Crew members Andrew Willey, left, and Brian Houchin with Proctor Productions in Denver finish assembling large cages on Aug. 8, part of an advertising campaign by the state through Sukle Advertising designed to keep youths from using marijuana. (Kathryn Scott Osler, The Denver Post)
Re: “Colorado ad campaign tests new message to prevent teen marijuana use,” Aug. 10 news story.
While I firmly agree that marijuana use should be limited to adults, I cannot believe Colorado’s “Don’t Be a Lab Rat” campaign will convince many youths to not experiment.
After all, to live in our society is to already be a lab rat. How many products and policies enter our daily lives without being thoroughly vetted for impacts on brain cells and vital organs? BPA in plastics; arsenic in juices and baby food; antibiotics in meat; coal- and oil-based food colors and additives; GMO crops; fracking fluids; neurotoxins in herbicides, pesticides, and household cleansers; heavy metals in air pollution; etc.
Raising a generation of kids to question the effect of things going into their bodies would be bad for a business model where everything is considered safe until proven otherwise. For gosh sakes, kids might even start to wonder why the adults who care so much about their brain cells are doing nothing to mitigate the kind of environment they’ll inherit.
John Wilkens, Boulder
This letter was published in the Aug. 15 edition.
For information on how to send a letter to the editor, click here. Follow eLetters on Twitter to receive updates about new letters to the editor when they’re posted.
