Boycott T-Mobile for its Super Bowl ads

To the executives at T-Mobile,

I speak as one of thousands of those who work every day in the arena of fighting drug abuse. We are the parents, the educators, the doctors, the activists, the drug preventionists, the officers, the kids, and the ones left behind who work every day to send the message to our children that drug use is dangerous--that it can lead you down the road to addiction and worse.

You have, with your Super Bowl ads that see Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg throwing euphemisms for pot around like snickering 12-year-olds, reduced our efforts. You have effectively told all those with marijuana addictions (1 in 11 adults; 1 in 6 kids who start before the age of 18; 25-50% of daily users) that their addiction is something to be considered amusing and unreal.

You have spit on the memories of all those who have lost their lives to marijuana addiction—both the addicts who have lost their fights, as well as those who had no choice in someone’s use but paid for it with the ultimate price. You have rubbed salt in the wounds of the family members fighting to move on from such deaths and fighting to get people to understand that drug use—even so-called “harmless” marijuana use—isn’t funny. You have encouraged our children to believe that dealing drugs is a legitimate business opportunity and can, just like Snoop, make them millionaires. But how many really end up that way?

Instead of appearing hip and cutting edge, you lost a huge audience today. While I am sure that those who have not yet been affected by marijuana-related deaths and addictions might find your ads funny, those of us who have do not. The sad thing is we know that, as the number of places where this is legalized continues to grow, more and more people will understand this pain. Then people will have no choice but to wonder what they have brought on themselves—and we will be sure to remind them what companies encouraged their fallacious belief in the benignity of it all.

Your name will be remembered at that time. Right now we encourage you to know these names, of the people who have lost it all thanks to pot:

• Andy Zorn, 31


• Shane Robinson, 25


• Officer Thomas Clardy, 44


• Peyton Knowlton, 8


• Levy Thamba Pongi, 19


• Kristine Kirk, 44


• Elizabeth Kemble, 46


• Mary Harris, 16


• Eli Brookens, 16


• Janie Cozzi, 15


• Liam Hale, 16


• and the list goes on and on and on