Unusual Political Message: Pot Makes Better Lovers than Viagra

Marijuana Policy Group Launches Unusual Web-Based Donor Recruitment Campaign

Change the Climate, a Massachusetts-based organization, today launched a light-hearted effort to spotlight one of the many reasons marijuana should be legalized: For many consenting adults, it’s an aphrodisiac.

In a 90-second animated cartoon titled “Sex News,” Change the Climate describes a fictitious “Canadian Sex Study,” which found that “marijuana makes better lovers than Viagra.”

In the animation, the sexual effects of pot and Viagra are graphically (but tastefully) depicted. View the animation by clicking on www.changetheclimate.org.

Change the Climate has a serious goal behind the fun animation. The nonprofit organization is trying to educate and mobilize marijuana reform supporters (marijuana smokers and non-users) who are alienated by traditional politics.

“Like other advertisers, we are using sex to cut through the information overload in today’s advertising environment.” said Joseph H. White, Executive Director of Change the Climate. “We’re following the lead of major drug companies that advertise Viagra and Cialis for erectile dysfunction – so we think our message of comparison will get people’s attention and hopefully foster more debate about the stupidity and futility of marijuana laws. Maybe we’ll even spawn interest in a real medical study!”

This is not the first time Change the Climate has directly addressed the issue of sex and marijuana.

In 2003, Change the Climate’s “Enjoy Better Sex: Legalize and Tax Marijuana” transit ads on the Washington DC Metro were denounced by members of Congress and the Washington Times. One Congressman – Congressman Istook from Oklahoma – was so outraged he pushed a law through Congress that would have withheld billions of dollars of funding from local transport agencies that allowed marijuana law reform advertising on their transport systems. This law was struck down in April, 2004, by federal courts on First Amendment grounds. Click here for more information on this campaign: http://www.changetheclimate.org/news/2004/06/02/court.php.

Change the Climate is producing a series of the provocative reform animations. Its first in the series, titled “Operation Overkill” is available at www.changetheclimate.org, where you can find more information about the organization’s goals and history.

For more information, call Jason Salzman at 303-292-1524.