Pubdate: Wed, 27 Jun 2001
Source: Willamette Week (OR)
Copyright: 2001 Willamette Week
Contact:  http://www.wweek.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/499
Author: John Schrag
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

WE'RE HERE. WE'RE HIGH. GET USED TO US.

Jeff Jarvis and Tracy Johnson couldn't have planned it better. 
Increasingly frustrated by the stigma of what they see as a harmless 
and popular activity, they decided to take to the radio waves.

The couple, who moved from Aloha to Bend earlier this year, 
approached Portland's KUFO-FM in May with a proposed script for a 
30-second radio ad. The station turned them down.

KUFO wasn't alone in such thinking. Jeff and Tracy, both 39, have 
also been turned down by Portland's KNRK-FM, KGON-FM, KKRZ-FM, 
KKCW-FM and KEX-AM, and by stations in Seattle and Bend. Plan B--bus 
and Max banners--was nixed by Obie Media, which handles advertising 
on Tri-Met. A proposed ad in the Sunday Oregonian was found by the 
paper to be "unsuitable for publication."

What offensive message do these two deviants propose? In short, it's 
this: A lot of normal (rather than NORML) people use marijuana, so be 
wary of stereotypes.

Jarvis, a self-employed software engineer, says that although he's 
contributed to the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act crowd and once volunteered 
at a NORML table at the state fair, he doesn't consider himself a 
marijuana activist. Rather, he and Johnson say they became 
increasingly aware of how bizarre it is that such a common activity 
has to be done in secret.

"I'm looking around saying, 'This is crazy,'" says Jarvis. "It's 
2001, and we're running around like it's the dark ages."

"I got tired of the fear factor," says Johnson. "I don't like the 
intimidation. We're not a threat to society."

They say they never expected to be banned from radio. "We understood 
that we'd be controversial," says Johnson. "We didn't expect that 
we'd have trouble getting air time."

Eventually the couple found some folks willing to take their money, 
here at WW (their full-page ad, which cost $2,555, appears elsewhere 
in this issue). And they may yet hit the airwaves: On Friday, KDBZ-AM 
620 (appropriately known as The Buzz) reviewed the script and said 
the staion would consider running it.
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MAP posted-by: Josh Sutcliffe