EVERY JOINT YOU SMOKE, A BABY DIES!

H0L1$H!T!

The Drug Enforcement Agency's museum at One Times Square combines the drug war and the global war on terrorism in one fear-inducing package: If you smoke up, the museum wants you to know, the terrorists win.

Osama bin Laden smiles menacingly from behind an exhibit on opium production in Afghanistan, flanked by pictures of grieving Americans and George Bush surveying the wreckage of the World Trade Center. The traveling museum, titled "Drug Traffickers, Terrorists and You," tries to connect the sale and use of illegal drugs to national security threats and the destruction of American society. The museum will leave New York on February 1, 2005 for another city in the U.S.

While there is plenty of exhibition space devoted to trigger-happy South American drug lords peddling cocaine and to al-Qaeda's connections to Afghan opium, no illegal drug emerges unscathed; the museum asserts that there is reason for carefree potheads to stop mid-hit as well.

"Drugs and marijuana have become an arm of the struggle against America," said Carlos Lehder, a leader of the Medellin drug cartel in Colombia, according to an exhibit.

"There's not much stuff in here I haven't done," mused a visitor from Louisville, Ky. named Tyler, 22, who withheld his last name because he is in the army.

Though the museum had only a few visitors on a Friday afternoon, the exhibits did make an impression on some.

"They're suggesting that terrorists are looking to use drugs to overwhelm our country. I think it's possible. It's insidious. It could be working," said Lynnette Lynn-Fraser, who was visiting with her son from Dayton, Ohio. She was standing near an exhibit titled "The South Bronx: When Poverty and Drugs Helped Destroy a Neighborhood."

American interests are at stake in the world at large as well; the exhibit on opium production in Afghanistan said that Afghanistan "is on the verge of becoming a narco-state where the traffickers of drugs rule the country."

The threat of violence is emphasized everywhere in the museum. Upon entering, visitors undergo a thorough full-body frisking and bag search. The security guard cited the presence of offices above the museum, but declined to elaborate on why such an elaborate procedure was necessary.

The exhibit continually tries to link drugs not only with global terror and violence, but with hurting children. Pictures of crying children sitting next to mothers smoking crack pipes--like the one with the caption "Mother smokes crack cocaine while her infant child lies in bed next to her"--are peppered throughout the museum. In a model of a typical "crack den" there is a child's cradle and a soundtrack in the background of an infant crying.

"I never knew children were so at risk," said a wide-eyed Fraser.

"I just think it's so sad," said Lisa Sweiback, 17, from John Dewey High School in Brooklyn.

Drugs result in more than crying children and maniacally smiling terrorists, though. One exhibit claimed that marijuana production leads to the destruction of national forests in the U.S.

One exhibit, titled "Do Drugs Kill?," answered the question in the spirit of the classic 1990's anti-drug commercials, showing pictures of young people tragically killed in their prime because of drugs.

While there was a noticeable absence of people killed by marijuana, there was a note that marijuana, as well as being a "gateway drug," also causes "amotivational syndrome." However, a nearby picture of a very motivated Allen Ginsberg holding a "Pot is reality kick" sign at a rally appeared to subvert that message.

Some visitors still remained unconvinced of the danger of illegal drugs.

Ben Bidman, 22, from Santa Clara thought that the connection between drugs and terrorism "is just an excuse." Referring to cigarettes and alcohol, two drugs notably absent from the museum, he said, "The other sh*t's just as bad for you."

Carson, 18, who is from Houston and in the army, argued that legal drugs are not in the same category as illegal drugs because they don't pose a security threat. "We're not buying Taliban beer," he said.

And Taliban weed?

"It's possible," he said, adding quickly, "The downfall of American society is drugs."

The terrorist and Sept. 11 pictures failed to make a major impression on Tyler, though. When asked if he would change his habits if he had a chance to redo his early teenage years, he said, "I'd have done it anyway."

Considering whether he regretted trading his free-wheeling drug using days for his position in the army, however, Tyler shrugged and said, "I make a lot more money in the army."

by Liz Fink

Jimmy Vielkind contributed to the reporting of this article