Journal TechnoLust's Journal: Apparently you can get pregnant from smoking pot. 21
Did anyone else catch the anti-drug commercial last night? It was sometime during, or soon before or after the Superbowl. It showed a man and a woman, looking at a pregnancy test. It was saying how there would be a new addition to the family soon. Then as they stepped to the side and it showed a 15 year old girl, it said, "They will be the youngest grandparents on the block." Then it said something about how she had smoked pot and was pregnant. I guess you were supposed to infer that she went out and got high and slept with some dude and got pregnant. But the way the presented it, it came across as she got pregnant from smoking the pot. I kept thinking of the South Park episode with the future selves coming back to warn about the dangers of marijuana.
heh.. (Score:2)
Not that I have a problem with saying that smoking pot can impair your judgement, 'cause ,uhh..it does.
But nobody could get past of the smoke pot->get pregnant link. We were all trying to think of exactly *what* she did with the pot...
Re:heh.. (Score:2)
There's no great mystery here. Smoking pot makes you do dumb things, one of which is having sex (with a human of the opposite sex, not the weed itself, you dunderhead :-) and getting pregnant before you're ready. That's all there was to it. It's completely logical, but if your account is typical, the creators erred in assuming that the viewers would fill in the blanks properly.
Re:heh.. (Score:2)
HOROMONES
'nuff said.
Re:heh.. (Score:3, Funny)
Correct you are!
(Vote kilgore_47 in 2004!!)
Re:heh.. (Score:2)
(unless of course you're trying to conceive).
Which is why we should have mandatory sex education for the general population!
Re:heh.. (Score:2)
Quite simply, using teen pregnancy in a anti-drug ad is preposterous. But then again, telling pot users they're supporting terror is also. And doing it with taxpayer money is even more so. And so on.
On a happier note, I just realized I can spell check my post right in the text entry field in safari. I've been copying-and-pasting slash-dot posts to and from my text editor for spell checking for so long, I don't know if I'll be able to get the hang of using it, but thats a damn cool feature. Thank you, apple! I just wish some of the taxes I paid on this here macintosh hadn't gotten spent calling me a terrorist during the superbowl...
Gateway drug (Score:3, Insightful)
If the government really wanted to balance the budget, they could legalize marijuana, grow it, tax the hell out of it, and treat it like alcohol (i.e. you have to buy from government approved sources). That would increase revenue, and decrease spending on stupid million dollar superbowl commercials about pot making you pregnant. But I doubt we'll ever see that happen.
Re:heh.. (Score:2)
No, we were all capable of filling in the blanks. We aren't rocks, ya know. :)
But let's face it -- we're watching the superbowl. We're drinking. We're having a blast. We're watching Budweiser commercials where clowns drink out of their asses. And then they put that commercial on. Are we going to suddenly kill the mood and take things seriously?
Not likely. We're going to rip it to shreds.
Oops, wrong stereotype! (Score:2)
I don't remember ever having done anything categorically dumb while stoned, sorry -- and to forestall the obvious criticism, pot doesn't make me forgetful, sorry again. (The closest thing to was eating four bowls of pasta and sauce and then regretting the stomachache later.) I do remember doing many dumb things while drunk, on alcohol (a legal drug which is every bit as illegal for a 15-year-old as marijuana). Lesson? I think so.
In fact, sometimes I find smoking pot makes me more lucid than I was -- it dulls the edge off the chronic pain and relaxes my hypertense muscles (spastic quadriplegia). My 18-year-old sister smokes it (with her doctor's permission) for depression. You know what you get if you drink heavily when you're depressed? Suicidal.
It's also a lot easier to forget to use a condom when you're drunk than when you're stoned, since alcohol makes you slow (it's a depressant) and pot makes you hyperacute. If you're at all paranoid about getting (someone) pregnant, you'll be twice as bad stoned. Believe me, I've been there. (Recently.)
Basically, the commercial is just another mendacious example from the War On Some Drugs crowd. I just wish drug warriors would throw stones at the right targets...but they all like their brewskis too much.
Re:Oops, wrong stereotype! (Score:2)
Now, I'm not sure we should go out and legalize every drug out there, but the thought does occur to me that taking drugs does not affect anyone but you. Now, I know that some people will day that drug use leads to crime, but you can extend that to reading violent books, watching violent TV, playing violent video games, listening to violent music, and soon everything is illegal, if it can adversly affect you in any way. (I'm reminded of Demolition man, "Caffeine is bad for you and therefore illegal.") I personally don't think that you should try to police the alleged CAUSE of crimes, but the crimes themselves. If playing Mortal Kombat makes me go out and assault someone, then put stiffer penalties on assault, don't ban Mortal Kombat. If Joe's pot addiction is causing him to steal, put stiffer penalties on theft.
I think it isn't so much that everyone who uses drugs is a criminal. I think it is that criminals use drugs and don't mind telling you they do, but respectible businessmen also use drugs, they just don't make it public information. They don't mind frequenting the local bar, because that is socially acceptable. I think if certain drugs were legal, you'd see a lot of people you'd never expect talk about using drugs.
I know many of you are not going to be for legalizing any drugs, but I think most of you will agree that spending millions on stupid commercials is not going to stop anyone from using drugs. We should spend that money on something else, and let kids and their parents discuss drugs.
Re:Oops, wrong stereotype! (Score:2)
Thank you. I was starting to think it was just me. Everyone else says it makes them laid back and lethargic. For me, I find myself getting hyperactive, and more acutely aware of my surroundings. The world moves in slow motion because I'm so hyped up, like when Gully Foyle [fantasticfiction.co.uk] flips the switch in his tooth. Or at least, that's the effect it had when I last tried it (which was about 10 years ago now).
Hyperacute, not hyperactive (Score:2)
Actually, TechnoLust, I do think that all drugs should be legal, even the ones I can't stand (like cigarettes) and the ones I categorically won't use (everything from acid to shrooms to heroin and crack). (The only "hard" drugs I've ever used are prescription opioids.) It would cut down on crime, get the gangs and the Hell's Angels out of the business, and would prevent a lot of overdoses, particularly if the (Canadian) government would regulate and control it the same way they do with alcohol (Liquour License Boards).
State of the Interrobang note: I'm really depressed.
Re:Hyperacute, not hyperactive (Score:2)
I, on the other hand, only think drugs should be legalised when there is a roadside test for them, and when the related crimes (burglary, robbery, etc.) are more routinely prosecuted, and carry a more appropriate sentence.
Well, one out of two... (Score:2)
As to the "more appropriate sentence," for drug-related crime, I think you're also right, except that the answer's probably prescription (hard) drugs, harm reduction, and not prison.
Re:Well, one out of two... (Score:1)
Yes, I do. It'd be greatly reduced, in that the percentage of drug users resorting to crime to pay for their habit would be much smaller. But that would have to be weighed up against the increased number of users that would result from legalisation. Overall, I still think we'd come out with a net gain, but there would still be drug related crime, and I think it would have to be appropriately dealt with. Like you say, though, prison isn't necessarily the answer...
Re:Hyperacute, not hyperactive (Score:2)
Are you sure that wasn't ecstacy?
Actually, TechnoLust, I do think that all drugs should be legal, even the ones I can't stand (like cigarettes) and the ones I categorically won't use (everything from acid to shrooms to heroin and crack). (The only "hard" drugs I've ever used are prescription opioids.)
I'm still a little undecided on the harder stuff. I am for marijuana legalization even though I have never smoked it, and probably wouldn't try it if it were legal.
There are several research groups in the US trying to make ecstacy (MDMA) legal for medicinal purposes. I tried ecstacy several times in college, and contraty to the news reports I always see, I didn't die, or have a heart attack, or run out and start having unprotected sex with many anonymous partners. I would probably take ecstacy again if it were legal. Not on a regular basis, but maybe on certain occasions. That would definitely be a plus in my book, since anyone that has every "died from ecstacy" has really been sold something else (usually DXM) and told it was MDMA. Other than ecstacy and "hard" drugs that were prescribed to me, I've never taken anything.
I know people that use cocaine, and they have good jobs, they work hard, you'd never guess they used coke, but they do. I don't think I know anyone that has taken heroine. I know a lot of people that "just" smoke pot. I know more people that have ruined their lives over alcohol or tobacco than other drugs.
So, banning pot will cure teenage pregancy? (Score:2)
By the way, most of the alcoholics I know started out by drinking milk. Ban milk. It's obviously a gateway beverage.
Max
I took one look at the parents (Score:2)
And thought, man they sure aren't from New Mexico, because they'd have to be 25 or 26 to take that title.
Alternate explanation (Score:2)
err...nevermind
alternative take on the message (Score:2)
I think the point of that parable is that fat parents have fat kids. Meaning if they don't break the cycle of irresponsibility, they're going to pass it to their children, then those children to their children, and so on.
Genetics? Sure, whatever it takes to push responsibility somewhere else. Just proving my point, really.