cannabisnews.com: Tripping Up 





Tripping Up 
Posted by CN Staff on January 27, 2004 at 07:34:14 PT
By Richard Morris
Source: Guardian Unlimited UK
Alright, I admit it. I was a teenage pothead. In fact, to tell the truth, I was still puffing my way through a fair amount of the demon weed well into my early 20s.All my friends were keen cannabis connoisseurs, and whereas our more alcohol-inclined pals would spend their spare time in pubs and clubs, we would gather in each others' front rooms with our Playstations, cups of tea and packs of cards.
Occasionally we would be inspired to create bizarre contraptions designed to carry the smoke from a spliff into our lungs in the most dramatic (and often uncomfortable) manner possible. Sometimes we would paint and draw. We once got so creative we put tin foil over our telly and poked holes in it, marvelling at the way the light from the widescreen gogglebox ebbed and flowed behind its silver surface. Mainly we got stoned and talked utter gibberish.But it was fun, and we certainly did nobody any harm. On the contrary, I'm sure we did much to boost the local home-delivered fast food industry and should the knowledge of vital matters of trivia - such as the names of the large, stupid, furry monsters from Fraggle Rock (Gorgs), or the delicious Slush Puppy-style drink served by Apu the shopkeeper in The Simpsons (squishies) - ever have become a major life skill we would have been hugely useful members of the population.This was a youth subculture with its own rules, slang and methods of communication, most of which would have been completely impenetrable to those who had never experienced "whiteys" or enjoyed "munchies" after inhaling a little too much purple haze for their own good.That is presumably why the government - with its new radio adverts warning "the kids" that the drug is still illegal despite it's recent reclassification from Class B to Class C - has chosen to attempt to speak to youngsters on their own terms by getting an actor to intone a series of slang names for cannabis.In the ads, which call on youngsters to access the government's Frank education website to find out about the dangers of the drug, a woman intones: "Marijuana, ashes, African, bazooka, blonde, blue sage, bud, broccoli, brown, Buddha, bullyon, cheeba, Colombian, Don Juan, hash, J, jive stick, jolly green, kiff, killer, Panama gold, parsley, roach, straw, wheat, Texas T, locoweed. Call it what you like, just don't call it legal."Finally a male voice reminds us that cannabis is "still illegal, still harmful, and you can still get a criminal record that may affect your future career or holiday plans."It's all fairly straightforward stuff, but with a couple of major problems. First of all, and most importantly, many of the names for dope used would be unrecognisable to the average spliff smoker. Goodness knows where the ad agency responsible for these names did its research, but if anyone in the UK has ever referred to cannabis cigarettes as "jive sticks" then they must have been doing so with tongue so firmly in cheek that they risked pushing it right through and out the other side of their mouth. But hey, I thought, perhaps I'm just behind the times. Maybe, just maybe, there are corners of this fair island where reefers are forever known as "bazookas" and a bag of grass is called "locoweed". Perhaps it's just me that thinks calling a spliff a "Don Juan" is both bizarre and inappropriately literary for such a relaxed, unassuming culture. Even should this be true, there is no way these phrases are common currency, and the use of all them is incredibly patronising.In any case, I am 100% certain that a "roach" is the small bit of rolled cardboard placed in the smoking end of the spliff to ensure the smoker does not suck up little bits of tobacco while taking a hit. Calling a spliff a roach is a bit like calling a milkshake a straw. It's just plain wrong.The second problem with these ads is the speaker's delivery. Each word has been clipped, so that the next one begins just before its predecessor ends, creating a juddery, alien effect which reminds one of nothing if not the famous drug episode of Chris Morris's fiercely anarchic spoof documentary series Brass Eye.In this classic piece of satire, the over-the-top delivery of Morris's reporters is used to rip the piss out of the lightweight nature of the war on drugs. One walks down a street in a London suburb intoning the names of various slang words for drugs in almost exactly the same fashion as the government's new ads.The point is that Brass Eye was designed to show how ignorant those who come down hardest on drug use are of what they are fighting against. Morris even managed to get David Amess, the Conservative MP for Southend West, to film an elaborate video warning against the dangers of a fictional eastern European drug called cake. Amess went as far as to ask a question about it in parliament. (Cake purportedly affects an area of the brain called shatner's bassoon.)By (presumably) inadvertently aping this style of rhetoric, the government has made sure that the teenagers and young people who hear these ads will continue to believe that the powers that be have no understanding of the topics they are trying so hard to suggest they are believable authorities on. Indeed the only people who might be expected to greet these adverts with praise are those with the same sensibilities and lack of knowledge of drug culture as those who are responsible for their creation.These ads, and accompanying literature, cost £1m. But for all the good the cash is likely to do, they might as well have smoked it.Note: New government adverts warning of the dangers of cannabis are so comically patronising they will not deter users, says Richard Morris. · Richard Morris is a pseudonym Special Report: Drugs in Britain: http://www.guardian.co.uk/drugs/0,2759,178206,00.htmlSource: Guardian Unlimited, The (UK) Author: Richard MorrisPublished: Tuesday, January 27, 2004Copyright: 2004 Guardian Newspapers LimitedContact: letters guardian.co.ukWebsite: http://www.guardian.co.uk/Related Articles:Many Cannabis Users Happy To Smoke and Drive http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18227.shtmlCan Cannabis Make You An Even Better Driver? http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18223.shtmlVoters Want Even Softer Line on Cannabis http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18220.shtml
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Comment #2 posted by Max Flowers on January 27, 2004 at 10:28:46 PT
As it is in the US, so it is in the UK
"...the government has made sure that the teenagers and young people who hear these ads will continue to believe that the powers that be have no understanding of the topics they are trying so hard to suggest they are believable authorities on."Leave it to an English person to say it so well in English. That's it exactly. It is impossible for government stooges to produce an ad about a subject native to counterculture and have it comes off as anything but ridiculous. They're outsiders to it, and have worse than zero credibility.It would be truly comical were it not for the fact that at the same time that they're shoving this kind of manure at us (and paying for it with our tax dollars), the TV powers are denying the other side its say in the most heinous, blatant fashion---which in my view is extremely unAmerican and something much more like what a third-rate country with armed thugs in control would do.
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Comment #1 posted by The GCW on January 27, 2004 at 07:43:58 PT
BULLS-EYE TOUCHDOWN 
US CO: Campos: CBS' eye just got blacker    (coming to MAP)    Pubdate: Jan. 27, 2004 
Source: Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)Viewed at: http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/news_columnists/article/0,1299,DRMN_86_2606240,00.html 
 
This Sunday, the more than 100 million Americans watching the Super Bowl will see advertisements encouraging them to buy no less than three different drugs designed to combat erectile dysfunction. They will see ads paid for by tobacco litigation money - which is to say by smokers - and brought to us by the officious busybodies at the American Legacy Foundation. (The ALF is responsible for those obnoxious ads that assume Americans are such idiots that we need to be bombarded with reminders that cigarette smoking is bad for our health). The Super Bowl audience will be implored to buy gas-guzzling cars and brain-numbing beer, and more generally to consume mass quantities of stuff. What they will not see is an award-winning ad that criticizes the Bush administration. The advertisement, created by Charlie Fisher of Denver, is, as political ads go, exceptionally understated.The 30-second spot features a montage of several small children, shown working at the sorts of jobs they are likely to be doing decades from now, while guitar music strums peacefully in the background. The screen is then filled with this message: "Guess who's going to pay off President Bush's $1 trillion deficit?" This ad was rejected by CBS, which is broadcasting the Super Bowl, as "too controversial." (My brother, who let me know about this controversy, speculates that the decision is based on the Roman law doctrine that "there is to be no criticism of the Emperor during the Circus.")CONT.
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