Pubdate: Tue, 08 Sep 2015
Source: Columbus Dispatch (OH)
Copyright: 2015 Associated Press
Contact:  http://www.dispatch.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/93
Author: Julie Carr Smyth, ASSOCIATED PRESS

SOME WANT TO NIP PRO-POT 'BUDDIE' IN THE BUD

A caped green superhero stumping for marijuana-legalization votes on 
college campuses and in bars in Ohio has sparked debate over its 
effect on children.

"Buddie" is a fuzzy, eversmiling pot bud in a bulging white muscle 
suit with green trunks, gloves and boots. He arrives in a truck 
painted with marijuana leaves declaring "Yes on legalization."

Children's-health advocates opposed to legalization said Buddie is 
reminiscent of Joe Camel, the cartoon dromedary that proved so 
effective at marketing cigarettes to teenagers in the 1990s that R. 
J. Reynolds was forced to retire his image. The health advocates said 
the pot mascot makes light of a dangerous illegal drug in a manner 
appealing to kids.

"We didn't believe it when we saw the photos. We were pretty 
shocked," said Nick Lashutka, president of the Ohio Children's 
Hospitals Association, which is involved in fighting the legalization effort.

"This is nothing less than a ploy to market to children," he said.

ResponsibleOhio, the campaign seeking in November to legalize 
marijuana for medical and recreational use, said Buddie is nothing 
like Joe Camel. Executive Director Ian James said the mascot is not 
marketing marijuana but asking for votes - and speaking exclusively 
to voting- age students.

"Buddie only addresses people that are 18 and older, and Buddie works 
specifically with voters," James said.

"Buddie has no connection with anybody under 18 because anybody under 
18 can't vote."

Also, James said, Joe Camel's tobacco product was legal, whereas 
anyone selling marijuana in Ohio today "would go to jail."

Lashutka said he has children, and it is the younger ones who find 
superheroes most appealing.

"As someone who has a recent college graduate in the family, he's not 
playing with superheroes or watching cartoons, but my younger kids 
are," Lashutka said.

The legalization question is fiercely dividing the state. It would 
make Ohio a rare state to move from total prohibition to total 
legality for those 21 or older. The measure also would set up a 
network of 10 authorized growing sites in the state.

Republicans, who control the state legislature, think the network's 
growers would be a monopoly. They've placed a separate issue on the 
ballot barring such economic arrangements from Ohio's constitution 
without two votes of the people.

Amid the intense and expensive fight emerged Buddie.

"They need an attention grabber," said Casey Newmeyer, an assistant 
marketing professor at Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead 
School of Management. "They need something that's going to catch 
young people's attention to come over and talk to them. Just one or 
two random people standing on a campus passing out fliers isn't going 
to do that."

Newmeyer said she agrees with critics that merging superhero imagery 
with marijuana verges on objectionable. But she said Buddie differs 
from Joe Camel.

"He's not on billboards, he's not on clothing, he's not available for 
children to see," Newmeyer said.

"They're not marketing him to the masses."

James said ResponsibleOhio is seeking the youth vote, and Buddie is a 
way to get it.

"When you look at the millennial voters, they are the least likely to 
vote in an off-offyear election, but the most likely to appreciate a 
goofy, off-the-wall, irreverent character, and so we provided them 
one," James said.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom