the current violence in Mexico.
There is not a single person who wants to do hard drugs, that is not because they are illegal. if your worried about kids and drugs, educate the kids, don't try to make the drugs go away.
Mexican society is plainly of two minds on "pot," cocaine, and heroine. It tolerates the commerce in drugs because friends and relatives profit. Drug addiction isn't a problem on the same scale as in the U.S......yet! Also, this tolerance points to a profitable expression of schadenfreude especially as the PC in the U.S. have taken up the "mea culpa" of fire arms imported illegally from the U.S.
The onus weighs on MEXICO to demonstrate that it can control/administer its own territory and root out endemic CORRUPTION which renders that administration a virtual NULL!
Most of the marijuana consumed in the United States is grown here. Most of the smokers I know grow their own so the old saying that their supporting terrorist is bull to the extremes.
Legalize and overgrow.
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