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Bhikku

So, I've gone to watch a few movies at the theater recently and I don't know if anyone has seen the new "above the influence" commercials they've been playing in theaters, but they're commercials drawn by children.

Now, let's think about this for a second. They are encouraging these kids to think for themselves and to live "above the influence" of drugs and alcohol, but they don't have any problem indoctrinating children who are barely old enough to draw that drugs of any kind are dangerous and should be avoided. Not only that, but that people who use drugs feel bad for using them, and only want other people to do them with so they feel better about themselves. What a crock of bullshit.

Personally, while I do not approve of the use of drugs by minors and have actually been intellectually provoked by some of the "above the influence" commercials I've seen on TV (the one where the teenager is being "influenced" in high speed by everyone around him, changing his clothes and hair and whatnot, is one of my favorites), I'm appalled that children this young are being influenced by the government to have their impressionable lil' minds aligned with the laws of the State. That's not prevention - that's programming.

If you've seen these "drawing" commercials, it's obvious that the children who made them are very young. Too young to make up their own mind one way or the other about drugs or any other serious topic. I probably wouldn't let one of these kids watch a PG-13 movie, much less listen to misinformed lackeys of the government. I'm sickened to think that they're getting to kids this young.

It's about made me decide that whenever my kids get to the age that DARE becomes part of their cirriculum, I'm going to politely (or not so politely) ask that they be allowed to take a study hall or something in its place, since this kind of snowjob goes against my political and child-rearing principles.

Above the influence? Yeah, right.

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Saracolours

I think we've all seen them, theyre on public television as well, and there have been a bunch of threads about them.

But anyways, I agree. I think they are a waste of our tax dollars because they dont apply to everyone, and they do a terrible job of getting the point across. I dont really understand the concept that they are trying to display, none of it really makes sense. Usually, i can find somthing that is symbolic of somthing important or somthing in a film clip like that, but with these, theres not much going through my head other than "what the fuck?".

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Jake

I don't even worry about it. The anti-drug commericials are fighting a losing battle.

Truth: People are more likely to distrust the government when they spread that much bullshit. I mean, the 9-14 age group they're trying to reach has heard of weed, they've probably seen their older brother smoke...telling them that smoking weed will magically turn them into "losers" and "dropouts" just will not work. The commercials are only one thing influencing them. The culture around them, their friends and family, are much more important.

Commercials don't raise kids.

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Againstallsides

Im sick of those above the influence commercials just as much as you are. For the most part, they're just a waste of money because majority of the people that watch them know that they're over exaggerated. I guess they're running out of methods to show they're anti-marijuana so they have to show those horrible drawings. They're not teaching these kids to think for themselves, they're just trying to support their anti-marijuana beliefs.

5drive

As long as kids under the age of say, 10?, are given the opportunity to try drugs, courtesy of older kids, siblings, and, even indirectly, dealers, you're going to see this type of programming. Too bad that weed is being lumped in with dangerous drugs, but I'd say that even most pot smoking parents would rather have some anti-drug brainwashing out there rather than have the only info be 'try it, you'll like it' from dealers.

What pisses me off more than this programming, is what we get from doctors and drug companies. They'd like us to take a variety of OTC and prescription drugs on a daily basis. Taking an aspirin a day to prevent heart attacks puts a person at about the same risk level for fatality as being a fire fighter. In the year 2000, 32,000 people died from adverse reactions to prescription drugs. In the same year 0 people died from marijuana use (that mj stat is the same every year ) Doctors and hospitals are conservatively rated as the 3rd leading cause of death in the US, every year. Yet warnings for these drugs amount to fine print on a bottle or package, or a rush of words at the end of a TV commercial, if they exist at all.

On a side note, also from the year 2000 stats, bad habits accounted for 885,000 deaths that year.

Tobacco 435,000
Poor Diet and Physical Inactivity 365,000
Alcohol 85,000


Although tobacco and alcohol are drugs, and can be very addictive, they are our legal 'uppers and downers', and as killers, they dwarf the number of deaths attributed to "All Illicit Drug Use, Direct and Indirect"-17,000.

So while I can't work up much anger about the propaganda aimed at kids (it would be nice to see that 17,000 figure shrink a lot), I'm very disturbed by the number of people that die from drugs that our society allows and even approves. Something is out of whack when a parent is OK with a 16 year old kid smoking cigarettes and even drinking an occasional beer ('it's OK because he/she is at home with us'), but wants to send the same kid to rehab for smoking a joint.

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jarvolt

You should see my brother. For some reason he gets really into commercials. I don't really understand it. And of course, when he found out I smoked pot, he acted as if it was amazing I was still alive. I'm not saying he's not smart or anything, but let's just say he's perfect evidence of the effect of brainwashing on kids.

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guerilla

Its funny how they spend like 150 million dollars on a commercial that i can animate better with my ass cheeks stoned then they can do sober with their hands, its fucking retarted

a dog asks "why dont u quit" blah blah ill do it next week "you dissapoint me"

"above the influence" (gay music plays) horray for above the influence....ffucking retarted

why dont they make commercials of coke heads stopping or heroin junkies, NO NO THEY GO AFTER MARIJUANA THE MOST HARMLESS FUCKING DRUG ON EARTH........no1 should quit pot, theres no reason to, i have a better reason to quit drinking soda then quit pot

cattycass

Dude, I hate that shit. Those kinds of things do brainwash little kids, I remember when my little sister was in Dare, they told her that drinking as little as one beer could make someone "act really mean and then not remember it", ie black out, effectively had her convinced that drinking was evil. That was a long time ago, but it caused a lot of problems with my Dad and her, and I still want to punch that dare officer in the face.

Just wait till they start making commercials encouraging kids to turn their parents and sibling in for drug use...

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kansastoker

There's something our society just doesn't understand these days: Not all drugs are bad. The word "drug" has attained such a negative connotation. Of course, people are perfectly fine with the drugs that the government approves (Vicodin, Xanax, etc.) with form dependency and hurt your liver. But a harmless drug such as marijuana which doesn't form dependency? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO way! And for everyone who says that smoking marijuana hurts your lungs, guess what, you can vaporize or eat it, neither of which harm the body in any way.

jarvolt

Heh, there's no real proof that marijuana even hurts your lungs from smoking it anyway. If anything it'll just irritate them a little. But it's been found that there is no link to lung cancer.