Drugs 'deck of cards' mocks inhaling politicians

[grace]

Charity's controversial Nice People Take Drugs campaign enters second phase with website quoting 'hypocritical' politicians, from George Bush to Barack Obama, on their own drug use

 

Take a deep breath, guys … 'playing cards' from the new Nice People Take Drugs website.

 

From former presidents to serving ministers, politicians around the world have today found themselves the butt of a web campaign skewering them as hypocrites for advocating a zero tolerance approach to drugs despite having used drugs in the past.

 

The online "deck of cards" pillories public figures such as Bill Clinton and chancellor Alistair Darling while encouraging web users to volunteer their own "hypocrites" with accompanying quotes to complete the set. The device is a tactic to draw attention to World Anti-Drugs Day and is the latest phase in the Nice People Take Drugs campaign from the UK charity Release, which sparked controversy earlier this month.

 

Two weeks ago, the charity saw its advertisements, which read "Nice people take drugs", removed from buses in London because the bus company was worried they might offend some members of the public, prompting charges of censorship.

 

David Cameron's card from the deck. Photograph: Release The web campaign is likely to be no less controversial. British politicians in the deck are headed by David Cameron, the Tory leader, who is quoted as saying: "I did lots of things before I came in to politics which I shouldn't have done," and the former Europe minister Caroline Flint, with the more straightforward declaration: "I took cannabis 20 years ago."

 

Top of the pack is former US president George W Bush as the "joker", whose quote reads: "I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions. You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried." In contrast, the incumbent US president, Barack Obama, is characteristically less convoluted: "Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. I inhaled frequently. That was the point."

 

Also among the US contingent are the firebrand Republican Newt Gingrich, who reportedly said: "When I smoked pot it was illegal but not immoral. Now it is illegal and immoral. The law didn't change, only the morality. That's why you get to go to jail and I don't."

 

Sebastian Saville, the chief executive of Release, said the interactive web tool was a novel approach but with serious undertones.

 

"We developed the deck of cards specifically to show the hypocrisy of politicians who talk about their sterling efforts in the fight against drugs when so many of them have taken drugs themselves," Saville said. "The UK public are now well aware that politicians appear to live by their own special rules in many areas – we felt it was time to add drug use to the list.

 

"Many people, including these politicians, have used drugs and have come to no harm but this is mainly because they were not caught doing it."

 

He added: "Their careers did not suffer, yet they continue to support a regime that results in thousands of often less privileged people being condemned to marginalisation, incarceration and permanent disadvantage due to personal drug use."

 

The intention is to also to shine a spotlight on the broader punitive impact of individual countries' drugs policies around the world, Saville said. "We felt it particularly important to highlight these issues this week, as those who enforce the current drug regime justify and celebrate World Anti-Drugs Day. The awful consequences of ill-conceived policies can no longer be call 'unintended'."

 

The salvos fired by the campaign are small-scale but they come at a time when there has been considerable momentum for reform within global drugs policy circles.

 

On Wednesday this week, Antonio Maria Costa, director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, unexpectedly called for universal access to drug treatment, saying: "People who take drugs need medical help, not criminal retribution."

 

The comment is likely to be seen as an explicit shift toward defining drugs issues in terms of health and not criminality. It was preceded in February by an unprecedented call for the decriminalisation of drug users by Michel Kazatchkine, head of the influential Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria.

 

Author: Mary O'Hara

Date: 26 June 2009

Source: guardian.co.uk

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/jun...rds-politicians

[MadamePandora]

so where can I buy these cards ?

 

[000patto000]

http://nicepeopletakedrugs.org/

 

might have to print them yourself

[bufo marinus]

Stick Peter Garrettt down, he is in a position to say Cannabis rocks, but he says nothing, well if he has I'm not aware.

Not that he had anything to do with it but what happened to the NSW Cannabis trials?

Does anyone in The Labour Party have the nuts to stand up? In Qld Peter Beattie dropped the ball, Judie Spence did too unfortunately.

They're all 'social revolutionaries' perhaps a second reading of Animal Farm by George Orwell is in order?

"All animals are equal" was the main Commandment after the animals revolted, but as the pigs slowly took over the commandment changed to "All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others"

Crafty buggers those pigs, they bamboozled/tricked/mislead all the other dumb animals on the farm into thinking they were doing it for their own good,... sound familiar?

 

moooooooo baaaaaaah

[luciddreaming]

HAHA Bush is the joker, classic!

 

Too true bufo, I'm sure george used the 'pigs' for a reason too

 

Oh yeah and I think you would be able to buy them when they are finished. Do we have any more politicians in Aus that used drugs, that aren't there already? Can't really have any greens people on there since they advocate drug law reform

Edited June 28, 2009 by luciddreaming

[brick]

No mention from the offenders as to how hard or easy it was to stop smoking cannabis. None said they were addicted to smoking cannabis. None said they had trouble stopping.

[Gee]

I wonder how long it will take to complete the deck? It would be a good topic of convo to have a game of cards and laugh at the hypocrisy.