The President’s Anti-Drug Budget
President Obama released his budget requests for fiscal 2011 today, requesting $3.5 million less for the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign than he did in fiscal 2010.
The media campaign, which is run by the drug czar’s office, has for years emptied its coffers on absurd anti-marijuana advertisements that veer so far from the truth they’re laughable. Take, for example, this ad, which insinuates that marijuana use can lead to rape. This is a particularly dishonest approach considering that alcohol, a legal drug, is a factor in a huge majority of sexual assaults. Yet no one at the drug czar’s office will say publicly that we should put responsible drinkers in jail.
The president spoke of tightening the belt in Washington, D.C. during the State of the Union address last week. He missed an opportunity today to cut $45 million (the current budget for the media campaign) that’s being wasted on ineffective advertising. The media campaign has never been anything but reefer madness, and the new administration should simply eliminate it. If you agree, you can e-mail the White House and let the president know how you feel.
Tagged with: drug czar and media campaign by the author
16 comments
Noboma lies to much he is black I donut he is going to legalize pot glad to see some help though but think about how bad that would look 1st black president and pot gets legal wow nah I my self wish it would but it’s to easy just to move to Cali and say u have trouble sleeping and get a gcard USA is going to shit they need money and a big chunck is in their face but they are too fueked up about what they think people might think about them resulting in no job in their pov but it’s ok there is always the Netherlands if things don’t work out in a few years also I think it’s dumb to price strands with high level of thc for like $70 1/8 and 500$ an oz it should all be 5$ a gram I coud even maybe do 10$ but it’s hard when u are left with swag and skunk to chose from if ur like me that dirt weed just doesent cut it any how this is the 1st post enjoy
Dear Sean, Im not a huge grammar nazi, in-fact ,I am horrible at grammar. But dude seriously, do you know how to use a period or even spell check? I mean it with love. Just next don’t smoke before you post something. Cheers bro
Haha, good call Will.
It’s good to see the President scaling back this propaganda campaign, but this was obviously a baby step. Given his recent DEA head appointment, I’m feeling distrustful of Obama’s drug policy direction right now.
The YouTube “Open for Questions with the President” just finished and to no surprise, there was not even the mention of Marijuana Reform. The moderator talked a lot about the #1 voted questions in certain categories, but never once mentioned that the number one voted on question was once again about Legalizing Marijuana. If you go look at someof the questions that were submitted (use the link on the homepage) you will see in the secton “other” that Marijuana Reform questions were overwhelmingly the top question. Just looking at independent questions, marijuana reform was at the top, and when you combine similar questions, the results speak for themselves.
Thanks a lot Mr. President… we are so glad your paying attention to what is being asked of you! How about you stop asking for questions, since you won’t take the time to actually answer them.
Hey thanks for the update DarthNole, I was wondering if he would address it or not. The fact that he avoided it is disappointing at first glance.
Of course, maybe it also means that he learned a bit of a lesson from his joking about the “online community” last year. Instead of always coming down on the side of the prohibitionists, maybe he feels that enough negative heat comes from that sort of thing that he’s better off just leaving the question alone.
Of course it’s terribly unfortunate that this is still such a taboo subject. But perhaps being explicitly anti-marijuana reform is starting to carry as much of a stigma as being “soft on drugs” always has, which is at least some form of progress. Maybe?
Change.Org is also asking for you to vote on “Ideas for Change” for ideas that will help the country. Supposedly the Top 3 ideas from each category will go on to Round Two where all the ideas will be voted on and the Final 10 will be discussed with the White House and relevent lawmakers.
It has become obvious to me that once again the Obama Administration is trying to whatever they can to stiffle this debate. As you would expect there are a variety of Marijuana Reform ideas that have been presented. What got me today was the fact that the Idea I posted under “Health Care” was moved to “Criminal Justice” the day after it reached the #1 spot in “Health Care”.
This truly bothers me because I am not calling for full legalization (I figure we already know Obama’s answer to that) but for the Federal Government to recognize the medical uses for marijuana. AS we all know this is a Public Health issue and not a Criminal Justice issue. Had I been calling for the end of the “War on Drugs” or for full recreational legalization, then yes I would agree that it was a “Criminal Justice” issue. But what we need right now is for the the Secretary of the Department of HEALTH and Human Services to make the medical determination. This determination will reqire that the DEA reschedule marijuana.
It simply doesn’t make any sense for the people at Change.org to try to affect the vote totals and ultimately the ideas that pass to the next round. PLease go vote, and in the comments ask that this be placed back in the Health Care category where it belongs!
http://tinyurl.change.org/OCWVx
Marijuana policy should not be a top matter of the president. It should just be legal and taxed and regulated just like tobacco. Enough said.
Obama and all of the government is dancing around the issue at this point. It seems that federal government is not going to make any decisive moves untill more local authorities come out and legalize medicinal marijuana.
It seems that Obama feels that his job is done in regards to medicinal marijuana, since he already announced that state government can make their own laws in regards to MMJ.
I agree, that $45 million spent on stupid ads that nobody cares for or pays attention to, is a complete waste of money. How many more millions could be saved here and there if we could eliminate some stupid policies that just dont work.
Free The Weed. Free The People.
I wouldn’t expect too much out of change.org either. They only act as if they support marijuana reform to appear more “progressive”. Every time they run one of these ideas campaigns, marijuana is the #1 issue. At first they act as if they are going to take it seriously, but within weeks it is completely dropped from their agenda. I used to visit the site but their complete failure on the issue has really gotten under my skin.
looks like we will have to do like what the end of alcohol prohibition did. eventually all the states legalized alcohol (get this!) for medicinal purposes eventually leading to taxing and regulating by the feds. ironically history will repeat itself in due time, just this time all the states will have legalized marijuana for medicinal purposes thus leading the feds to finally say lets tax and regulate, because they will actually see the mass amounts of tax dollars saved and earned, jobs created, economy is back on track and life for main street is renewed.
I think the next question for Change.org is to remove change.org and its question since they only pay attention to their agenda any way. Why waste our taxes to suport this usless web site.
We will have to make change our selves…one state at a time. When we do that and states ignore federal laws , federal law and government there will become nothing.
Sry about that it was like 11:00am, and i had no sleep because of working nights so i was just like fuc it. + have its too much bs to put that stuff when u type with an iphone,but im on my computer now!
Were the C.A.M.P funds cut.
Oh, man. This is some crap news. But thanks to the first couple of posts for a good laugh.
I don’t feel so bad when I can’t spell so good, thanks for a funny wake and bake. 3.5 million is way too little to make much of a difference. This could be the start of a good thing , maybe. This is 3.5 million less spent on a war against America. It does not take away any task force dollers but it takes away propaganda dollers. We have so far yet to go but I cannot loose hope.
I like getting high and watching modern anti pot commercials I think they’re hilarious! Expensive entertainment I say.
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