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| 31 August 2001 - The San Diego Union-Tribune Students take stand against drug promotion By Matthew T. Hall EL CAJON – The poster showed little Johnny sitting between two young girls. One of them was handing him a joint, and he was reaching for it. "Johnny likes skinny girls, but he never turns down a fattie!" was the pro-marijuana message beneath the drawing. High school junior Reina Marquez said some of her friends might think it's funny, but she finds it offensive and degrading. Reina and 14 other East County students marched to Parkway Plaza yesterday to protest the sale of merchandise they said promotes drug use and underage drinking. "We are tired of being bombarded with advertisements telling us it's OK to drink and do drugs," she said. "We are taking a stand." That stand began in June when Reina and others collected 180 signatures from teen-agers at the mall who supported asking a trio of stores in and around Parkway Plaza to remove questionable material, such as the pot poster. The students, united through the group Communities Against Substance Abuse, asked the stores to pull the merchandise. Only Spencer Gifts responded. John Ridgway, the divisional vice president of marketing, wrote: "Our merchandise often causes disagreement among people with different tastes and views, but that is natural, healthy, not a bad thing and a key part of our success. "Spencer Gifts does not advocate abuse, in any way, including through our merchandise. What we do, and will continue to do, is poke fun at life situations wherever and whenever we find them. Please don't read anything more than that into what you see in our stores." Ridgway's reply fell short for 16-year-old Santee student Matt Ellis. "You can't just put this aside as if it were nothing," he said. |
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