| aaaaaThe anti-marijuana propaganda exaggerates the affects of marijuana in order to make it seem as harmful as other drugs. In Reefer Madness, as soon as a character takes a smoke from a marijuana cigarette they break into uncontrollable laughter. The movie goes a bit further by transforming an ordinary high school student into a murderer. The main character, Bill, was pictured at the beginning of the movie as a good student and was close to his family. One day, he started smoking marijuana; as soon as he began smoking, his grades started slipping and he began hanging out with different people in an apartment which was a smoking hangout. The movie even showed Bill becoming violent when he was trying to protect the girl that he had a crush on from the crazed habitual marijuana user. The drug dealer ended up shooting the girl and knocking Bill unconscious; Bill woke up and was persuaded that he was responsible. The moral that this movie was conveying was that if you smoke marijuana, you will either become crazy or end up in jail. Millions of Americans have smoked marijuana at least once and have not become insane; in fact, many prominent members of American society including our current president have admitted to trying marijuana. Even if marijuana users do end up in prison, they are most likely in jail for simple possession not for killing someone. "In 2007, 47.4 percent of the 1,841,182 total arrests for drug abuse violations were for marijuana -- a total of 872,720. Of those, 775,137 people were arrested for marijuana possession alone"(Marijuana | Drug War Facts). |
| aaaaaThe exaggerations of marijuana’s affects are enhanced by the absurd situations that the propaganda fabricates. The propaganda places marijuana users in crazy situations in order to make the drug look worse. Above the Influence is a campaign produced by a program of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Above the Influence creates propaganda relaying negative marijuana messages that are funny. The situations that they portray are completely fabricated and overstated. There is a commercial named "Fire" where there are two young teens that light everything they own on fire including their car, guitar and certificates all because they smoked marijuana. There is even a commercial where a young girl is confronted about smoking weed by her talking dog. It would be a great thing is there was marijuana that could make dogs talk. The people from Above the Influence resorted to a series of animated anti-marijuana commercials. All the advertisements can be found at Abovetheinfluence.com with extended articles containing even more propaganda regarding the dangers of marijuana. The commercials from Above the Influence are embellished but are nothing compared to previous Public Service Announcements. “Until recently, most anti-marijuana ads made the same fundamental mistake: They tried to link smoking weed with some sort of immediate physical danger. Think of the PSA in which a carful of stoners runs over a girl on a bicycle; or the one in which a fuzzy-brained pot smoker shoots his friend (oopsy daisy!) in the head”(Stevenson). There was actually a commercial released which depicts marijuana being responsible for friends shooting each other. It does not matter how high you are, there is no way that you would run over a six year old girl on a bike because you couldn’t see her; pot may make you stupid it does not make you blind. "Moreover, emerging scientific research indicates that cannabis actually has far less impact on the psychomotor skills needed for driving than alcohol does, and is seldom a causal factor in automobile accidents"(Armentano). Marijuana may be harmful but the way it is depicted in some of these commercials is a little over the top. The fabricated situations that are created by the propaganda is what makes these commercials over the top. |
