marijuana scary
It Came from Denver! MPP

Pot activists have an unlikely tack in their campaign to legalize marijuana: challenging their opponents to a shot-for-toke competition.

Alcohol, according to Mason Tvert of the Marijuana Policy Project, is a far more harmful drug than cannabis – and there’s plenty of evidence to back that up. Since 2006, the MPP has argued that Americans who want to use a mind-altering substance – and who would otherwise resort to liquor or beer – should be permitted to pick a safer poison in weed. This “drug duel” played a crucial role in marijuana reformers' successful 2012 campaign to legalize weed for recreational use in Colorado.

Last week, the International Business Times reported on the MPP's grass-roots advertising campaign to spread its message on the national scale. This initiative targets American voters who believe that marijuana is harmful and should remain illegal, but don’t bat an eye at alcohol’s legal status in spite of its scientifically proven and perpetually demonstrated dangers.

Here are some of the best ads they’ve deployed:

denver1
Courtesy of the Marijuana Policy Project MPP

In 2007, when football player Ricky Williams came back to the NFL following his suspension for marijuana use, the MPP sent him this postcard from Denver.

grandjunction2
Courtesy of the Marijuana Policy Project MPP

This marijuana legalization ad, which hung high over Grand Junction, Colo., in 2006, is conspicuously missing a cannabis leaf. According to the MPP, that’s because the state wouldn’t allow it.

drug czar3
Courtesy of the Marijuana Policy Project MPP

This ad also came from Colorado, in 2006, and went up at the same time that Colorado got a visit from the nation's Drug Czar.

sex sells4
Courtesy of the Marijuana Policy Project MPP

When drugs can’t sell themselves, add sex (and subtract hangovers).

denver5
Courtesy of the Marijuana Policy Project MPP

This ad ran in Denver, 2013, just outside Broncos stadium after the team’s first NFL regular season game.

las vegas 6
Courtesy of the Marijuana Policy Project MPP

This campaign was featured in Las Vegas in 2013, just after boxer and former middleweight champion Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. was fined $900,000 after weed was found in his system.

colorado 7
Courtesy of the Marijuana Policy Project MPP

This ad comes from a political campaign ahead of Colorado’s successful statewide initiative to “regulate marijuana like alcohol” in 2012.

alaska8
Courtesy of the Marijuana Policy Project MPP

And finally, this last bus ad comes to us from Alaska, 2014, where the former first family of the state got into trouble for drunken brawling.

Is there a weed legalization billboard running where you are? Take a photo and send it to us at a.smith@ibtimes.com or d.sirota@ibtimes.com – your submissions may be featured!