New Mother’s Day Billboard Perfectly Flips “Talk to Your Kids About Drugs” Rhetoric

The pro-legalization Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol (CRMLA) in Arizona erected a pair of Mother’s Day billboards in Phoenix and Tucson on Monday. The ads flip the classic “Have you talked to your children about drugs?” public service announcements by asking, “Have you talked to your parents about marijuana?”

Targeting the the generational gaps in support for marijuana legalization, the billboards show a young woman with her mother and encourage viewers to visit TalkItUpArizona.org, a site that provides tips on how to start a conversation with parents and other relatives about the benefits of marijuana legalization.

“For decades, the federal government distributed anti-marijuana propaganda to parents and encouraged them to share it with their children,” said CRMLA Chairman J.P. Holyoak, in a press release. “Younger voters need to talk to their parents about marijuana and make sure they understand it is actually less harmful than alcohol.”

In 2015, a Gallup poll found that 71 percent of respondents ages 17 to 34 and 64 percent of respondents ages 35 to 49 support marijuana legalization. For older folk, support for marijuana legalization falls: 58 percent of respondents ages 50 to 64 and 35 percent of respondents 65 years and older support marijuana legalization.

Talk It Up Arizona offers a sample letter for youths to share with their older relatives stories comparing the damaging effects of alcohol to their more benign encounters with marijuana. By encouraging youths to help bust the marijuana myths keeping older generations resistant to marijuana legalization, the campaign could employ the youth to sway the older generations more likely than young folks to hit the ballot box in November.

“Older voters tend to be less familiar with marijuana and, as a result, more concerned about making it legal for adults,” Holyoak said. “Younger voters need to talk to their parents about marijuana and make sure they understand it is actually less harmful than alcohol.”