The DEA has announced its latest attempt to discourage marijuana use among teens who visit anti-marijuana websites. Theyâve created an online magazine called âStumble Weedâ and it isnât very good.
The âmagazineâ consists of five sections:
Theyâve dumbed-down the rhetoric here, which actually makes it more frustrating. Anyone whoâs seen a drug warrior speak in public knows that it takes these guys over a thousand words to even approach the truth on any subject. âStumble Weedâ in contrast, is a series of one-sentence lies, too numerous to refute here.
Having read the whole thing so you donât have to, I found only one surprise. This sentence appears in the âTotally Lameâ section:
And then thereâs the question of why the DEA even has a magazine. Isnât that what ONDCP is for? DEA is supposed to be busting drug cartels and instead theyâre drawing cartoons about how smoking pot will give you a speech impediment. As my colleague Tom Klun pointed out, the CIA doesnât make childrenâs magazines about why you shouldnât be a terrorist.
Of course, government propaganda is harmless if no one reads it. According to DEAâs press release, the website justthinktwice.com, which houses âStumble Weedâ has received 49 million hits since August â05. Yet the web-ranking site Alexa.com is unable to compute their hits because theyâre not even in the top 100,000 websites. We are, and Iâm sure we donât get a million hits a month. Heck, look at this cool graph that compares their site to ours.
Once again, I canât tell if theyâre lying or just plain ignorant. But for what itâs worth, every dollar spent on propaganda is one less dollar spent killing the innocent.
The âmagazineâ consists of five sections:
-It's just a plant. How could it be bad for me?
-Rx pot: a prescription for disaster.
-Totally lame (and dangerous and illegal) things to do on pot
-Extreme Grades: from A to D in six months
-Hey dude, where did my future go? Pot, motivation, and you.
Theyâve dumbed-down the rhetoric here, which actually makes it more frustrating. Anyone whoâs seen a drug warrior speak in public knows that it takes these guys over a thousand words to even approach the truth on any subject. âStumble Weedâ in contrast, is a series of one-sentence lies, too numerous to refute here.
Having read the whole thing so you donât have to, I found only one surprise. This sentence appears in the âTotally Lameâ section:
You can lose your student loan if you sell or grow marijuana while you are receiving educational assistance from the government.Thatâs powerfully misleading. It should read like this:
You can lose your student loan for any drug offense however minor. Most students who lose aid were convicted of misdemeanor possession.Given the controversy surrounding the HEA drug provision, Iâm not surprised that theyâre trying to make it sound as if the law only affects suppliers. But on the other hand, theyâve made an entire magazine about the consequences of smoking pot and theyâre declining to mention a consequence that could affect many potential readers. The HEA drug provision is harmful enough without the government misleading young people about how it works.
And then thereâs the question of why the DEA even has a magazine. Isnât that what ONDCP is for? DEA is supposed to be busting drug cartels and instead theyâre drawing cartoons about how smoking pot will give you a speech impediment. As my colleague Tom Klun pointed out, the CIA doesnât make childrenâs magazines about why you shouldnât be a terrorist.
Of course, government propaganda is harmless if no one reads it. According to DEAâs press release, the website justthinktwice.com, which houses âStumble Weedâ has received 49 million hits since August â05. Yet the web-ranking site Alexa.com is unable to compute their hits because theyâre not even in the top 100,000 websites. We are, and Iâm sure we donât get a million hits a month. Heck, look at this cool graph that compares their site to ours.
Once again, I canât tell if theyâre lying or just plain ignorant. But for what itâs worth, every dollar spent on propaganda is one less dollar spent killing the innocent.
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