A press conference will be held at National Press Club, Murrow Room.

For more information contact Joseph White at 413.774.4080 or 413.773.0555 (cellphone) or Bob Schaeffer at 941.395.6773 or email info@changetheclimate.org.

As the new administration pulls into town, they will be greeted by a METRO advertising campaign questioning government marijuana policies. The campaign is being launched by Change the Climate, a new non-profit group of parents and business executives that hopes to stimulate debate about marijuana policy. The METRO campaign in Washington is set to begin on January 1, 2001 and will feature 560 ads on buses and in train stations.

The campaign features three different ads - an African American business executive with cancer admits to smoking marijuana after chemotherapy and asks rhetorically if it's his choice, to which he answers "Wrong." A second ad on the side of 50 buses features a picture of two police officers in front of an American flag. The ad reads "Police are too important . . . too valuable . . . to good . . . to waste on arresting people for marijuana when real criminals are on the loose." The third ad that will be displayed in subway stations features a young woman who asks, "Why do kids go to jail for doing what politicians did when they were young? Tell us the truth . . . "

"The goal of Change the Climate's ad campaign," says founder Joseph White, "is to stimulate debate on marijuana issues. We want to raise questions about how the government spends our tax dollars and why marijuana is such a huge law enforcement priority." "Most parents don't want their kids smoking pot, drinking alcohol or smoking cigarettes, but they definitely don't want their 16 year-old to spend time in jail with rapists and murderers for experimenting with marijuana."

"Government-run drug education programs like D.A.R.E. leave adults with little credibility in the eyes of our children because it associates marijuana so closely with hard drugs," says White, a business executive and father of three boys. "After spending billions of tax dollars demonizing marijuana, 50% of our high school seniors still try it -- government policies push many of these kids into the arms of dangerous criminals who pedal really dangerous drugs, " continues White.

Change the Climate hopes that people will see the ads and log onto the organization's website http://www.changetheclimate.org to learn more about marijuana issues, to see the organization's other marijuana law reform ads, to participate in the online bulletin board and to make contributions to buy more ads in other cities. The only other campaign is in Boston where it has been temporarily delayed by a First Amendment lawsuit against the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) for not agreeing to display the organization's ads. A decision on that case is expected soon. New campaigns are being prepared for Chicago and New York.

"Parents just want their kids safe but government policy puts them in danger - an arrest for one joint on Saturday night is more likely to mess up their lives more than marijuana ever will," notes White. "Parents don't want the government hurting their children and many of us now have the business skills and financial resources to fight back."

Change the Climate's strategy is based on the realization that politicians will not support marijuana law reform until the climate around marijuana is more favorable. Just as businesses invest in advertising to change consumer behavior, Change the Climate believes millions of advertising impressions will begin to change public opinion. "How many millions more can we arrest? How many more thousands of dollars are taxpayers willing to spend? Once average citizens learn that their children are ineligible for federal student loans because they were busted for pot but the guy who raped a girl or robbed a bank still gets his student loan, they'll be up in arms," exclaims White who has spent hours talking to parents of kids who've been arrested for marijuana.