In keeping with my recent move towards posting things I didn't write, I have decided to bring to your attention a couple of articles I read today in the New York Times. The first concerns a production of Lorainne Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun starring P. Diddy. No seriously, I saw the poster for it.
From Helping the Hip-Hop World Find 'A Raisin in the Sun'
By LOLA OGUNNAIKE
Advertisements for [the new production of A Raisin in the Sun] are running in African-American newspapers like The Amsterdam News. And fliers were recently distributed at Madison Square Garden after the Ladies First Tour, featuring Beyoncé, Alicia Keys and Missy Elliott. Fliers were also handed out at concerts for the hip-hop groups N.E.R.D. and Black Eyed Peas. Mr. Schnall said he often visited message boards for MTV and BET late at night in an effort to generate awareness.
Still, the promotional move most likely to draw the crowd that Mr. Schnall and the play's producer, David Binder, desire is the casting of the hip-hop mogul Sean Combs. He plays Walter Lee Younger, a troubled chauffeur from the South Side of Chicago who longs to start his own business. Mr. Binder, though, insists that the ubiquitous Mr. Combs, known to fans of his music, clothing line, restaurants, marathon cameos, reality series and/or lavish parties as P. Diddy, was not cast because of his box-office potential.
"Sean got the part because he is amazing in the part," Mr. Binder said of his star, whose acting résumé consists of bit parts in two Hollywood films [One of which, Monster's Ball, he was actually very good in.] and leads in several music videos. "It was based on merit. He auditioned for the part twice."
Whether it was based on merit or not, Miss Info, a Hot 97 radio personality, said casting Mr. Combs was a brilliant business decision.
"Puffy is a brand," she said. "His name is synonymous with luxury, living large, crossing over, and kids are interested in anything he does." Miss Info was, however, worried that her listeners might be misled by Mr. Combs's involvement in the production.
"A lot of listeners have no idea what this play is about," said Ms. Info, who calls "A Raisin in the Sun" one of her favorites. "They just know that P. Diddy is in a play. But it's not about music, there are no Bentleys, it's not gangster, so some people might be disappointed."
The second article is one for my sister who smokes lots of marijuana. Enjoy, Sarah!
From Make Peace with Pot
by ERIC SCHLOSSER
The Bush administration has escalated the war on marijuana, raiding clinics that offer medical marijuana and staging a nationwide roundup of manufacturers of drug paraphernalia. In November 2002 the Office of National Drug Control Policy circulated an "open letter to America's prosecutors" spelling out the administration's views. "Marijuana is addictive," the letter asserted. "Marijuana and violence are linked . . . no drug matches the threat posed by marijuana."
This year the White House's national antidrug media campaign will spend $170 million, working closely with the nonprofit Partnership for a Drug-Free America. The idea of a "drug-free America" may seem appealing. But it's hard to believe that anyone seriously hopes to achieve that goal in a nation where millions of children are routinely given Ritalin, antidepressants are prescribed to cure shyness, and the pharmaceutical industry aggressively promotes pills to help middle-aged men have sex.
Clearly, some recreational drugs are thought to be O.K. Thus it isn't surprising that the Partnership for a Drug-Free America originally received much of its financing from cigarette, alcohol and pharmaceutical companies like Hoffmann-La Roche, Philip Morris, R. J. Reynolds and Anheuser-Busch.
More than 16,000 Americans die every year after taking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like aspirin and ibuprofen. No one in Congress, however, has called for an all-out war on Advil. Perhaps the most dangerous drug widely consumed in the United States is the one that I use three or four times a week: alcohol. It is literally poisonous; you can die after drinking too much. It is directly linked to about one-quarter of the suicides in the United States, almost half the violent crime and two-thirds of domestic abuse. And the level of alcohol use among the young far exceeds the use of marijuana. According to the Justice Department, American children aged 11 to 13 are four times more likely to drink alcohol than to smoke pot.
None of this should play down the seriousness of marijuana use. It is a powerful, mind-altering drug. It should not be smoked by young people [young people like Sarah], schizophrenics, pregnant women and people with heart conditions. But it is remarkably nontoxic. In more than 5,000 years of recorded use, there is no verified case of anybody dying of an overdose. Indeed, no fatal dose has ever been established.
Over the past two decades billions of dollars have been spent fighting the war on marijuana, millions of Americans have been arrested and tens of thousands have been imprisoned. Has it been worth it? According to the government's National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, in 1982 about 54 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 had smoked marijuana. In 2002 the proportion was . . . about 54 percent.
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