- Global Voices - https://globalvoices.org -

New Macedonian Public Service Campaign Calls Drug Users “Mules”

Categories: Eastern & Central Europe, North Macedonia, Citizen Media, Health, Youth

Over the last seven years, the Government of the Republic of Macedonia has spent undisclosed amounts of taxpayers money to produce and air public service campaigns against drug use and drug trafficking. A new campaign has been launched by the government, calling drug users “mules”.

Artist Ines Efremova tweeted:

The slogan of the new campaign against drugs is: “Stay clean! Don't be a mule!!! The decision is yours!”
I have nothing to add.

While the term “mule” has been used internationally in the context of smuggling, signifying a person carrying concealed drugs over a border [3], in this context it only has the pejorative meaning of stubborn and stupid draft animal [4].

According to the official announcement [5] [mk] of the Macedonian Ministry of Interior, the campaign's “goal is to raise awareness among high school students about the fight against narco-trafficking, and to act preventively and educationally over the young population.” The campaign will consist of presentations conducted by customs officers.

One of the previous campaigns was against the use of illegal drugs, titled “My life is my movie”, and was comprised of several film-like commercials (1 [6], 2 [7], 3 [8], 4 [9], 5 [10]), with an initial cost of 592,000 euro (800,000 dollars). According to a 2010 article [11] [mk] in Dnevnik daily, the number of registered illicit drug users actually increased after the campaign.