MovieChat Forums > Beyond Scared Straight (2011) Discussion > This show has 'Anti-Pot Agenda' written ...

This show has 'Anti-Pot Agenda' written all over it


It's really getting old. (I'll always watch to see thuggish teens get the **** scared out of them, though...)

Seriously, it seems like everything in this show circles back around to marijuana. I'm willing to bet **CA$H MONEY** that the producers are the same type of twits who plug their ears and run away from debates on the matter of legality.

They clearly try to paint a plant as being the primary problem for these teens... not the horrible parents, not the crappy gang-member friends, not the lack of punishment or discipline, not the late-night partying, not the violence, not the running away from home, not the fighting, not the drinking, not the getting suspended from school... no. Weed is clearly the culprit.

Now I'm the FIRST to admit that kids in high school shouldn't be smoking pot, but they also shouldn't be doing any of the things I just listed in the previous paragraph. I'm not saying pot isn't part of the problem. Unfortunately, pot gets the spotlight simply because it's the 'most illegal' out of the group. That's just how simple-minded humans think - they need something to point a finger at, and it's never themselves. (All of this despite the fact that it should be decriminalized, and that every anti-pot advocate knows this)

You can tell the prisoners and guards have all been prompted to give very specific speeches when they talk - they've been prepped on the teens' backgrounds so they can ask probing questions. It's a-a-a-a-all loaded.

Bottom line: I know that smoking pot is a contributing factor to these situations, but do you think they could stop villainizing it so much? We all know what the argument against it is once the kid is old enough to smoke, right? "Um........ don't do it, because... it's illegal?"

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[deleted]

What a great reply, with some excellent points - thank you so much.

I have heard friends of mine, who are parents, talk about how growing up as a teenager today seems much more difficult to them. You certainly drove that point home with your examples of societal decay. Thinking back on it, I didn't come from the most stable household myself, and was probably lucky to have friends and hobbies to keep me as occupied as I was.

It does seem like you have to have a high school education to mop a floor in this country anymore (hell, my degree barely impresses anyone, it seems, lol), which is why - even as a proponent for controlled usage in a private residence - I still think MJ is best kept for young adulthood and beyond. Let your brain develop a little first - jeez!

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I'm also guessing that a lot of those kids were introduced to drugs by their parents, and that's where they get them in the first place.

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Well, last night's episode had a VERY scary warning about the dangers of marijuana use. One of the inmates showed the kids his hands, which were badly scarred from burns. He got the burns after smoking pot, which someone had laced with PCP. The guy went on a rampage and ended up putting his hands in hot oil, and now he bears the scars of that unfortunate event as well as loss of feeling in his hands.


There's no good reason to use street drugs, mon ami. If you are, it means you're self-medicating and have bigger issues with which to deal.

"This is a faithful saying...Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief."

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Yeah, PCP is a whole other ballpark, for sure.

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"He got the burns after smoking pot, which someone had laced with PCP. The guy went on a rampage and ended up putting his hands in hot oil, and now he bears the scars of that unfortunate event as well as loss of feeling in his hands."

How often does that happen? Why lace marijuana with a stronger drug and sell it for a lesser price? This show obviously blames marijuana for the troubles of youth. What they need to look at is the culture of violence in the United States. It's a pretty sick country.

1 hour with a bunch of thugs might solve the problems of a few kids but it's not going to work for all of them. If they're there for smoking or selling weed I don't see why they are there in the first place. There are kids out there with real problems and they're concerned about kids smoking marijuana. Kids can get in a lot worse trouble than just smoking weed. Why waste resources on these kids?

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"How often does that happen?"

I don't know how much it happens, but it does happen, possibly more than you'd think. It happened to my best friend, and it messed him up pretty good.

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Sounds like *beep* to me. Here in Canada we have the highest youth rate of marijuana usage in the world. Never heard of anyone lacing marijuana with crack. Sounds like an urban myth for the anti-marijuana crowd.

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Not to mention... when you give a complete idiot ANY drug... they're still a complete idiot.

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So a couple years ago I went to drug rehab. I was a teen, I was stupid, and naive.
There was this guy, I'll call him...James. James did bath salts. Not just some bath salts, a lot of bath salts. Every day all day; he'd come in high and EVERYONE knew but unless he came up for a piss test (which they did randomly and only if you had probation or the like), they couldn't do a hell of a lot.
Point is he'd sprinkle salts on his weed and he would sometimes sell/give it away if he was high enough.
Does that happen a lot? No. But you're *beep* stupid to even want any drugs, free or otherwise, from someone who visibly does other things (ie: the guy who did a *beep* of bath salts).
Point is, believe it or what, what you've been told about drugs is a lie. Not in the it's all good and free and happy; because in the end most of them will *beep* you up.
What I'm saying is you don't lose responsibility for your actions automatically when you start using. You still need to be responsible about your *beep* If you wanna get high and aren't gonna let a few cops and the law stop you, whatever do your thing man, just don't be surprised when you buy an eighth off methhead jim who's talking to the sky and all of a sudden your're trying to pick bugs out of your skin.
And, in the end, most people buy from people they've known and trust; it's not really all that seedy and dingy. But there are still a few numbskulls out there who think it's like in the movies, or who are so desperate enough to not be dopesick/want to be *beep* up so bad that they don't care.

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The point they're trying to make is that possession of pot can land you in hot water. They're telling these kids it's not worth it. I don't think they're saying pot is bad, they're saying it's not worth the risk of getting caught with it.

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There are many productive citizens who smoke pot recreationally. Doctors, lawyers, teachers, business people.

Honestly, I'd be more upset if my kid was abusing prescription meds. Those are a far bigger problem and add to the crime rate.

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don't be that naive. most don't. and those who do have paid the price for it in the long run.

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Smoking dope is a victimless crime. The same goes for gambling
or drinking or having consensual.sex while "underage". To.reduce prison overcrowding all those inside for victimless crimes should be.released.

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