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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?"
![[Screenshot]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/AKXN6Vdr3g0/maxresdefault.jpg){kind=link}
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @03:12PM (7 children)
Isn't marijuana legal now in about 1/2 the States?
(Score: 2, Redundant) by Runaway1956 on Sunday April 23 2017, @03:18PM (2 children)
Not exactly "legal". A legal drug, like aspirin, anyone may possess, at any time, no questions asked. Several states have legalized marijuana for medical purposes. I'm not quite certain, but I don't think any state has made it legal for recreational purposes. Of course, half or more of the states are simply not even looking for possession and/or proper vs improper use.
"decriminalized" doesn't mean that it's "legal" - there will have to be a law or regulation written that specifies that it is legal, before it becomes legal. Rather like alcohol. It was prohibited, by amendment, then another amendment was written to revoke the prohibition.
(Score: 5, Informative) by fyngyrz on Sunday April 23 2017, @04:01PM (1 child)
Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Washington, DC.
Source [businessinsider.com]
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @06:27PM
but I don't think any state has made it legal for recreational purposes.
Yep, ol' Runaway and his "not thinking", again. Fox News will do this to you.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Whoever on Sunday April 23 2017, @08:25PM
That depends upon if you are asking state courts or Federal courts.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 24 2017, @12:53PM
I guess those of us who are productive should just throw in the towel. If there are a lot of people who will be useless, it doesn't matter if they are high or not?
I don't know anymore. Kill robots are 10-20 years away, and good ones that can spot a hippie probably 11-21 years away (needs a patch to it's scent processor).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 25 2017, @05:45AM (1 child)
Marijuana is Federally illegal. According to the US Constitution, if the Federal government does not make laws governing something then it is left up to the states, but if the Federal Government has made laws about something, then those laws override the states.
It is basically the same as living in a state where the legal smoking age is 18, but your neighborhood HOA decides that the legal smoking age for people in the neighborhood is 16. States allow HOAs to set rules, but those rules do not override the state laws.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by aristarchus on Tuesday April 25 2017, @06:53AM
Truly you do not understand American law. If I were you, I would just keep quiet, and hope no one reads this post.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Sunday April 23 2017, @03:15PM (34 children)
When it first came out, I guess I believed it, at least 75%. Didn't believe in it entirely, but there is truth in the statement that drugs can destroy your brain. Oh, I knew then that not all drugs are as addictive as others. And, I knew enough dopeheads to know that most drugs only destroy the brain relatively slowly. Only rarely does a horror story happen - first high means addiction, and you run a fast short course to the grave from there. Generally, it's a slower, longer course.
Today, I'm still something of a believer in drugs frying your brain, but it most certainly isn't the way the cops paint it to be. They don't REALLY care if you get high. No one even cares a whole lot if you kill yourself. It's all about the money. Take away the money, and cops will waste little time chasing after blacks or whites.
It's all about the money.
I'm glad that Cook understands this. Give her an "attagirl" for trying to repair the damage that her first commercial contributed to.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @03:33PM (9 children)
Please please please tell us what percentage of a believer you are now! I can hardly wait. It's fascinating insights like this that keep me coming back to SN.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @03:38PM (7 children)
You, sir, should go piss up a rope.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @03:40PM (6 children)
No, no, no - he should urinate up a vertical piece of hemp. Doesn't that sound classier?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @03:41PM (5 children)
No, you're both wrong. Just throw the bastard into an open septic tank, and drag the lid closed over his head.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @05:25PM (4 children)
Well the only real bastard here so far is you, so have fun breathing in your own shit :D
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @06:34PM (3 children)
No! The beliefs of Runaway1956 are fascinating! It's like seeing an eighteen-wheeler upside-down and backwards in the median of an Interstate: you just have to wonder, "how in the hell did *that* happen?" I often say the same thing when I see one of Runaway's "opinions". Even more fascinating is the throng of ACs that come to Runaway's defense. Amazing. Who would have thought that anyone could even support, let alone defend, such bizarre thinking? Unless, unlike me, they are not
reallyACs.(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @06:54PM
they are not really ACs.
Which means you're Runaway1956 playing both sides of a troll war.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @06:56PM (1 child)
I disagree with a lot of things he says, but I see him as the bridge state of consciousness from full blown right winger wackjob and decent human with some politics I disagree with but don't find abhorrent. Thus I come to his defense when I think someone is overblowing his less palatable traits. I don't want people such as him to radicalize because they think all liberals/progressives/whatevers will forever judge them as "unworthy".
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @07:24PM
I don't want people such as him to radicalize because they think all liberals/progressives/whatevers will forever judge them as "unworthy".
I believe this almost 64.97%.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @10:05PM
In the Bayesian interpretation probability theory, probabilities represent degrees of belief. It is perfectly rational to say, "based on what I know about meteorology and local weather patterns the chance of rain tomorrow is 75%". Then one can do a decision theoretic analysis (formally or informally) about whether to make plans to go camping the next day.
(Score: 4, Informative) by RamiK on Sunday April 23 2017, @03:48PM (7 children)
I'm still something of a believer in drugs frying your brain
There's evidence alcohol causes brain damage: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol-related_brain_damage [wikipedia.org]
Boxing and football too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronic_traumatic_encephalopathy [wikipedia.org]
Not so for cannabis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-term_effects_of_cannabis#Brain [wikipedia.org]
And before someone says "because research is illegal", it they still managed to diagnose it with heroin: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_leukoencephalopathy#Drug_abuse [wikipedia.org]
Overall, if it causes brain damage, it's so little they can't find it.
compiling...
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @03:51PM (2 children)
Of course they can't find the damage. It's hard enough finding a dope head's tiny brain, how in hell they gonna find the damage?
(Score: 3, Funny) by LVDOVICVS on Sunday April 23 2017, @03:56PM
"Dope head"? I didn't realize the internet was connected to the 1950s.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @05:27PM
Can we meet up in Colorado? I'd love to blow some smoke right in your squidgy little face. Then you'll attack me and I can have fun watching the story pop up here on SN after you try and use the Orange in Chief as your defense.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday April 23 2017, @04:12PM (1 child)
Please note, neither the original ad, nor my comments, were directed solely at cannabis. The word "drugs" was used.
There is no doubt that overdosing on alcohol causes brain damage - along with kidney and liver damage. Alcohol is most certainly deadly. People can, and do, kill themselves in short order with alcohol poisoning, as well as poisoning themselves long-term, and taking years to die.
Sports can be deadly - but do sports really belong in this discussion? Adrenaline junkies may well be addicted to one sport or another, but they aren't drugs.
Let me rephrase what I think:
Moderate use of some recreational drugs may be alright, but becoming an addict to any drug is deadly, as well as stupid. Since cannabis is one of the least addictive drugs known to man, that almost puts cannabis out of this discussion - except for the fact that it is psychoactive, and commonly used for recreational purposes.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @07:14PM
Yeah, OMG it's used for recreation so it's just as bad as meth! Now give me my alcohol and sports!
Die in a fire you piece of shit.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @07:20PM
As Runaway1956 has noted, the original ad cast too broad a net, saying "drugs".
...and while use of weed by adults appears to have no long-term effects, repeated use by kids has negative effects on their still-forming brains. [google.com]
In my early adulthood, I tried alcohol and weed.
I found that I don't like the taste of alcohol and I don't particularly care for the out-of-control thing that those bring on and, as such, don't find them to be worth the cost.
I have no particular problem, however, with others using those responsibly (no operating machinery under the influence).
USA.gov has a completely dishonest approach to drugs, categorizing things falsely while ignoring/distorting the existing evidence and blocking further studies.
It's the lying about the subject that makes me want to speak out every time I encounter it.
Prohibition, after a decade-long experiment a century ago proved the notion to be ineffective, as well as the ridiculous amounts of tax money currently spent on prohibition, just irritates the shit out of me.
Ask a youngster, "Which is easier to get: weed or booze?"
He'll tell you, "Weed, dude. Booze takes an ID."
Nobody will sell booze to kids because he knows he'll lose his liquor license.
If USA.gov was to treat weed the way it treats alcohol, regulating its sale and taxing it, it would become a revenue source instead of resource sink.
...and if drugs were properly regulated instead of being made illegal, there wouldn't be quality/purity problems and we'd have had e.g Janis Joplin around and making music for years longer.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 24 2017, @12:55PM
I refrain from all of those activities plus any drugs (No you cannot tax my hard-earned income to pay for your medical expenses).
And I almost guarantee you that there is a negative side-effect from smoking dope.
(Score: 5, Informative) by hemocyanin on Sunday April 23 2017, @05:42PM (9 children)
Even if drugs fry the brain, the drug war is worse overall for society than having a few burnouts. Glen Greenwald has an excellent debate with Bush's drug czar about the legalization of ALL drugs -- he lists numerous harms caused by the drug war which would immediately disappear if it ended, and argues that to legitimize the drug war, you have to demonstrate that its benefits outweigh those costs:
https://vimeo.com/32110912 [vimeo.com]
rough synopsis of Greenwald's opening:
----------------------------------------------------------------------
If drugs are legalized, these costs evaporate:
If you legalize drugs, all of those costs disappear. To advocate for the drug war, you have to demonstrate that criminalization provides greater benefits than those costs. And don't use the "more people will use drugs" argument -- Portugal demonstrates that is not the case. Decriminalization led to better health and reduced drug use [ here's a link summarizing the study: http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1893946,00.html [time.com] ]
Portugal gives several reasons for the improvement in conditions with ending the drug war:
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Sunday April 23 2017, @05:45PM (2 children)
First unordered list item in the second set should read:
When you criminalize drugs, it creates a wall between citizens and police. When you legalize drugs, this goes away. Police are seen NOT as an enemy, BUT AS a resource.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @06:35PM
You are incredibly naive. When you legalize drugs, police just go right back to shooting hippies.
https://youtu.be/dEumQGnHSOs?t=6m34s [youtu.be]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 24 2017, @12:59PM
That is nonsense. Most often police in small towns do not have to deal with the boogie-man of drugs, but they somehow find ways of making themselves look like assholes, like aggressively policing a section of state-route that runs through the town. Obvious as fuck they use it to generate revenue as a police department has just as many unmarked police vehicles as it does marked one (WTF?).
Trust me, Police will always be the enemy, to view them any other way is naive.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday April 23 2017, @10:08PM (4 children)
The US has become a prison state. We have 5% of the world's population, and 25% of all prisoners on earth.
How many percent of the US prison population is incarcerated on drug charges only?
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Sunday April 23 2017, @11:57PM (3 children)
At least half: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/10/war-on-drugs-prisons-infographic_n_4914884.html [huffingtonpost.com]
(Score: 3, Informative) by kaszz on Monday April 24 2017, @05:43AM (2 children)
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)
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
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.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 24 2017, @12:19PM
Has spawned the privatized prison industry. This industry wants to maximize profits, employs armies of lobbyists to ensure they have bodies.
Sorry to tell you, but when a problem becomes a basis of an industry, it is a sure one sign that the problem is there to stay, unless there appears another, stronger, industry, which has opposite goal. In this case, decriminalizing drugs would quickly create a powerful industry block with a business model of enslaving masses through addiction, basically an extension to alcohol, tobacco, sugar (and salties), and betting industries, and they would probably come to an agreement with private incarceration industry to somehow provide substitute patsies to keep the prisons full. What would become another target of "War on ..." series, I can't predict, but copyright violation seems like an easy candidate, as it is another unsolvable problem with history of steadily ramping up penalty policy.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday April 23 2017, @10:11PM (5 children)
It's all about the money.
In what way?
It's not really, at least a few years ago that you could buy these drugs from big Pharma peddlers or anyone else legally. So what money making scheme are you referring to?
Knowing something is up is one thing. Knowing how it's actually setup makes a huge difference. So I'm actually curious.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Monday April 24 2017, @01:49AM (4 children)
The prison industry. I'm not the only person who has pointed out, and bitched, about the incarceration of human beings for profit. The system is inherently wrong, and to make things worse, it is biased against black people. In effect, we have a modified slavery system, in which very rich white folk can continue to profit at the expense of mostly young black males.
While America beats it's chest, and tells the world that we are the best country on earth, blah blah blah, we have more prisoners than any other nation on earth.
This page shows incarceration rates, by state, in the US, as well as by country - https://www.prisonpolicy.org/global/2016.html [prisonpolicy.org] Our best state, Mass, is only better than 8 other countries. Most of our states are worse than ANY other country in the world, and the US is the worst of all countries. The most backward, oppressive nation in the world has better incarceration rates than either the US government, as well as better than 33 of our individual states and/or the District of Columbia.
Think about those numbers for a moment. Out of every 100,000 people who live in D.C, 1196 are imprisoned. That means that about 12 out of every 1000 little school children has a future that leads to prison.
Which is easier to believe: That we are the worst people in the world, or that our "justice" system is the worst in the world?
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Monday April 24 2017, @08:19AM
It's probably a "sponsored" justice system perhaps soon followed by a private police [soylentnews.org] system where the Chinese model of you're accused equals guilty. Add some Canadian blasphemy [wikipedia.org] law and those cupola inspired moon choped in half may get their chop-chop practice legally.
The private prison roots are slightly interesting. Jack C. Massey with a degree in pharmacy got rich with founding Hospital Corporation of America in 1968. He invested together with Vanderbilt University and the Tennessee Valley Authority in Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) in the 1980s. CCA was founded in 1983 by Thomas W. Beasley a military and Juris Doctor together with Robert Crants a military and MBA which met each other as roommates in the military. The modern era of private prison started in 1984. The mix of pharmacy, military, juris and business spheres can make for an interesting mix. But seems the home for these kind of enterprises is in the military and political spheres. Something that can become a solid positive feedback system with less then pretty effects given sufficient time.
Seems as long as you have the money to sponsor a few high position politicians you have more or less free rein. Systematic surveillance compromise comes with a military connection.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Tuesday April 25 2017, @01:55AM (1 child)
Under the 13th Amendment, the enslavement of prisoners is legal. So indeed, you are correct there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Tuesday April 25 2017, @09:47AM
Abolished as official practice, reintroduced as allowed as punishment. Only to combine it with customized law application. Success..
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Tuesday April 25 2017, @01:55PM
Out of every 100,000 people who live in D.C, 1196 are imprisoned.
That seems like a reasonable number for D.C, but the problem is that it is the wrong 1196.
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @03:36PM (1 child)
I'd like to see the Youtube video of her going to CO and smoking a giant blunt (and giving me a hand job).
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @03:47PM
You pig. You male chauvinist pig. The only use you have for women, is to use them as a sperm receptacle. This is how you think of your mother? Your daughter? Your sister? You'd like to have them give you a hand job? You pig. You should be more like me. I didn't ask your mother for a hand job. Instead, she volunteered to suck me off, then fucked my brains out. You pig! Have some respect!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @03:38PM (7 children)
Can we get PET and/or MRI scans of brains on various drugs, including (but not limited to) pot, meth, cocaine, heroin, oxycontin, alcohol, nicotine, caffeine and sugar?
Let's see what is really going on (besides advertising and lobbying by Big Pharma, Big Tobacco and Big Alcohol).
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @04:14PM (4 children)
There was a news article about a scientific study a few days ago that said LSD and a few other drugs actually raise your level of consciousness to a higher level than being baseline awake.
OTOH... My gripe about this ad remake is that it's just another SJW'er racist against white people campaign. Get your heads out of your asses, it's not about what color your skin is, do the crime - do the time. Stop trying to get a "get out of jail" card because you're not white.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @07:07PM (2 children)
OTOH... My gripe about this ad remake is that it's just another SJW'er racist against white people campaign. Get your heads out of your asses, it's not about what color your skin is, do the crime - do the time. Stop trying to get a "get out of jail" card because you're not white.
So you entirely missed the point huh? Get out of jail card for being non-white? No, its about not sending drug users to prison PERIOD. The effects are the same, but there is a racial component since one group of people is 7x (?) more likely to be incarcerated. I don't care what your reasons are for being miffed about the movement for social justice and equality, you're being an idiot here that comes off as racist with the common police platitude "do the crime do the time".
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @07:50PM (1 child)
Show me proof of someone in prison for only smoking a joint where there was no other crime. The ones serving time are more likely for dealing drugs or using drugs stronger than weed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @07:59PM
No.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @10:41PM
Get your heads out of your asses, it's not about what color your skin is, do the crime - do the time. Stop trying to get a "get out of jail" card because you're not white.
Actually.. despite being outnumbered by whites five to one, blacks commit eight times more crimes against whites than vice-versa, according to FBI statistics from 2007. [yahoo.com] A black male is 40 times as likely to assault a white person as the reverse. These figures also show that interracial rape is almost exclusively black on white.
That statistics likely goes for drugs too. I'll guess it's partly that MAO-A gene [wikipedia.org] that mess things up which is present in 59% of Black men, 54% of Chinese men, 56% of Maori men, and 34% of Caucasian men carried the 3R allele, while 5.5% of Black men, 0.1% of Caucasian men, and 0.00067% of Asian men carried the 2R allele. (doi:10.1016/j.paid.2012.08.014.) Every seen crime stats for say Koreans or Japanese? they even make Whites look like thugs.
If the MAOA gene becomes damaged it results in lower than average IQ (typically about 85), problematic impulsive behavior (such as arson, hypersexuality and violence), sleep disorders and mood swings.
(Score: 4, Funny) by lx on Sunday April 23 2017, @04:39PM (1 child)
*This post was sponsored by Big MRI.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 24 2017, @01:01PM
I almost died, but you probably nailed it. All these Radialogy Doctors, they want their piece of the pie too. They would love for you to have to get an MRI as part of your pre-employment drug screening I bet.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by fyngyrz on Sunday April 23 2017, @03:38PM
Speaking as a white, (then) drug-using egg that was arrested and lost two years of my life to consequent incarceration, plus suffered massive follow-on prejudice from the business community, I'm definitely feeling the love in that ad.
The original ad was absolutely reprehensible. I've always hated it for the inherent lies. Even today, though no longer even slightly interested in recreational drugs for myself, I stand completely on the side of personal and consensual informed choice. This is one of the key fundamentals for any worthwhile variation on the idea of liberty. Without personal liberty as a basis, government is just authoritarian fuckery in a mommy mask, and deserves whatever slings and arrows the citizens decide to throw at it.
(Score: 3, Informative) by sjames on Sunday April 23 2017, @05:38PM (1 child)
This is your brain with toast and 2 strips of bacon.
(Score: 2) by NotSanguine on Monday April 24 2017, @04:19AM
This is your brain with toast and 2 strips of bacon.
I was going there myself [ebay.com], but you beat me to it.
I'd like rye toast and home fries too, please!
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @06:13PM (1 child)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FtNm9CgA6U [youtube.com]
The way I 'member it, a woman was swinging a sledgehammer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zfqw8nhUwA [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @07:04PM
Yeah, I member that one too.
This is your prohibition on roid rage.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @06:52PM (1 child)
Well, now that it's about race officially, we'll never see an end to the waste of taxpayer (my!) money on this shit.
Not that I think the commercial is factually incorrect. But now you've just called everybody with propaganda about cannabis and LSD-25 and all the others in their heads "ur racists!" You haven't done anything about their belief in the propaganda. All you did was call them racist, and now they'll never evaluate their beliefs again.
The cops are without question racist when it comes to prohibition enforcement. Yet how many white parents out there would feel proud of themselves as good parents to make sure their child has a felony conviction for finding a bag of weed in his room? How many white people disown and harass family members who use weed for medical problems?
(Not talking about kids here who are stupid enough to stash weed on their parents' property below of course. Well, actually, it comes from being stupid enough to trust your parents with your possessions by putting them in their house, where you have no rights.)
A bullet from a gun in protection of one's own liberty and private property was the only thing those people were ever going to listen to. Now you've called them racist.
How do you think that is going to help?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @06:58PM
Uh, OK here we go: Yes. No. 4. Not sure.
Hope that answered your questions! Thanks for asking.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @07:22PM
Clearly Nancy Regan's just say no was naivete.
It ignored both the lessons of prohibition and the causes, symptoms, and treatments for these few who become drug (including alcohol and legal pharma) addicts.
The resulting war on drugs has created both criminal and criminal justice industries with the folks she was trying to help as cannon fodder.
There has to be a better way.
I have never understood why the children of the 60's, who are now the old farts in charge, are such idiots on this subject.
Opportunities for improvement include removing the profit motive by treating the industry more like alcohol.
It's hard to come up with a believable argument for not doing this for drugs less harmful than alcohol.
Given the problems with alcohol, that's a pretty high bar for a wide variety of drugs to fit under.
This would remove a monopoly from both the alcohol and pharma industries.
There would be a significant lobbying hurdle to overcome even without the criminal justice industries.
Another opportunity is to focus rehab more towards a medical issue and away from a criminal issue.
There are wide swaths of the medical profession which would have to learn something new to accomplish this.
The biggest opportunity is to reconcile the difference between the public stance on drugs and reality.
Saying that just one try will hook you for the rest of your soon to be short life may be true for some drugs.
But to claim this for all things illegal undermines the useful message of moderation.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday April 23 2017, @09:41PM (2 children)
Let's keep pushing the idea that more brown eggs are in jail because society is biased against brown eggs, not because brown eggs commit most of the crime.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday April 24 2017, @02:35AM (1 child)
Anatole France [wikiquote.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 24 2017, @04:23AM
Society made those blacks rob you at gunpoint. They have no self-control.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 24 2017, @04:27PM
While I completely agree that the war on drugs is a failure, I'm not sure that couching it in terms of identity politics will help. This tactic might work, but in today's political climate, it might also backfire.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 24 2017, @08:04PM
only complete slaves would allow the government to tell them what medicines they can choose to use. think "drugs" are different? don't be such a fucking monkey. now they're even telling mothers with deathly sick kids that they have to poison them with chemo or go to jail. you voted for and fund these scum, you fucking idiots and now they are shooting your kids up with insta-autism and poisoning them in their food and water. if you watch live pd (it's pretty hard) you will see these stupid traitors fucking with people all over the country for bullshit. treating them like slaves digging through their shit and wasting their time. even the obvious jackasses are largely that way because of the environment they grew up in which is caused by the drug war. these days most of these pigs know the war on drugs is bullshit so they are morally corrupted so they have nothing but their job to lose. if we would quit allowing the legislature to use them as slave catchers and retrain their dumb asses, then maybe they could go after real criminals. if they would actually uphold their oaths to the constitution and focus on fraud, violent and property crime, then eventually even blacks would support them, even when they had to shoot some sherm head kick door robber. BTW, white people who say "people of color" are the stupidest of fucks. if i catch you saying that somewhere where i can get away with kicking your ass, that's what i'm going to do.