I am a concerned citizen whose has become aware of a small scandal in the war on drugs involving www.drugfree.org and their new PSA commercial entitled: "Word Salad-finding the right words". I believe this commerical, much in opposition of its stated goals, intentionally conveys the glorification of drugs, specifically the drug cocaine.

In the commercial a typical teenager sits on the bed with her mother listening to a lecture on drugs. The mother, looking into the middle distance, speaks nonsense words over which is spoken a narration explaining that many parents struggle to find the right words when speaking to their children about drugs. This is all well and good. But near the end, the mother changes her tone. Initially solemn, she cracks a smile as the shot cuts to a close up of her joy, she looks into the light and says: "Afterword, lightly fish scale... doorbell."

"fish scale" means cocaine. The youth of america knows this because in March, 2006 Ghostface Killah of the Wu-Tang clan released an album entitled "Fish Scale" in which the rapper and alleged former drug dealer equates the cognomen "fish scales" with high quality cocaine in reference to the idea that his trafficking of the drug necessitates large scales, the type of which are commonly used by fisherman to way their catch. Kids know this because, for one thing, Rolling Stone Magazine told them:

"Fishscale" is apparently slang for uncut coke -- and the perfect title for an ambitious disc with almost no filler.

Jonathan Ringen

The lyrics of the album also make it clear:

While in Bolivia, Tony Starks has bumped heads with drug czar Columbo and moved over ten pounds of raw fishscale…

And this picture depicting Ghostface inserting white packages into a fishes' mouth while wearing a rugby shirt and Ghengis Khan hat cements the idea further.

[www.morethings.com]

Once more, wikipedia has an entry for "fish scale cocaine."

[en.wikipedia.org]

As someone with friends and family fighting addiction this is a slap in the face. When viewed by the youth of America, this PSA will promote the use of drugs not hinder it. The clear reference to the drug cocaine during the only moment of good humour in the entire commercial is a clear and discernable glorification of the drug in contrast to the goals of the venture. For our tax dollars and charitable contributions to fund a PSA which glorifies cocaine is damaging to our communities who wish to fight addiction without the constraints of contradictory messages. It is my belief that the writer/s of the commercial intentionally put the reference in as a joke to sneak by their superiors. I believe this because the mathematical probability of the word "fishscale" being included in the word salad by random choice is very low, especially since it is not only the inclusion of words themselves but their placement in the word salad at the point when the mother smiles that makes them so pernicious. I ask as a concerned citizen that you use your power to uncover who wrote the commercial to appear in it's present form and when the word "fishscale" was chosen to be in the word salad; that you get the commercial taken off the web and television; that you make whoever put the reference in the commercial apologize and admit their mistake.

Thank you

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zing.

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