By Sophia Mostella, 17, City of Angels
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When I saw this ad hanging outside a mini-mart at Crenshaw Blvd. and Rodeo, it bothered me because people are going to look at this ad and decide that’s what South Central is all about—getting high. I’m tired of seeing things in my community that I wouldn’t see anywhere else, like Colt 45 and Magnum ads. I don’t think that it’s all some kind of conspiracy, I just think that people promoting these things need to sit up and take notice of the way that they portray this community. But that’s old news and it seems like any changes are a long way off.

But I believe that this Bluntwrap ad goes way past the moral line that ads should be able to breach. People know that blunts are used to smoke weed. Snoop Dogg is wearing a marijuana leaf necklace, and his music promotes getting high. I think the advertising people know what they are promoting, and they know just where to put their ad. It’s wrong. Maybe marijuana has its uses, but people mistreat weed. They kill their brain cells chasing a high, and neglect a lot of things they should pay attention to, like school and work and their families. Overall, this just brings the community down.

Phone calls to National Honey Almond, Inc., which distributes Bluntwrap, were unanswered.

What do people think?


 "It’s cool to me because I smoke blunts myself."
 —Jay Jackson, 18, a Hamilton High graduate.

"I think it’s kind of clever because Snoop Dogg is advertising the blunt paper and also his new album. But if I had a kid with me, I wouldn’t want them to see it."
—Princess Johnson, 23.

"It’s cool … Snoop Dogg is making money. If I had a chance to do this, I would’ve done it too."
 —Shaunte Canada, 16, Los Angeles HS

"I don’t think this poster should be up at all, just like they shouldn’t really have cigarette ads."
 —Teri Grijalva, 33.

"It’s cool, it’s just trying to advertise blunts."
—Ricky Pagan, 15, Dorsey HS

"Some kids might not know what it is—they might think it’s candy, with all the flavors like vanilla, chocolate and so on. They might think it tastes good, so it’s good for them to smoke weed, when weed actually causes cancer. There’s enough things killing us already, like diabetes and shooting each other."
—Gloria Grayson, 23, a special ed teacher in Downey