Thursday, October 20, 2011
Phillips Gov. Haslam and Tennessee District Attorneys General Create a How-to-Do-Meth Video
Posted by Betsy Phillips on Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 5:28 AM
I'm not a governor, obviously, nor a district attorney, so maybe there's some wisdom behind this video that I'm just not seeing. I have never done meth. And, really, until I was two and a half minutes into this video, I didn't really know how to do meth.
I mean, yeah, I had a vague idea, but holy shit! This video basically takes you step by step through how to smoke it or inject it. And we're showing this to kids?! And we're showing them different lab setups?
OK, yes, this information is all over the Internet. But damn, there is a difference between kids having to go out and use the Internet, and their schools showing them a state-produced video demonstrating how to use the drug and providing pointers for how to make it.
We have a terrible meth problem in this state. Why are we showing kids who haven't yet tried it how to use it?
Southern Beale likens the video to those hilariously quaint reefer madness videos:
Pfft. I’m not implying meth is as benign as pot, but it’s not like we weren’t forced to watch lame educational videos and listen to anti-drug lectures from Policeman Bob all through school when we were kids. Didn’t do a damn thing.
But I would say this goes beyond a lame educational video into a straight-up educational video. It's like the whole video is, "Don't do meth. It's totally bad for you. Here's what it looks like. Here's how you put it in a spoon and light a flame under it. Here's how you get it in a needle. Doesn't that needle look like something your diabetic grandpa might have lying around? Here's how you put the needle in your arm. For sure, don't do that. Oh, and don't smoke it. Yeah, totally, if you have a pipe that looks like this, don't light it like this and huff away. Don't do that."
So, now we're teaching kids how to do drugs in order to keep them from doing drugs? Am I the only one who is baffled by this approach?
Here, kids. Let me give you some straight-up advice that you will not get from this video: Do not talk to the police without a lawyer. Once they put you in handcuffs, just shut up until you get a lawyer. If they have you in handcuffs but tell you that you're not under arrest, politely tell them that you would either like to leave or you would like your lawyer. Then say no more. Do not let them search your car or your house without a warrant.
Believe me, there are a lot of good reasons not to do drugs. You already know drugs are bad for you. No adult needs to tell you that.
So, kids, think on this. The best reason not to do drugs is that you live in a state where the governor and the attorney general would get together with local law enforcement and put together a video that shows you how to do meth, one of the nastiest drugs there is. Within that same video, they demonstrate "cooperation" with the police that shows people in handcuffs talking to the police without a lawyer and giving consent for a warrant-less search of a vehicle.
Doesn't that seem just a little strange? They teach you how to do drugs and then teach you how to behave when they arrest you for doing them?
Don't do drugs, kids, because even if the only people you ever encounter while doing drugs are your dealer and the people who made this video, drugs have lead you to a bunch of people who do not have your best interests at heart.
And that's a sad lesson to have to learn about the state you live in.
NOTE, 9:30 a.m.: Headline and first graph corrected to replace "attorney general" with "district attorneys." We apologize for the error.
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