Show 141 Thursday 21 September

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Hi, I’m Sarah. This is the The Daily English Show. And today’s show is about drugs... kind of.
The U.S. government has started putting videos on YouTube. And they’re videos encouraging young people not to use cannabis or weed or marijuana ... whatever you want to call it.
So I was curious to watch them because I’ve never seen this kind of video before. In New Zealand I’ve seen government ads, ah, encouraging people not to smoke tobacco or not to drink and drive – but I’ve never seen videos about cannabis. So I was curious to see what a government’s approach might be.
And it turns out they are good for studying – because they are all quite short, and have good sound quality, and they all have transcripts.
And some of them are quite entertaining too – there’s one with a guy sitting with a fist in his mouth.
I honestly can’t see how someone would watch that and think: “mmm, right, yeah, I’m not going to smoke marijuana any more”.
But anyway, you should check out the videos, the username is: ONDCPstaff. ONDCP that stands for Office of National Drug Control Policy.
So the slogan they use for these videos is “above the influence”.
So this is a word play on the phrase “under the influence”. So, under the influence means the state that you are in after you have taken drugs.
And one of the meanings of influence is “the power that somebody has to make somebody behave in a particular way.
So these videos are trying to say that teenagers are influenced a lot by what their friends say. So if your friends say that you should smoke marijuana, you should say “no”.
You should be above the influence, yeah.

STICK NEWS

Kia Ora. In Stick News today, the U.S. government has made its debut on YouTube with anti-cannabis videos.

There are many videos about drugs on YouTube. Most of them are sharing their experiences or offering advice.
Now the U.S. government is putting in their 2 cents.
Their message to kids? Don’t smoke cannabis.
Only one video still allows comments – and most people don’t seem to be too impressed by the ads.

And that was the news for Thursday the 21st of September. Stick News, we are above the influence.

conversations with sarah
# 93 Don’t they have them in New Zealand?

Taka and Sarah talk about the US government’s anti-drug ads.
Step 1: Repeat Taka’s lines.
Step 2: Read Taka’s lines on the screen and talk to Sarah.

Taka These ads are interesting.

Sarah Yeah, I’ve never seen anti-cannabis ads before.

Taka Don’t they have them in New Zealand?

Sarah No. I don’t think they’d go down too well in New Zealand.

Taka Why not?

Sarah Um, well... a lot of people want it to be legalized. And some politicians say they smoke pot. Even the prime minister has said that she tried it.

Taka Really? The prime minister said she smoked weed? That would never happen in Japan!

Sarah Yeah, people’s attitudes to recreational drug use seems to be quite different.

Notes

Music on the show used with permission from magnatune.com and jamendo.com

Today's questionanswer music:

Artist: Saelynh
Album: Sensation electronique
Track: Speedfire
site
music at jamendo

Today's news.
White House on YouTube on CNN on YouTube
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) on YouTube