This is the original This is Your Brain on Drugs public service announcement.
And this is Your Brain on Drug Policy, a new campaign taking aim at the failure and injustices embodied by modern laws designed to punish users of illicit substances.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKXN6Vdr3g0
Much has changed in the 20 years since Rachael Leigh Cook appeared in the infamous PSA, which saw her destroy first an egg, than an entire kitchen, to symbolise the effect of heroin use on the brain: 24 states in the US, alongside the district of Columbia, have legalised marijuana in some form, including eight which allow for its recreational use. Back home in Melbourne, the first crop of medicinal cannabis was harvested back in February.
What hasn’t changed is the mentality that society is at war with drugs, a concept seeded in the era of prohibition, before ripening in the hands of Richard Nixon, who declared drugs public enemy number one in 1971.
In truth, and as confirmed by former Nixon aide John Ehrlichman, the declaration was a smokescreen under which the government to target ‘hippies’, and the black community.
As Cook discusses in the video above, this racial undercurrent is still in effect today.
According to the ACLU’s report, The War on Marijuana in Black and White, the likelihood of someone using marijuana based on their race is similar, and yet the black arrest rate, nationally, is around 3.73 times more than the white arrest rate.
The policies are destroying lives, but while 61% of Americans believe marijuana should be publicly available, their government is cracking down on users harder than ever. Only this month, Homeland Security Sanctuary John Kelly spoke about fighting the states that have already legalised the substance, while using marijuana possession as “essential elements as (US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) build their deportation removal apprehension packages for targeted operations against illegal aliens living in the United States”.
Cook agreed to take part in the project – which was developed by Green Point Creative, an agency focused on changing drug laws – after watching Ava DeVernay’s revelatory Netflix documentary on injustices within the US prison system, The 13th.
“The shocking, cold-water education her documentary presented compelled me to reexamine my own involvement with a larger movement that has gone on to harm so many,” she wrote in a statement.
“When my unique position brought about the opportunity to raise my voice again about this issue, I knew it was the right thing to do. My hope now is to bring attention to the wildly unfair practices of drug sentencing and advocate for their reform.”
Unsurprisingly, the ad was launched on April 20th, or 4/20, a date which has long been associated with marijuana use.