got my copy of sports illustrated (jan. 22 issue) yesterday in the mail, opened it up and flipped through, read some articles, and ran into a full-page ad. it was a cartoon-drawing, or whatever. and the text over a larger character read: "i smoke pot to impress the ladies" . and a smaller, younger character had his reply in text over himself- "try football." first off, my pickings on this one. first of all, i know very very very very few people who use that as a justification for smoking weed- "impressing the ladies" is the last thing on my mind when i smoke pot, seeing as the vast majority of women, at least in my area, either don't agree with or don't tolerate the habit. second off, the response. hm... just too much. i've found that above the influence is really just trying to teach kids how to be cool. not how to give them life information, not how to be street smart, but how to be cool with their friends and with the population. the truth is that the majority of young people don't smoke pot, so really, smoking pot isn't the "cool" thing to do. people who smoke pot habitually generally understand this, and most people who smoke it understand that popularity and coolness really don't matter all too much in young adult/teen life. third off... how simple it was. it's ridiculous. it didn't have any statistics, facts, or anything of that sort to back up anything they say, or anything they pick on. the majority of it's pot, yeah, it's a popular drug among illicit drug users. just venting, really. don't take anything all too seriously if you've chosen to read this far. so i checked out the above the influence website- some interesting shit on there. all it's about is how to be popular and cool, and really dumbass comebacks and stuff to people who want you to smoke weed. one of them is like "wanna smoke?" "no, that's just an expensive bag of cancer." yadadydayda yeah, well fuck you above the influence, for corrupting the minds of our children and using your fucked up brainwashing techniques to teach young people how to be popular w/ all the kiddies. fuuuck you.
Odd since THC has been show to inhibit tumor growth and I've never actually seen any sort of proof of carcinogenic effects resulting from cannabis use. Apparently, they're reinforcing their modern bullshit with their old bullshit.
See, and that's it-- there's ALWAYS a counter, whether witty or quite factual, to any of their shit. problem is, the majority of youth believes one source based on "positive influences," rather than checking other areas or research. "oh marijuana kills you." whatever. marijuana is a positive influence on my life, and they turn it into such a negative thing... to scare people away from it. it's such a beautiful plant that brings so much insight and thought into my world... it's crazy, really
i just find it funny that if you're not "above" the influence, you're "under" the influence....odd? i think so.
They're doing the same thing with weed as they did ciggarettes. They're familiarizing it with everyday life. I wouldn't doubt that this is a ploy by Big Tobacco to actually gain support for MJ. Think about it, these people manufacture TONS of tobacco everyday. How hard would it be to grow a different plant and change their machines to roll joints?? probaly not very hard and I'm sure if Marlboro and Newports came out with their own line of MJ joints sold by the packs it would catch on fairly quickly. . . . my two cents, great marketing with hidden agendas
i like those ads. it keeps out the riffraff. it keeps people dumb enough to beleive that shit scared of me. and i kinda like it.
Sneezing when taking a hit should be under the risks...that hurts like a god damn ingrown toenail in your lung!!
well, if they don't have a hidden agenda, and they really are trying to keep kids from trying mj, I don't believe our children are as ignorant as they want them to be, not in this day and age.
It's best to ignore such ads, they're there to get a reaction out of you, and it definitly did. Everyone has to figure it out for themselves, those stupid ads are for little kids anyway. If it works on anyone else other than kids, well I feel sorry for them. I for one am kinda glad they have those ads, because really herb is not for the weak minded who would fall for such bs. You know when you're smokin with someone that they've gotten over at least this one hurdle. No, it's funny because if you don't smoke because of such advertisements you're still "under" the influence of those ads. Life is all about influences, one way or another you're always going to be influenced on some aspect of life based on your surroundings, no matter what it is. So you cannot be ABOVE the influence, unless you are high as a kite, which I am.
SHIT, Vicious. Those are incredible thoughts. Incredible. Thank you for your insight. Thank you. Thank you. Incredible.
I don't know -- I think you all forget how impressionable and stupid ALL of us once were. I've believed some dumb shit when I was younger. I used to be one of those "marijuana kills" kids up untill I was about 13. Then a really good friend of mine, and a great person and legendary toker; somebody we would all love and get along with, just had to exist and be herself and I developed a genuine interest in pot and asked her if she'd introduce me to it. Ever since that Thanksgiving day I've loved cannabis and realized how much bullshit I was letting seep into my brain. We can't think the kids that fall for this crap and stupid and unworthy because they're not. Prime example is the dumb as shit riftraft that has been and will always come through grasscity (and usally gets banned in no time at all). Thats why I'm so offended. Because I know they take perfectly intelligent and awesome kids and give them a distorted, inaccurate view of the world. The thing that really gets to me is that if they were REALLY looking out for the interests of these kids -- they'd be campaigning against underage drinking, which we KNOW causes serious damage to kids (liver damage, killing braincells, and worst of all; stimulating alcoholism at a young age). But since it's so socially accepted in our civilization they'd rather persue a relativley more obscure and incredibly more benign drug like marijuana. They don't even approach it well. They don't approach it talking about responsible use, safe experimentation. These kids are tricked into it based on voodoo pharmacology and entirely unrealistic social situations. Sorry... but this thread is about venting
Ahh yes, I too once was a drug hating kid who thought anyone who laid hands on any drug was as stupid as can be, yet I had no perception of what or how these people live. But these thoughts were not mine, no. They were the thoughts of others implemented into my brain through direct and subliminal messages found on tv, books, or even from peers/elders. But like I said, I got over it. I saw people who hated these drugs, sometimes for no reason other than it's illegal, and at times they seemed worse than a typical drug user. It's the process of learning all this that you develop an insight for all the crap out in the world that's made to disorient and misguide you. "I was lost but now I am found" - yea something like that. But seriously, people will always take sides on shit like this, there will always be different people telling you what to do or what not to do. If you do not see for yourself what's out there in the world, and continue to be pushed along throughout your life, then to me you are a fool. It is one thing to go out and make mistakes based on your decisions(and hopefully learn from them), but it's another for you to not to go out and try something in fear of making a mistake, just because someone told you otherwise. Isn't that what life's about?
I was fortunate to grow up around drugs and many wonderful influences that were drug users. I guess that's why voodoo pharmacology always was something I laughed at. It was very interesting to hear the views from people that come from a totally opposite background. + rep to you both.
Let them. All they're doing is helping the growth of the stoner population. It's a whole new degree of 'tell a kid no, and all they hear is yes.' It used to be as simple as you tell a kid pot is bad, so they want to try it just because you said it was bad. They probably thought it was somehow bad, but they did it anyway in defiance. Now they're trying to compare smoking weed to sticking leeches on yourself... and kids aren't that stupid. So now they want to try it not because they're saying it's bad, but because they know it isn't THAT band, and want to find out why the hell some ignorant adults are trying so desperately to make them think it's bad. We already know the people making that propoganda are idiots, or at least cowards in the sense that they won't just try it for themselves, so at least they'd have something to go on IF they were right. But don't cast the same image over the people (namely teenagers/kids) that these commercials and ads are made for. It's ironic, yes, that the people these other people are preaching too are actually more open minded than the preachers... but I firmly believe it's true. And the majority of them, even if they're still mildly believing the propoganda, are smart enough to know they should try it before they take a stand on it. Did you believe the ads? I didn't. I bet almost everyone here didn't. And I bet 95% of everyone else who sees them, doesn't either
I just browsed their site... and WOW. Seriously, take a look at what they said about cannabis, or "WEED" as they call it.