Drug Facts Week in full swing

I’ve been doing a bit of tweeting this week as part of our Drug Facts Week response. It’s been quite wonderful, with dozens of people out there re-tweeting, reaching hundreds, if not thousands.

All the tweets are linked to the #drugfacts2011 hashtag so that all who are following NIDA’s drug facts week tweets are seeing ours as well.

There’s even a few who were there to support NIDA’s efforts who are retweeting some of ours, which is pretty cool. (Note: If you’re not used to twitter and find all this talk of tweeting a little odd, it’s still pretty new to me, and I do as well.)

Here are my tweets so far:

Time for government employees to earn their pay and actually regulate drugs rather than handing the job over to criminals. #drugfacts2011
21 minutes ago

Fact: Blacks are 13 % of drug users, 39 % of those arrested, and 57 % of those convicted. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
32 minutes ago

Fact: Giving teens false scares on pot means they won’t believe you when it comes to real dangers. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
3 hours ago

Fact: You don’t protect kids from drug abuse by locking up adults for drug use. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
8 hours ago

Fact: Needle exchange programs save lives without increasing drug abuse. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
11 hours ago

Fact: People don’t need to die from heroin overdose (regulated dose maintenance, Naloxone) bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
11 hours ago

Fact: Strange addiction. 37 percent of pot admissions for treatment hadn’t used in previous month. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
11 hours ago

Fact: Psilocybin use can lead to more open, curious, intellectually engaged, creative people. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
11 hours ago

What if we tested musicians for pot? Louis Armstrong, Willie Nelson, Bob Marley, Dizzy Gillespie…http://t.co/qLrFeRP6 Real #drugfacts2011
11 hours ago

The Drug War doesn’t care about the life of your child. Legalize and regulate for safety. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
21 hours ago

Fact: Marijuana has not been shown to cause mental illness. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
21 hours ago

Every drug dealer arrest creates a new high-paying job opening. The same is not true of rapists. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
21 hours ago

Fact: There’s no compelling evidence that cannabis contributes substantially to traffic fatalities. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
21 hours ago

Fact: Cannabis use is not linked to the so-called “amotivational syndrome” bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
21 hours ago

Fact: Since a tiny percentage are problem drug users, blanket enforcement wastes money and lives. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
21 hours ago

Fact: for the vast majority of people, drug use goes away much easier than drug convictions. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
1 Nov

Fact: you have a better chance of dying from an overdose of aspirin or water than cannabis. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
1 Nov

Drug test to avoid hiring the next Steve Jobs, Freud, Michael Phelps, Barack Obama, or Carl Sagan bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
1 Nov

Fact: Prohibition is not regulation. Age restrictions only exist for legal, regulated drugs. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
1 Nov

Fact: Most deaths attributed to heroin are, in fact, caused by black market factors. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
1 Nov

Fact: More people have died from marijuana arrests than from marijuana overdoses. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
1 Nov

Fact: Due to drug war, U.S. incarcerates over 5X more black males than S. Africa during Apartheid. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
1 Nov

Fact: Talk to 800,000 arrested for pot each year re: Drug Czar’s so-called “balanced approach” bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
1 Nov

DEA Judge Young called cannabis “one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man” bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
31 Oct

Fact: Study proves legalizing medical marijuana doesn’t lead to increased teen use. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
31 Oct

Fact: The government has known since 1974 that cannabis fights cancer. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
31 Oct

Fact: For over 30 years, the federal government has been providing medical marijuana to patients. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
31 Oct

Fact: The Drug Czar has been caught lying about drugged driving statistics. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
31 Oct

Fact: The Drug Czar is required by law to oppose legalization efforts, regardless of the facts. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
31 Oct

Fact: NIDA only supports research pre-intending to find negatives about drugs. Science? bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
31 Oct

Fact: Increased drug law enforcement leads to increased violence bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
31 Oct

Most marijuana admissions to the $20 billion treatment industry are criminal justice referrals bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
31 Oct

Fact: Prohibition makes drug use more dangerous. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
31 Oct

Fact: Unlike most FDA-approved drugs, nobody has ever died from an overdose of marijuana. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
30 Oct

Fact: Most marijuana users never use any other illicit drug. What gateway? bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
30 Oct

Fact: NIDA-funded study showed no increased cancer risk for even heavy cannabis smokers. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
30 Oct

It’s National Drug Facts Week. Teens are best served by real facts, not propaganda. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
30 Oct

Just say know next week. Know all the drug facts and drug war facts, and not just the propaganda. bit.ly/qqZxJT Real #drugfacts2011
29 Oct

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24 Responses to Drug Facts Week in full swing

  1. claygooding says:

    try “the only drug which showed reduction in use for the last 10 years was tobacco,and no one was arrested to get it done,and not one person or their dog was shot.

  2. darkcycle says:

    Go get ’em Pete. They’ve got to be spittin’ nails. You’ve walked all over this since they announced it.
    At least it’s some fun. Hey, is this costing you money?…I’ll help out gladly.

  3. Chris says:

    Pointing out the flaws in their carefully constructed “facts” is probably one of your favorite pastimes by now Pete. Retweeted a bunch of these, I’m not sure how much that accomplishes but I want to see these more than the other crap getting posted on that topic.

    • Pete says:

      Nice job with the re-tweets, there. Every bit helps. While you don’t have a lot of twitter followers on your account, your link to #drugfacts2011 means that it adds to my efforts in overwhelming that hashtag.

  4. Ben says:

    You should link to your Twitter page, get blog readers following you. If you were also to tweet a link whenever you put up a new blog post, that’d be nice too…

    • Pete says:

      There’s a link to my Twitter page and my Facebook page on the left side. I often (but not always) tweet a link when I put up a new blog post, particularly if I think it’s noteworthy. Got about 1,500 following me on Twitter.

      Of course, this week is the most I’ve used my Twitter account since I got it.

  5. claygooding says:

    Study: Legal Medical Marijuana Doesn’t Encourage Kids to Smoke More Pot

    Despite warnings from opponents of medical marijuana, legalizing the drug for medical purposes does not encourage teens to smoke more pot, according to new research that compared rates of marijuana use in Massachusetts and Rhode Island after the latter state changed its laws.

    Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/11/03/study-legal-medical-marijuana-doesnt-encourage-kids-to-smoke-more-pot/#ixzz1cdarky00

    Time has been publishing some very good articles on marijuana recently.

    Obama’s Misguided Crackdown on Medical Marijuana

    Why is the U.S. government cracking down on medical marijuana, a $1.7 billion business — and one of the few that seems to be thriving in a moribund economy?

    Read more: http://healthland.time.com/2011/10/24/obamas-misguided-crackdown-on-medical-marijuana/#ixzz1cdbYipIx

  6. Maria says:

    Pete I get the strategy to piggyback on the hashtag but why are you only linking to the NIDA page? Why not a link to someplace with real drug facts? Just curious.

    • Pete says:

      That’s not the NIDA page. That’s my page (with real facts) that looks like the NIDA page. I own the drugfactsweek.com address. Would NIDA have Erowid on the left under “Useful Resources”?

  7. allan says:

    uh oh…

    NIDA has announced publication of a study on nicotine as a gateway drug. The news release from NIDA is below and at
    http://www.nida.nih.gov/newsroom/11/NR11-02.html

    followed by the abstract of the article published in the journal Science Translational Medicine, that’s available at
    http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/3/107/107ra109

    NIH study examines nicotine as a gateway drug

    For Release November 2, 2011

    NIDA-funded research in mice shows that nicotine primes the brain to enhance cocaine’s effects

    A landmark study in mice identifies a biological mechanism that could help explain how tobacco products could act as gateway drugs, increasing a person’s future likelihood of abusing cocaine and perhaps other drugs as well, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health. The study is the first to show that nicotine might prime the brain to enhance the behavioral effects of cocaine.

    The gateway drug model is based upon epidemiological evidence that
    most illicit drug users report use of tobacco products or alcohol
    prior to illicit drug use. This model has generated significant
    controversy over the years, mostly relating to whether prior drug
    exposure (to nicotine, alcohol or marijuana) is causally related to later drug use. Before now, studies have not been able to show a biological mechanism by which nicotine exposure could increase
    vulnerability to illicit drug use.

    In the current study, by researchers at Columbia University, New York City, and published in today’s Science Translational Medicine, mice exposed to nicotine in their drinking water for at least seven days showed an increased response to cocaine. This priming effect depended on a previously unrecognized effect of nicotine on gene expression, in which nicotine changes the structure of the tightly packaged DNA molecule, reprograms the expression pattern of specific genes, in particular the FosB gene that has been related to addiction, and ultimately alters the behavioral response to cocaine.

    To examine whether the results from this study paralleled findings in humans, the researchers reexamined statistics from the 2003 National Epidemiological Study of Alcohol Related Consequences to explore the relationship between onset of nicotine use and degree of cocaine dependence. They found that the rate of cocaine dependence was higher among cocaine users who smoked prior to starting cocaine compared to those who tried cocaine prior to smoking.

    These findings in mice suggest that if nicotine has similar effects in humans, effective smoking prevention efforts would not only prevent the negative health consequences associated with smoking but could also decrease the risk of progression and addiction to cocaine and possibly other illicit drug use. In the meantime, this mouse model provides a new mechanism to study the gateway theory from a biological perspective.

    “Now that we have a mouse model of the actions of nicotine as a
    gateway drug this will allow us to explore the molecular mechanisms by which alcohol and marijuana might act as gateway drugs,” said Eric Kandel, M.D., of Columbia University Medical Center and a senior author of the study. “In particular, we would be interested in knowing if there is a single, common mechanism for all gateway drugs or if each drug utilizes a distinct mechanism.”

    For more information on nicotine and cocaine, go to
    http://www.drugabuse.gov/drugpages/nicotine.html and
    http://www.drugabuse.gov/drugpages/cocaine.html.

    The study, and a perspective by NIDA Director Dr. Nora D. Volkow, can be found online at http://stm.sciencemag.org/.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .
      For the love of god why the f@ck does there get to be more than one gateway drug? Oh don’t mind me, I know good and well that cannabis is the Rodney Dangerfield of the Controlled Substances of America. No. Respect. At. All.

      Say, with approaching 20% of “drug users” “initiating” with oxycodone will opioids soon be labeled a “gateway” “drug”? Now that would be a novel way to kill the “gateway” “theory.” Just completely dilute the nonsense to the point that even the dimmest bulb can see the absurdity. I think we need to point out that coffee is probably a GD as well. Doesn’t the fact that there’s more medical merrywanna stores than Starbucks prove that? Shouldn’t children’s aspirin qualify?

    • darkcycle says:

      I don’t even have a comment about this. As a psychologist and someone familiar with brain chemistry, it is a non issue. I’m hypothesizing that if the look they’ll find other triggers for this type of neurological change. Stuff like…adrenalin, or sugar, or orgasm. The thing is, they are not looking for triggers, they’re looking for associations.
      Learning is a chemical phenomenon at it’s physiological roots. And it progresses from general to specific. Once you’ve learned one thing, whether it’s the pleasant association with an altered state of perception, or an algebra equation, it is subsequently easier to apply that learning in on new occasions. And this learning is accompanied by a measurable and qualitative change in the response to these stimuli in the future. And, hence, by logical need, to a change in the chemical response of the brain in similar situations. If learning doesn’t bring about some substantial change in the chemical response of the brain, no learning has occurred.
      Duncan nailed it. This learning will (likely)occur no matter which substance is encountered first. Mainly because as human beings, we are pre-wired to learn certain things.
      Did that make sense to anybody but me?

  8. Pingback: National Drug Propaganda... I mean "Drug Facts: Week - Grasscity.com Forums

  9. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    Well I was surprised to learn that pot laws are racist this morning. Not that they are of course, but that I learned it over at the BET website. Is Bob Johnson still the most (monetarily) successful black guy? Is BET still his dog & pony show? It’s been a long time since I looked at the standings in the Professional Money League. For all I know he gave away all his dough to the Denver Zoo and took over Mother Theresa’s old job.

    Commentary: A Fight for Decriminalized Marijuana in Chicago

    A Chicago alderman is hoping to put an end to the racist pot laws in the Windy City.
    By Cord Jefferson
    Posted: 11/03/2011 09:02 AM EDT

    In August of last year, Congress passed the Fair Sentencing Act, which changed the 100-1 disparity between crack cocaine minimum sentencing and powder cocaine minimum sentencing to 18-1. The change wasn’t perfect, obviously, but it did lessen the disparity extremely. For years drug offenders busted with powder cocaine (read: white) were getting off far easier than offenders busted with crack (read: Black), despite the fact that crack and powder cocaine are very comparable substances. Now that that law’s been passed, however, a new drug disparity should be on the agenda of Blacks around the country: The decriminalization of marijuana.
    /snip/
    http://www.bet.com/news/national/2011/11/02/commentary-a-fight-for-decriminalized-marijuana-in-chicago.html

    Wow. So I may not know what Bob’s been up to but I have been aware that black people have been noticeably absent from our side of the table. I guess think it’s nice to see that fact retired and replaced for drug fact week. Hopefully that’s not just wishful thinking.

  10. claygooding says:

    I still say mothers milk is the gateway,,it helps you live long enough to get curious,,,so let’s kill the women and stop this evil cycle of people using drugs.
    And it would probably take care of the population problems too.

    When are they going to admit that life is the gateway to drugs?

    • darkcycle says:

      Why do you want to eliminate the half of the population that SMELLS GOOD?

    • thelbert says:

      mothers milk contains endocannabinoids. which are the gateway drugs. natural drugs are bad, so breast feeding should be illegal. just ask gil.

  11. Windy says:

    Just wanted to let you all know that I am Azheera @ Twitter (and I am busily retweeting all the drug facts Pete posts, so cyl8r).

  12. Pingback: Drug Facts Week in full swing « Drug WarRant | HEROINABUSEINTERVENTION.COM

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