This is your brain on drugs

NORML.ORG US TX: Column: This Is Your Brain On Drugs

Texas
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ONDCP Goes Old School

When in doubt, go old-school or, at least, why not give it a shot, especially if you don't have anything and I mean anything else going for you? But remember: Retro isn't always hip and when it comes to the sad, sad ( and ever more sad ) White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, "retro" is just plainass embarrassing.

Case in point: Now that summer is here, so is the ONDCP's latest attempt at scaring you into believing that drugs no, rather, marijuana, is bad, bad, bad. According to the new ONDCP youth anti-drug media campaign report released by the feds this month, kids ( that is youth, ages 12-17 ) who smoke pot are "at least" four times as likely to join a gang as their nontoking brethren.

Yes! Gangs! Pot smoking leads kids to gangs!

And if you don't know what that means OK, the ONDCP is here to point you in the right direction if you're confused.

Kids who smoke pot are more likely to be violent, to get into fights, and gasp! to steal.

Steal!

Sound familiar?

Are you looking around for clues that you're actually in the 21st century and not stuck in, say, 1936? Perhaps you're recalling a certain bit of black-and-white cinematic propaganda, in which the evil weed causes good boys to go bad to rape, to kill, and to go completely insane.

Yes, I'm talking about Reefer Madness ( originally known as Tell Your Children ) the most boring, grainy piece of government-championed propaganda ever released on the big screen. Just when you thought that piece of shit was gone ( except for the occasional reappearance on cable, complete with utterly awful sound quality ), the ONDCP has conjured its ghost, distilling its smoke-dope-and-die message into a neat little five-page report. Whereas the B&W Reefer took a painful 66 minutes to detail the horrors of the "assassin of youth" ( a phrase coined by William Randolph Hearst, king of the yellow-bellied sensation mongers, whose ulterior motive money prompted him to hop on the hophead train, spewing err, publishing a litany of fiction alleging that pot did actually cause madness and violence ), the ONDCP has consolidated its propaganda into a tidy little five-pager. ( OK, perhaps that's a blessing in disguise. ) Although it is not published under a Hearst paper banner, it is no less inflammatory. In fact, it is as baseless a work of fear-mongering propaganda as was its predecessor, the infamous Reefer Madness.

Congrats, ONDCP!

According to the new report, teens who use drugs, and "particularly marijuana," are nine times more likely to use other drugs ( the feds' beloved, yet completely unsubstantiated "gateway theory" ) and are five times more likely to steal; 39% of teens who report having used drugs recently, the report asserts, have also admitted to stealing, or trying to steal, something worth at least $50 at some point during the past year. ( And, no, I don't think they're talking about stealing pot out of a sibling's sock drawer though that could easily be worth $50, depending on how swank your sib is. )

Worst of all, though, is the ONDCP's assertion that "children" who use marijuana are "nearly" four times more likely to join a gang than drug-free kids are. Interestingly, the ONDCP backs up this "fact" with the following information: 94% of gang members are male; 49% are Hispanic; 37% are black; and just 8% are white.

In other words, according to our federal government, pot smokers are predominately minorities. Now do you understand their whole "violence" angle?

No? Neither do I. And neither does Matthew B. Robinson, a criminal justice professor at Appalachian State University in North Carolina, who is the co-author of the recently published Lies, Damned Lies, and Drug War Statistics. To Robinson, this kind of propagandistic crapola is par for the course.

The ONDCP, desperate to hold on to its incredibly large ( and amazingly unjustifiable ) $12 billion-plus budget, has to come up with ways to reassure us that it's on top of this whole war on drugs thing. ( Bless their little cold, black hearts the bureaucrats at the ONDCP may be the only sad saps hanging on to this pathetic notion that the drug war is actually something that you can "win." ) And, if that means resorting to an unfounded racist stereotype, then so be it: "They have to promote a fear of drugs in order to continue the drug war," says Robinson. "What's amazing about it is that they're making two claims that don't fit together.

The vast majority of [marijuana users] are white.

But the majority of gang members aren't white?" Robinson muses.

In order to protect the agency, Robinson says, the ONDCP and its leader, the drug czar John Walters, "sells fear." They tell us we should be "afraid of drugs and afraid of people of color," he says. "Link the two together, and you've got your budget."

Well, that sounds pretty familiar, doesn't it? Engage time machine: During the Great Depression of the 1930s, lawmakers in the Southwestern states including Texas were in a pickle.

During the preceding decades of prosperity, Mexican immigrants were welcomed to the Southwest as a needed source of labor.

By the time the Depression set in, however, this same immigrant population was now viewed with suspicion and fear, seen as a threat to remaining American jobs. The problem, of course, was what to do or, plainly, how to get rid of them. Pot was the key. Mexicans were known to grow and smoke pot, lawmakers reasoned; making pot illegal demonizing it, linking its use to violence would certainly help move those Mexicans back south across the border or, just as good, lock 'em up in jail. Either way, problem solved!

And so it was, thanks in no small part to Hearst and his newspapers. The pages of his papers were filled with the same sort of unsubstantiated crap that the ONDCP has now regurgitated into its current report.

Same old lie, new day; shame on you, ONDCP.

Pot smoking leads to gangs? That not true at all.

I don't know weather to laugh or cry....

I like the man who wrote this report, he has a good mind :P

Shame on you Texas, shame on you...

Okay, I'm gonna go smoke a bowl and continue committing hate crimes :stoned:

I particularly like the "link" between gangs and violence. Instead of saying "gang members are more likely to smoke pot than most people because gangs have no respect for the law, and probably want to break as many as possible" they say "Smoking pot makes you join gangs"... great.

lmao I don't think there is a real gang in my entire state... Damn, guess I'm gonna have to travel and find one.. Cause thats what all other bad pot smokers are doing right?... LOL :jointsmile: Don't believe any of there bull shit...

it's sad to see that they publish those lies and that theres people out there that believe it.

smoke up everybody and go join a gang and steal stuff worth $50 or more haha.

I find it so funny how there are people who believe this stuff, because they don't ever take the time to realize what they're reading. Like, "oh, look, the government said it, so it must be true... i guess i don't need to see real evidence or real statistics that actually make sense." Haha, oh man.

i just smoked a bowl... an now i joined the bloods

I took one hit of schwag and it made me commit a hate crime, after joining the Crips.

people join gangs either because they want money or because they are pussies... not because they smoke pot. if u say the money is for pot why dont they just grow it

o or because they think its cool the be a thug

Sometimes the weight of the world's bullshit makes me want to cry.

My only relief is the knowledge that I am right and they are wrong, and that other people (like you guys and the guy who wrote this) can see it, too.

I joined the juggaloes about after i smoked a joint this morning.

O that's not a real gang,joined the bloods then.

"If you smoke pot, you'll get amotivational syndrome. You'll just sit and be a blob! You'll just sit and play video games high for the rest of your life. Never amount to anything! Won't get a job." Yadda, yadda, yadda.... :wtf: vs today's "you'll become violent and join a gang!"???? Does anyone else see a tiny paradox here? - Granny:hippy:

Damn Hells Angels and their mary jane.

Woops I just smoked a bowl, excuse me while I go and punch babies and commit hate crimes.

:wtf:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Storm Crow

"If you smoke pot, you'll get amotivational syndrome. You'll just sit and be a blob! You'll just sit and play video games high for the rest of your life. Never amount to anything! Won't get a job." Yadda, yadda, yadda.... :wtf: vs today's "you'll become violent and join a gang!"???? Does anyone else see a tiny paradox here? - Granny:hippy:

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They grow violent so quickly these days. From a lazy, good-for-nothing brat to a shopkeeper beating hooligan. The whole damn subject is a paradox to me! Where do they get their information?

I'll tell you what makes people lazy...television! They all sit by their tubes, absorbing false information by the second and no one gets off their chair to follow up. So if the people don't give a damn, then who is against it? Where are the people who are going to get off their butts and actually see to it that marijuana remains illegal? Who is their leader? I realize we're fighting something that was proposed over fifty years ago and has been stapled in American society for as long as I have been alive. I'm sorry but it's crazy to me that people insist it remains illegal to this day, even with truth staring them in the face.

Dude, John Walters is a genius, don't you realize? He alone knows the crime-generating effects of the evil Marihuana. Do not use it. It's illegal, so don't do it! That's why you shouldn't use it, because it's illegal, and it will kill you eventually. Tobacco won't though, and nor will alcohol even have a chance. You cannot compare alcohol to the evil Marihuana, because alcohol only kills 150,000 people per year. Plus, Marihuana is illegal. Do you really want to support terrorism by using Marihuana? Next time think before you put the Marihuana poison in your body - think about the thousands of people that could die because of YOU!

I smoked a joint earlier, did contemplate raping someone, maybe with a bit of murder on the side, I just couldn't fit in my busy schedule with all my gang violence. Oooo the life of a pot smoker, criminal, just criminal.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by WeedyBoyWonder

I smoked a joint earlier, did contemplate raping someone, maybe with a bit of murder on the side, I just couldn't fit in my busy schedule with all my gang violence. Oooo the life of a pot smoker, criminal, just criminal.

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The life story of every pothead. That's what happens when you support terrorism by smoking Marihuana. You get something called Reefer Madness Syndrome, which is in a classification of its own, because it's so bad. It's possible that you may even rape your own family members due to the devil's weed, Marihuana. Then after you rape your own family members, and pillage your house for jewelry and money to get your Marihuana fix, you may even feel inclined to join Al-Qaeda and become Osama Bin Ladin's right-hand man in terrorizing and killing people. Then, you will probably end up passing the evil joint to your friends, and they pass it to their friends, and their friend's friends pass it to their friends - thus, this leads to a vicious cycle of everyone raping and pillaging their family for their fix, and joining Al-Qaeda! Oh, and don't forget that you will probably end up becoming a heroin addict. It will destroy your lives, and will destroy the lives of everyone you know, including everyone your friends know, and their friend's friends know, etc. Don't do it!

It doesn't sound too far-fetched to me. At least not when comparing it to all the other facts of the evil herb. It's not an herb, it's a demon!