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UK: Govt backed over cannabis ad

Inthenews.co.uk

Wednesday 24 Oct 2007

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A Home Office advert warning teenagers of the growing strength of
cannabis did not misinform the pubic, the UK advertising watchdog has said.

Three viewers and drug consultancy KFx had complained that a television
advert in the government's Frank anti-drugs campaign was misleading.

The complainants said that the advert's message that stronger strains of
cannabis than ever before were circulating was incorrect and questioned
the use of the word strain altogether.

But the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that the statement
"With stronger strains than ever before, the more you mess with
cannabis, the more it could mess with your mind" was unlikely to mislead
viewers.

In its successful defence the Home Office pointed to an in-house report
and one from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction
that showed tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) levels – an indication of
cannabis' potency – were increasing.

The department said that this was illustrated in the increased
availability of 'sinsemilla' cannabis ('without seeds' in Spanish),
otherwise known as skunk.

Although the Home Office accepted the complainants' criticism that
sinsemilla was not a strain but a growing technique, it claimed that the
statement was to be taken in the context of advice for young people.

It argued that "the use of language in Frank advertising was tailored
specifically for an 11- to 18-year-old target audience" who would be
"unaware of the scientific complexities in the definition of the word
'strain'".

In its decision not to uphold the complaints against the advert the ASA
acknowledged that sinsemilla – grown using intensive indoor techniques –
was not a strain.

But a spokesperson added: "Because the Home Office had shown that the
potency of sinsemilla was higher than in previous years, we concluded
that the ad was unlikely to mislead.

http://www.inthenews.co.uk/news/politics/govt-backed-over-cannabis-ad-$1155509.htm

 

 

 

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