From You Alright, I Learned It from Watching You

One of my favorite commercials growing up was the father grilling the son about smoking marijuana. “Where did you get this? Answer me!” the father implored. Finally the son shouts out, “From you alright, I learned it from watching you.”

I finally saw it parodied a year or two ago, although I can’t remember where. My second favorite was the guy walking around in a circle – “I do coke, so I can work longer, so I can earn more, so I can do more coke….”

When I was growing up, there were a ton of these commercials including the girl on the high dive with empty pool and the famous, “This is your brain on drugs.” Sadly, I can’t find a link for my favorite.

All these commercials, if not utilizing top shelf talent like Pee Wee Herman, relied upon shock value. This shock value was probably useful in reaching through to kids even if it sometimes had unintended humor consequences.

Well, shocking anti-drug commercials have finally caught up to both the 21st Century and meth. The Wyoming Department of Health has release new tv commercials and posters outlining the risks of our country’s drug du jour among the youth.

While the ads are graphic and the media does tend to sensationalize “epidemics”, we applaud Wyoming for trying to keep kids from getting sucked into that tailspin. From meth lab explosions, to increases in violent crime, to health problems and lost opportunities to users, meth is truly causing grave damage to our nation.