Above the Influence -- the folks at the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) who brought you such anti-drug advert gems such as the "talking dog" and "guys in drive-thru hitting little girl on bike" -- created a web-based campaign, "Stoners in the Mist." I really hope the makers of "Gorillas in the Mist" sued Above the Influence. Be warned: it is dumb, and quite insulting.

In a nutshell, this anti-marijuana mockumentary follows two "anthropologists" as they infiltrate and study stoners, who conceivably do not move from the couch for 72 hours; keep poor hygiene, as illustrated by a girl stoner's unexpected find of a piece of brownie in her hair; or demonstrate generally bad motor skills -- apparently stoners cannot catch anything being tossed to them from 2 feet away.

This faux-documentary started last year, but I guess I was too stoned sitting on my couch to notice (see what I did there?). This parody, however, should ultimately be rendered timeless given the appropriate advertising -- unthinking aspersions tend to be preserved in the annals of history (see Reefer Madness for example). However, this kind of drug user generalization has been perfected by the ONDCP for decades.

At first it seems that there is a conflicting message presented by Above the Influence. The "documentary" obviously parodies people who smoke a lot of pot; but since very few, if any people are actually like that, the audience really doesn't take this parody of "extreme" pot smokers seriously. Making such a parody indicates that marijuana isn't a problem, or else Above the Influence would spend tax dollars on a less extreme, more reality-based campaign. Yet there are still over 800,000 marijuana arrests per year, almost 90% for possession alone. Clearly ONDCP believes that marijuana is a problem, so it seems that Above the Influence either doesn't understand the audience of teenagers that is their base, or just think that teenagers are high enough to actually believe that stoners act this way.

Posted by Evan G @ 10:25 AM