I have been writing poetry for 12 years and satire for 3. I started my own website (http://www.hard-news.co.uk) in response to the ills I percieve in society. Most recently I was both shocked and offended at the ignorace of the http://www.mediacampaign.org campaign. Such starkly simplistic and unbearably incorrect messages as some of those used in their campaign merit a direct, measured and reasoned response. You will find that I have kept to the structure and format of their own reasoning in the responses given below. Click on the links and compare their reasoning to mine. Please fell free to pass this on to anyone possibly interested in doing a photoshop image for them.

http://www.mediacampaign.org/mg/print/ad_propaganda.html

When we are adults and want our children to believe something we cannot rationalise we tell them things verbatim. As they grow up we teach them new things to fear that we ourselves do not understand.

We make up scare stories. We tell them to look the other way. We label things as "bad" or "subversive". But this doesn't work. It doesn't make the truth go away.

Making drugs illegal does terrible things: It creates a market for racketeers and extortionists. These people torture and kill to protect their illegal market and poison, with impure drugs, those people least able to protect themselves in society. Drug barons money comes from people who are forced to buy their drugs illegally.

If people were able to obtain drugs from licensed outlets there would be no drug barons. No drug barons means no drug related corruption and violence. There may still be misery but once their fear of persecution was taken away drug addicts themselves would be more willing to seek the help that they need.

Prohibition doesn't work and has already been proven not to work. It may not be what you want to hear but it doesn't make it any less true.

http://www.mediacampaign.org/mg/print/ad_okay.html

It's ok to bust someone, even for a little bit.
So, you bust someone for a dime bag occasionally. It's not like their funding terrorism at all because their friend grows it under UV lights and uses the money to boost an otherwise meagre income.

You understand the arguments for legalisation, that drug laws do terrible things.
That once hard drug addicts no longer have to buy their drugs from corrupt, immoral killers the drug dealers would be out of business and the violence would end.

You get all that
It's just another drugs bust isn't it?
Well here's a secret.
You don't pick which side you're on when you bust someone for a dime bag of home grown weed.
You pick which side you're on when you join the police in the first place.

http://www.mediacampaign.org/mg/print/ad_too_close.html
If you can read this I'm too close. My dad is an SUV driver and a dangerous person to share the road with.

http://www.mediacampaign.org/mg/print/ad_fatherson.html
http://www.mediacampaign.org/mg/print/ad_motherson.html

You can help your children by encouraging them to find out as many facts about substance abuse from as many different sources as possible. By telling your kids the simplistic message that drugs destroy lives you are leaving them open to the very real danger of them meeting musicians, artists, poets and thinkers who have not had their lives destroyed by drugs even though they use them for most of their adult life. Once your children realise this they may think that you were wrong in all ways about all drugs and your fears may then be borne through by nothing more than perpetuating ignorance.