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posted by martyb on Sunday April 23 2017, @03:01PM   Printer-friendly
from the older-and-less-gullible dept.

AlterNet reports

Twenty years ago [1997-04-21], one of the most memorable ads of all time was launched, when Rachael Leigh Cook and her frying pan starting smashing up eggs in her infamous "This is Your Brain on Drugs" ad.

Today, Rachael Leigh Cook, her frying pan, and eggs are back but this time in a new ad that slams the drug war and its racist enforcement.

The new video, made by Green Point Creative, opens with Cook and her frying pan. She holds up a white egg and explains that it represents one of the millions of Americans who uses drugs but never gets arrested. She then picks up a brown egg and says, "This American is several times more likely to be charged with a drug crime." [Screenshot]

The animated ad, narrated by Cook, then shows what happens to the brown egg that is arrested and funneled through the criminal justice system. The ad highlights a range of harmful collateral consequences that result from drug arrest, including the loss of student financial aid, hindered job prospects and broken up families. The add[sic] contrasts the white egg's family that was never arrested, despite also using drugs.

The ad ends with Cook looking into the camera, holding her pan and [...] a smashed egg, and saying, "The war on drugs is ruining peoples' lives. It fuels mass incarceration, it targets people of color in greater numbers than their white counter parts. It cripples communities, it costs billions, and it doesn't work. Any questions?"


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  • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Sunday April 23 2017, @11:57PM (3 children)

    by hemocyanin (186) on Sunday April 23 2017, @11:57PM (#498589) Journal
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by kaszz on Monday April 24 2017, @05:43AM (2 children)

    by kaszz (4211) on Monday April 24 2017, @05:43AM (#498669) Journal

    Now there ought to be some serious money to save, oh wait here we have it.. actually [vera.org] 19.5 billion USD [googleapis.com] (19.5e9 USD) according to the report published in 2012. Thus 60 USD/year for every citizen. Considering that perhaps only half of the population work statistically speaking and that only half of those are net contributors the cost may be ~240 USD/year.

    It was Nixon that initiated the "War on drugs" in 1969 but seems that the incarceration rate skyrocketed [wikipedia.org] during the time Reagan got power in 1981 and didn't cool of until Bush in 2001.

    Actually Nixon called for rehabilitation. Perhaps that is precisely that is needed, not necessarily volunteerly.

    • (Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Tuesday April 25 2017, @01:49AM (1 child)

      by hemocyanin (186) on Tuesday April 25 2017, @01:49AM (#499119) Journal

      Aside from the last three words, upmod-worthy. With respect to the last three words, no treatment that is involuntary is going to be effective. People must actually want to stop.

      • (Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday April 25 2017, @09:42AM

        by kaszz (4211) on Tuesday April 25 2017, @09:42AM (#499206) Journal

        The problem is that many wish to stop but they just lack the will power because the chemicals hijack their brains. So by putting drug addicts in forced rehabilitation. The acute effects of drug dependence can be taken care of professionally. And then slowly return to a more sustainable life. Once at that point. The desire to go back to drugs will be less.

        Another point that drug rehabilitation misses is that drugs often are there to handle other trauma. Which means any rehabilitation must deal with this too once the drugs wear of.

        Hopefully this gets people of the "just say no" and other incomplete views on the problem.