The Most Deadly Drugs are Already Legal Essay -- Argumentative Persuas

This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Fried egg is probably the most influential commercial of our generation. We feared it, we laughed at it, some of us stopped eating eggs, and we made a lot of t-shirts about it. And who was scaring us? Who was so concerned about our health? Our loving friends: The Partnership for a Drug-Free America (PDFA). We used to watch those commercials and get all warm and fuzzy inside, someone out there cared enough about us to spend a lot of money on those frightening ads. Those good people down at the PDFA really don't want us using drugs. Or do they? The truth is, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America demonizes illegal drugs to protect the legal and profitable ones that kill more people. And this delicate maneuvering of the spotlight serves one purpose: to put a lot of cash in to the pockets of a few pharmaceutical, alcohol, and tobacco corporations. The tight-knit relationship between corporate drug peddlers and the PDFA is borne out most clearly by the organizations impressive list of funders. From 1988 to 1991, 54% of the $5.8 million the PDFA took from its top twenty-five contributors came from pharmaceutical companies. The other 46%? Largely tobacco and alcohol. Why are these huge corporations donating such large sums of money to the PDFA? Because they know that the PDFA strongly influences our conception of acceptability: Whatever drug the PDFA chooses to attack becomes a taboo, while drugs the PDFA chooses to ignore become a spotless joy. Because of this funding structure, even if the PDFA wanted to criticize the profitable drugs, it couldn't. Former Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics Matters Mathea Falco explains, It would be suicidal if the Pa... ...s, One of the reasons young people have no faith in what we say about drugs is because of the lies by people like the Partnership. (St. Petersburg Times, 1990) Corporations are making big bucks and children are dying. Instead of spending a billion dollars to spit nonsense into young minds, the Partnership should be informing them about the dangers of all drugs, illegal and legal, worthless and profitable. And instead of convincing kids that everyone who smokes pot is a crazy murderer, they should differentiate between drugs and admit that heroin is not the same as marijuana. Without the children's trust, the entire message is worthless. Next time you see an Excedrin commercial, a Just Say No commercial, and then a Miller Lite commercial, realize that they are all the same. This is your brain. This is your brain on the Partnership for a Drug-Free America.