Of course, I had to order the information packet after watching that action packed PSA complete with plenty of screaming, guns, smashing things and scary looking young people (actually, the first video I saw was marijuana specific but they didn't put that one up on YouTube...).
I received the packet this week. Inside was a little booklet titled "The Truth About Marijuana: Behind the smokescreen from a drug that destroys from the inside out."
This little booklet contains the usual misinformation and scare tactics you'd expect to find from any organization with the words "drug free" in their title. But there was one part that left me flabbergasted: Alcohol vs. Marijuana. Wow. They really want to take this one on? Here's what they have to say:
Is smoking a joint the same as drinking alcohol?I could waste my time rebutting these "facts" but anyone with half a brain already knows these are flat out lies. Besides, Steve Fox, Mason Tvert, and Paul Armentano have written an entire book on the safety of marijuana in comparison to alcohol.
You decide. Here are the facts:
Alcohol consists of one substance only: ethanol. Marijuana contains more than 400 known toxins and cancer causing chemicals.
Alcohol is eliminated from the body in a few hours; THC stays in the body fat for months, possibly longer. Thus, a person who smokes 2 to 3 joints a week is constantly under the influence of the drug.
THC damages the immune system. Alcohol does not.
There is no intention here to minimize the dangers of alcohol abuse, which can be equally harmful. Alcohol, however, can be used in moderation without causing severe damage. Cannabis, which is used almost exclusively as an intoxicant, is far more dangerous even when used in small amounts because it's active agent continues to build up in body fat.
The claims made by the Foundation for a Drug Free World in this booklet easily make this one of the most irresponsible attempts to manipulate and lie to young people that I have ever seen. They should be embarrassed and ashamed of themselves. They're also funded by the Church of Scientology.
Here's what people who live on this planet have to say about the possibility of a drug free world:
1 comment:
So who gets to define what counts as a "drug"? Does a drug-free world mean a world without pharmaceutical corporations? I would love to see that. Does a drug-free world mean a world without pennicilin? Does a drug-free world mean a world without chemotherapy? How about a world without prescription painkillers? Or what about a world without coffee, or tea? Or what about a world without any other herb?
In the case of Marijuana... Marijuana is a plant. It's a plant that the US government has decided to make illegal. The only thing that makes it a "drug", unlike any other plant (since EVERY plant has medicinal properties) is the fact that the government has arbitrarily designated it as illegal. In the case of Coca, coca is a plant that the US has designated as illegal in order to provide rationale for slaughtering indigenous people in Colombia.
To even talk about a "drug free" world is to presuppose a clear line of distinction between what is or isn't a drug. But any such distinction is inherantly a political distinction which is highly profitable for some people. In the case of the war on pot, that was originally the paper industry which wanted to ban hemp production. In the case of the present-day drug war, that is the private prison companies that make billions locking people up, or companies like Coca-cola that hire paramilitaries to slaughter union organizers in Colombia under the pretext of the "war on drugs."
Pharmaceutical companies are large-scale, legal drug dealers. For example I was put on Ritalin when I was 5, because doctors pressured my parents. Just consider how some pills in the hands of someone with a blue slip of paper is considered medicine-- but give those pills to the next person and they are drugs. But the prison-industrial complex, the military-industrial complex, and the pharmaceutical-industrial complex depend on the manufactured legitimacy of the medical doctor's signature in order to maintain the appearance of "objectivity" in constructing their distinction between medicine and drug.
Simply put, anything you put in your body is a drug, because anything you put in your body impacts your health, your physical state, and your mental state. Whether it's something that's "good" for you or "bad" for you is complicated and is a matter of your own personal chemistry as well as your physical, mental, and spiritual needs.
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