Drugs and Terrorism

February 6, 2002 -- During last Sunday’s Superbowl, the President’s Office of National Drug Control Policy aired the first two commercials of a new ad campaign linking drug use with terrorism. The ads, aimed at teenagers, are meant to capitalize on the kids’ growing sense of political awareness. Their message is simple: If you buy drugs, you might be financing terrorists.

But as is often the case, the simple message masks a more complicated reality. The administration acknowledges that teenage potheads aren’t terrorists. But the ad campaign is pretty clear when it comes to what those little tokers are doing: They’re helping to finance terrorism, kill judges, murder families, and torture people.

Sound a little extreme? It is. One television ad, titled “I Helped,” features a series of teenage faces reciting a litany of their crimes: “I helped kill a judge,” “I helped kill policemen,” and, of course, “I helped blow up buildings.”

These confessions are interspersed with the kids commenting, “I was just having fun” and “My life, my body.” The audience is clearly supposed to get the message that drugs are not good clean fun, and that they affect more than just your life and your body—because buying drugs supports terrorism.

But so does buying gasoline.

Osama bin Laden and his terrorist organization al-Qaeda—you know, the people who actually do blow up buildings—are heavily financed by oil revenue, from the donations of oil-rich Arabs, and from bin Laden’s personal fortune. Are the kids who drive to the mall supporting terrorism?

The problem with these ads is not that they’re anti-drug; the problem is that they’re absurd. Mom and her SUV are doing just as much to support terrorism as the local weed dealer. And there’s an obvious refutation of the ads’ anti-drug message: If buying drugs supports international terrorism, then just buy local. After all, bin Laden and his cronies don’t make any money from the “kind bud” growing in the basement.

Even worse, the government’s ads ignore the real reason that drug money supports terrorism: Drugs are illegal. You can buy a six-pack of beer from a safe, well-lit corner store. But you can’t buy your pot there. The ads aren’t suggesting that last night’s kegger helped mobilize the Basque separatist movement. It’s not like a picking up a pack of smokes and couple of 40’s means putting money into the pockets of Afghani poppy farmers. (That’s the Federal Government’s job; the U.S. gave $43 million to help support Afghani poppy farmers just last May.) It’s illegal drugs that the administration is claiming help terrorism, not alcohol, nicotine, Valium, caffeine, or Prozac.

Making drugs illegal creates a black market. Reputable businesses don’t deal in drugs, only criminals do. Buyers can’t get warranties or refunds, and black markets raise prices. They raise prices so much, in fact, that people are willing to kill each other. You just don’t see that happening with goods that are legal, like chocolate, for example. But if the government made chocolate illegal, then buying a candy bar would probably “support terrorism.” That’s the nature of a black market.

All in all, these ads just make things worse. Teenagers are young, and they might even be stoned, but they’re not stupid. And we shouldn’t treat them as if they are. They’ll see through this propaganda, they’ll recognize that the emperor has no clothes, and they’ll lose respect for the whole anti-drug message.

We need to teach our children to be responsible—but we won’t succeed if we treat them like fools. Drugs, both legal and illegal, can be dangerous. But drug use is nowhere near as bad as killing judges, murdering policemen, and blowing up buildings. We’re at war with the terrorists who do those things. Are we at war with our children as well?

‍