Drug WarRant

I’ve got an incredible group of readers! Only one day since I issued the challenge and we’re already 65% of the way toward our goal for the DEA museum exhibit propaganda-countering flyer fund. Thanks!

KSLA News 12 — Coverage you can Count On – #1 in the ARK-LA-TEX
Check this gem out!

A new study by the National Association of Counties says meth is not only “on the rise”, but it is the most used drug in America, with more users now than heroin, pot and coke combined.

And in the weather, the forecast is for sunny skies with highs in the mid-90’s, causing icing on the roads.
The “study” they reference — from the National Association of Counties — is a promo piece survey of some sample of law enforcement officers. It’s used to get more drug war funding and has no real scientific validity. But even still, I don’t believe it said anything quite that stupid!

By now, most of you know about the extraordinarily offensive DEA exhibit that uses pieces of wreckage from the World Trade Center with children’s toys mixed in as a means of promoting the DEA!
(If not, more detail is available here)
As Newsday reported on the exhibit when it was in New York:

Like many anti-drug campaigns before it, this one rests on shaky evidence and throws a fast emotional punch. [..]
To hammer it home, there’s a prominent display of World Trade Center debris accompanied by an audio sound track reliving Sept. 11 and tying it straight to the drug trade.

“Target America: Opening Eyes to the Damage Drugs Cause” will be opening at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago on August 11 and running until December 3.

We need your help to counter this propaganda!

At Drug WarRant, we have crafted a response and plan to make a powerful statement:

We’re working on getting a full color hand-out flyer printed to pass out to people at the Museum of Science and Industry that counters the DEA’s propaganda and encourages them to find out more of the real facts.
You can view the flyer here. That site will also provide detailed sources for the information on the flyer and eventually include point-by-point rebuttals of the exhibit.

What you can do

1. Volunteer to help pass out flyers at the museum. If you’re in the Chicago area, or plan to be there during the run of the exhibit, we need your help. No experience needed — simply sign up to legally and non-confrontationally stand outside the museum and welcome people while giving them one of our flyers. Sign up here or email .
2. If you’re not in the area, or don’t have the time to volunteer, help us print the flyers. Keep in mind that I rarely have asked for money from readers. In the three years that this blog has been operating, I’ve made a major ask… never.
It’s really easy. Contribute here through a simple and easy charge to your credit card.

If you’d rather make a contribution while buying fun stuff, go to the Drug WarRant store.

The best contribution is through buying the 11×17 poster of the new graphic for $14.99. $10 of that purchase price will go toward the flyer printing fund. I encourage you to buy other things as well to tell the world you don’t support the drug war, but the others are priced much closer to cost.
If you don’t like sending money online, you can send a check:
Pete Guither
909 W Market St
Bloomington, IL 61701
Thanks for helping us counter DEA propaganda.

Column in Monday’s paper by Terry Michael

Many officials admit behind closed doors that our drug policy needs radical revision. Few will say so publicly. This “third rail” of politics is exacerbated by the collusion of mainstream media, suspending usual rules of journalistic practice, publishing government propaganda without quoting critics of drug-war policy.
Our policies result in tremendous harm creation, about which much has been written, but I’ll summarize here:
Denial of liberty. Our drug war constitutes an assault on individual liberty, privacy and choice, from both the left and right. […]
Waste of treasury. […]
Government-created violent black market. Alcohol did not create Al Capone. Prohibition created Al Capone, with the mayhem, official corruption and murder that accompanied the 18th Amendment. And cocaine does not create drug cartels. America’s War on Drugs creates drug cartels.
Government violence against its own people. […]
Promoting disrespect for the rule of law. […]
Health harm creation. […]

Read the whole thing.
Nice job, Terry!

One of the biggest problems with the treatment community is the fact that so many of them are willing to blatantly lie in order to increase their profits. There are undoubtedly legitimate, principled treatment organizations. It’s time to call upon them to step up to the plate and make a statement when others in their industry are so irresponsible.
“bullet” 1. From a business-promoting press release from the folks at Scientology’s Narconon, and uncritically spread around by perennial wanker Jim Kouri:

Most experts agree that there is enough THC in one gram of high grade marijuana to produce a lethal overdose that could result in death if swallowed by a toddler.

Of course, they neglected to include even one “expert” because that’s simply not true. I particularly like the poetic “lethal overdose that could result in death” redundancy.
“bullet” 2. The Weyburn Council on Alcohol and Drug Abuse says

This article is not intended as a scare tactic, rather a truthful look at marijuana and it’s effects on the human body.

Yeah, right. Let’s see…

Marijuana … is currently 500 per cent more powerful now than it was 10 years ago, therefore the dangers of smoking marijuana now are much more serious than they were in the 1960’s. […] Marijuana smoke causes cancer more than cigarette smoke. […] Marijuana is called a “gateway” drug, because it often leads to subsequent use of even harsher drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and crystal meth. […] The dangers of marijuana include: impaired perception, diminished short-term memory, loss of concentration and coordination, impaired judgment, increased risk of accidents, loss of motivation, diminished inhibitions, anxiety, panic attacks, paranoia, hallucinations, damage to respiratory systems, damage to reproductive organs, damage to immune system, increased risk of cancer, and psychological dependency. […] its use can lead to risky sexual behaviour, resulting in exposure to STD’s like AIDS.

Thank goodness they just stuck with lies and didn’t use “scare tactics.”

“bullet” 3. Libby at LastOneSpeaks gives us an interesting quote from the University of Vermont Treatment Research Center. Dr. Budney is concerned at how insidious marijuana dependence is. In fact, it’s really hard to spot — almost as if they weren’t addicted at all, which of course we know isn’t true.

People often fail to notice that a friend or neighbor has a marijuana problem because the consequences of cannabis use are less striking than those associated with other drugs, according to Dr. Alan J. Budney of the University of Vermont’s Treatment Research Center. “You don’t see the severe acute consequences you get with alcohol or cocaine,” Budney said.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, marijuana is the most widely abused drug in the world.

Just like windows are the most widely abused things for looking through in the world because lots of people… look through them. You can’t tell they’re abusing windows — that’s what’s so dangerous about it.

This is interesting.
Some researchers did a study where they asked one group of college students how often they used drugs and another group how often they exercised. Later, they did a follow up and the first group was more likely to have increased drug use and the second group was more likely to have increased exercising.
It’s not enough to make too much of it yet, and there’s little doubt that there’s some amount of normal suggestibility in behavior (cigarette smokers will tell you that anti-smoking ads often make them want to light up). And this doesn’t make those who didn’t already use drugs/exercise start up.
But it does add a wrinkle to the whole notion of doing behavioral surveys:

Since the study appeared in the June issue of the academic journal Social Influence, Fitzsimons’ research team has fielded calls from health practitioners concerned that asking patients about depression and possible thoughts of suicide might make matters worse.

I don’t have time to think about it. I’m busy conducting a survey — asking women how often they’ve slept with red-bearded men.

Tracer Bullet over at RedState has an exceptionally good post on The many and sizeable benefits of “Drug” Legalization from a conservative viewpoint. This is someone who used to support the drug war, but has come around to viewing a rational common-sense balancing of the benefits versus the costs of the war, and found the costs to be just too high.
If you’re a RedState member, this would be a good diary to recommend. I’d like to see more posts like this on both sides.

Even before the FDA made its widely ridiculed statement about medical marijuana, it was common knowledge outside the agency that the FDA had lost most of its scientific credibility, sacrificed to political and financial interests.
Oddly, some of the staff seemed oblivious, as demonstrated in this remarkably bizarre hymn to the FDA written by a staff member for the FDA’s Centennial celebration. There is video, and the lyrics:

One century past, a people’s hope fulfilled
By an act conceived for safe medicine and food
Protecting rights that our founding fathers willed
To life and liberty, to happiness pursued.

We honor those who carried on before
O’er these hundred years, public safety to secure
For food, vaccines, drugs, devices, blood and more
They strove to see these goods effective, safe, and pure.

In field and lab, in workplace far and near
From both civilian and commissioned corps
A call goes forth in this centennial year
That this rich heritage continue evermore.

Now in this proud hour, a vibrant vision thrives
True to our mission, whate’er the challenge be
With science our guide, we rededicate our lives
To help create a future healthy, safe, and free.

I love the idealism. But the practical reality is much, much different.
A recent survey revealed some pretty distressing facts. The results (released on Thursday) are based on 997 FDA agency scientists who returned the survey (out of almost 6,000 who were approached). The survey found:

• Almost one in five (18 percent) responded, “I have been asked, for non-scientific reasons, to inappropriately exclude or alter technical information or my conclusions in an FDA scientific document.”
• More than three in five (61 percent) knew of cases in which “Department of Health and Human Services or FDA political appointees have inappropriately injected themselves into FDA determinations or actions.”
• Three in five (60 percent) also knew of cases “where commercial interests have inappropriately induced or attempted to induce the reversal, withdrawal or modification of FDA determinations or actions.” […]
• One-fifth (20 percent) say they “have been asked explicitly by FDA decision makers to provide incomplete, inaccurate or misleading information to the public, regulated industry, media, or elected/senior government officials.” In addition, more than a quarter (26 percent) feel that FDA decision makers implicitly expect them to “provide incomplete, inaccurate, or misleading information.”
• Two in five (40 percent) said they could not publicly express “concerns about public health without fear of retaliation.” More than a third (36 percent) did not feel they could do so even inside the confines of the agency.

When science is subverted by politics, it endangers the lives of the citizens, it robs the nation of some of its greatest tools for advancement, and it weakens the country.

It’s estimated that over 17 million people have been arrested for marijuana since 1965.
That’s more than the combined populations of Alaska, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

President Bush today, speaking to the NAACP:

We want to help the addicted. We want to help the homeless. We want to help those who are trying to re-enter society after having been incarcerated. That’s what we want to do. We want to help lives be improved.

Saying it doesn’t make it so.