Spinning A Failed War on Drugs
Our government says we’re winning the war on drugs. At a press conference to release results of the government’s major annual drug use survey Sept. 6, both White House drug czar John Walters and Secretary of Health and Human Services Mike Leavitt said so, with Walters touting “fewer teens using drugs today.”
Not quite.
When you cut through the spin and look at the actual numbers, it’s clear that Walters is again trying to fool the public - much as President Richard Nixon did back in 1972, when he first claimed we were “winning” the war on drugs.
While drug-use rates reported in the just-released 2006 National Survey on Drug Use and Health are essentially unchanged from 2005, Walters and Leavitt touted declines in current teen use of illicit drugs since 2002, from 11.6 to 9.8 percent, and a parallel decline in current marijuana use from 8.2 to 6.7 percent.
That sounds impressive - until you look at the long-term trends. If you go back another 10 years, to 1992, the rate of current teen use of illicit drugs was just 5.3 percent, and current marijuana use was at 3.4 percent. So while it edged down a bit in the last five years, teen drug use is actually nearly double what it was 15 years ago.
Walters and Co. has an explanation for this, of course. They say that the methodology of the survey was changed in 2002, so you can’t compare earlier figures with recent ones. But that claim is shaky, at best.
First, not all experts agree that the changes in the survey were enough to drastically alter the results. Second, another government-funded survey of teen drug use that hasn’t changed its methodology, called “Monitoring the Future,” has documented strikingly similar trends.
In the 2006 “Monitoring the Future” survey, released last December, 16.8 percent of 10th-graders reported using at least one illicit drug - a drop from 20.8 percent in 2002, but a substantial increase over the 11 percent rate in 1992. For marijuana, current use among 10th-graders soared from 8.1 percent in 1992 and 14.2 percent in 2006.
None of this stopped Leavitt from claiming, “The trends in general are very encouraging.” Do these people not read their own data?
The fact is that Walters and colleagues have squandered well over a billion of our tax dollars on a failed ad campaign, mostly aimed at demonizing marijuana, and are desperate to show some results. So they cherry pick a few numbers that seem to make their case, and ignore the rest.
And before you buy Walters’ frequent claim that “we took our eye off the ball” fighting drug abuse in the ’90s, don’t forget that between 1991 and 2000, marijuana arrests skyrocketed from 282,000 to 734,497.
But buried in the new national survey on drug use results are some fascinating and sometimes disturbing tidbits. The percentage of Americans who reported using illicit drugs in the past year or past month edged up slightly, and this increase was driven by jumps in use of some of the most dangerous drugs: cocaine, narcotic pain drugs, and stimulants (a category that includes methamphetamine).
While most of the changes were small and not statistically significant, those that were significant are alarming. For example, among 14- to 15-year-olds, past-month use of deadly inhalants (glues, spray paints and solvents) rose significantly, as did past-month use of sedatives. This raises the disturbing possibility that scare campaigns focused on marijuana are driving kids to try drugs that are far more dangerous.
The drug czar will never admit it, but the long-term picture is clear: Our drug policies don’t work. The government’s bizarre overemphasis on marijuana - a drug that is safer than such legal drugs as alcohol and tobacco - has had little effect on marijuana use, but may well be making our hard-drug problem worse. It’s long past time we had policy based on facts, not spin.
Bruce Mirken, a longtime health journalist, serves as director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, www.mpp.org. To view the 2006 survey of drug use and health, go to www.oas.samhsa.gov/nsduhLatest.htm. To view the “monitoring the Future” survey, go to www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/monographs/overview2006.pdf
© 2007 The San Francisco Chronicle
“The government’s bizarre overemphasis on marijuana - a drug that is safer than such legal drugs as alcohol and tobacco - …”
The problem with marijuana, and thus the “bizarre overemphasis”, stems from the fact that marijuana (and some psychedelics) are “subversive”, i.e., they promote a clarity of thought (at least sometimes, under certain conditions) that the power elite cannot accept. Better that we all numb our brains with info-tainment, religion, and - if we must use any drugs - alcohol and prescription drugs.
good one zimmie. Once the oligarchy implants the chips into us or around us, they will track us by computer and know where we are, what we’re doing, eating, smoking and drinking 24/7. Then the billions for the WOD can go into more private prisons. Eventually the world will become one prison and we will all march in lockstep to a world dictator. Big Brother is watching. Savor this bit of freedom to post on CD now while you can.
The ‘war’ isn’t working. It’s just another revenue stream, not only for the government but huge profits for big pharma. Let’s all buy Marinol ($$$), fake THC! instead of growing our own damn marijuana plants (free!). Everybody should watch Hemp Revolution, and what’s with the common citizen buying into all the drug scare tactics and are afraid of mary jane when they are popping valium and tylenol without thought? Propaganda is so effective it is scary. I used to think drugs were bad until I saw the big picture, and BAM I saw the light.
Candidate Dennis Kucinich wants to end the ‘war on drugs’. http://www.kucinich.us
Kucinich is the only presidential candidate that will end the war on drugs. Help work to get him elected and we will finally end this ridiculous waste of time and money.
“I have studied the issue for decades and recognize that our “War on Drugs” has failed. In fact, because our War on Drugs drives up the price, it encourages violence. Prohibition simply doesn’t work. It only creates thousands and thousands of Al Capones. Prison should be for people who hurt other people, not themselves. We don’t jail people for merely drinking. We jail people when they drink and drive or hurt another human.
The supporters of the drug war have only one solution to this debacle — more money for law enforcement, more people, more power, more prisons — with no end in sight. The shredding of our rights to privacy and property promoted by the Drug War is inconsistent with a free society. Criminalization of private or self-destructive behavior is not acceptable in a free nation.”
http://dk2008.us/issues#drugwar
In Singapore they have the death penalty for even minor drug offenses. And still, every year they put people to death for drugs. Does that tell you ANYTHING about humans and their behavior? What it SHOULD tell you is that no matter how heavy you make the penalties, people will STILL want to and will use drugs.
The hypocrisy of allowing you to kill yourself with cigs or alcohol while jailing people for a plant that has NEVER killed anyone in history is what drives the kids to want to try it. The fact that you are so adamant about demonizing something just makes it that much more attractive to kids. They are hard wired to defy authority, to explore, and to learn for themselves when they don’t think they can get the straight story elsewhere. And once they learn that you are lying about weed, they move on to find out what ELSE you are lying about. So with your very dishonesty, you are making the situation worse.
Prescription drugs kill over 200,000 Americans EVERY YEAR, and that is the properly taken and properly prescribed ones. Alcohol kills over 125,000 Americans ever year, and cigs take out almost half a million of us yearly. Weed kills NO ONE.
Prison guards like weed smokers, becuase they are generally not dangerous, not real criminals, and are easier to control than REAL criminals. Plus, there are literally millions of us, and so they will never run out of fodder for their FOR PROFIT prison system.
This is NOT how Americans should be treating each other. It won’t change until we get sick and tired of having a gov’t that declares war on it’s citizens every time it turns around. I’m sick of it already, and have been for decades. What about YOU?
The war on drugs was just the first salvo in the war of terror on the American people by an out of control privately run government. The war is not really on drugs after all but on the people involved with drugs not sanctioned by the state.
We should not be asking whether the drug war has succeeded but why it is the governments business to regulate what you consume. Many legal substances kill many illegal substances are relatively harmless.
I suggest that all these non-inhaling drug warrior politicians should try out the substances they ban so they at least know something about what they are banning, preferably all at once and washed down with a fifth of legal whiskey then tell us what you think in the morning after you’re better informed.
Everyone has raised points I fully agree with. As a child of the 60’s who attended peace marches and passed joints as we burned effigies of Richard Nixon, the conservatives got wise to something: They knew they could not block our vote, and they realized we’d vote in more liberal causes & issues. Their recourse was to negate our vote by making the substance of choice–marijuana–illegal. It was basically an end run around Constitutional guarantees.
I marvel at what our “government” sanctions from pollution to guns to bad food to alcohol to tobacco but demonizes the PEACE pipe. In addition to it being a highly profitable prison-industrial rationale, consider there are now over 2 million beds conveniently waiting for dissenters, the new intelligentsia. Yep. WE ARE THERE!
There needs to be some clarification also on just who stands to gain (or lose) from keeping marijuana illegal. The entire drug testing industry is really built around one illegal drug - pot. NONE of the other drugs tested when someone is screened can be detected after 48 hours of last use - except one. Pot. The entire drug testing industry has built their business (and their extremely powerful lobby) on this one drug that they know approx. 1/3 of America uses.
Also, police departments all over the nation make huge amounts of money over confiscation of assets related to marijuana arrests. While I will say that the majority of police departments have at least a fair approach to possession arrests given that they have to uphold the laws, some police departments use asset forfieture as one of their biggest sources of income. Again, just another group that benefits from keeping it illegal.
The last, and most mentioned and most insidious, is the pharma industry. They do not want to compete with a drug that helps people feel better that can be grown naturally. In many cases the drugs they offer as replacements for ailments that are well-suited for marijuana therapy are drugs that have nasty side effects, and people would much rather just use pot instead.
Add into the mix the politicians who line their pockets while turning their heads the other way as the drugs are imported through back channels, and you have a recipe for the purposeful and powerful anti-marijuana situation in this country.
I wish they would legalize pot so that the elderly who grew up believing the government knew best wouldn’t feel like it was a criminal thing to do. It’s one of the most wonderful painkillers I can think of far better than the stuff they prescribe, not to mention it’s spiritually enlightening side.
But, of course, moderation and not allowing one’s self to become addicted ought to be idealized human behavior. but when did repressive ideologies ever not make a problem worse? Look at the wide eyed photos from the 50s when everyone was pure, what a nightmare.
Nadia: I agree with all the above posts but I must point out that it is incorrect to say that “Kucinich is the only presidential candidate that will end the war on drugs.”
Only the duopolists have declared their candidacies, and regardless of the individual views of the Democratic and Republican contenders, the two major parties are solid in their support for current drug laws and their opposition to any form of drug use, including the medical use of marijuana.
The Green Party and the Libertarian Party have both been in favor of ending the “war on drugs” and decriminalizing marijuana for a long time, so it is very unlikely that their candidates will not represent the position of their parties in the general election. The Greens also favor the legalization and use of industrial hemp, as well as dismantling the “prison-industrial complex.” We don’t even know yet who all the candidates in the general election will be, so it is premature to say that any candidate is the “only” one speaking out on any given issue. We still have a lot of time and more choices ahead of us before 2008.
Great posts people…if only the general population were aware of these simple truisms.
Thanks SiouxRose, and as so many times previously we are on the same page. When they ‘come to take us away’ for being mainstream by wanting to speak truth to power do you think I could have the bed next to yours?
In a small way I have to disagree with the poster who commented that ‘pot has never killed anyone’ since this is not exactly true. Much more damage is done to people by incarcerating them for pot violations than the herb has ever done, but I’m certain some of the 2+ million we have in jail now have died as a result of being locked up with murderers.
Like the man said “follow the money”, and until we get all these greedy corporate/political bastards off our backs we will never achieve true freedom from the current tyrants.
Anyone who doubts Bush, Cheney, and all their gang of criminals should be staring at the walls of a cell for the rest of their days should check out the videos at this site:
http://tv-links.co.uk/listings/9/4752
All free by the way.
Speak out!!! Whenever you can, to anyone you can about the injustices being done to just about everyone now. You just might be surprised when the person you are speaking with starts to agree with you, but was just afraid to voice their discontent for fear of being ‘taken away’. The Nazis used paranoia as a tool to keep everyone in line, and since a number of those in control now (temporarily, that is) are descendents of/or were Nazis (Prescott Bush, GHW Bush, GW Bush) they are masters of the technique.
Speak out! WE are more than THEM, and WE are gaining more power daily as THEY face the bright light of truthful revelations of their past (and present) crimes against humanity. Fear is the strongest tool in their arsenal of repression, but dissemination of truthful information takes the bow from their hands, the arrows from their quiver. Speak out!!!
what ever is wrong with our youth
only 7% are getting stoned
no wonder the boy george rules..
disband the military (yeah all of it)
make all drugs legal (yeah all of them)
i am not a child
i will be ok
and so will my children
and my grand children
and my great grand children
and i expect so will you…
ken
PAUL MAGILL SMITH: What a charming invitation! Odds are better if you can recite poetry (LOL). Ultimately my hope is NOT to end up in such an institution… whether I speed boat out from the Keys past Cuba, or whatever; disguise myself as a traveling monk. Options! Besides, when you are able to think outside of the box, serendipitous solutions can sometimes save you. Maybe I saw Moses part the waters… Divine deliverance does occur, not for all, and not on the basis of human willing; but out of a benevolence that sometimes surprises and reminds the eternal child within, that MAGIC is… in spite of this world’s thraldom to almost unappeaseable brutality (at present).
On a more mundane note, I have put in a request to CD to consider hosting an event, like a posters annual reunion… I think lots of us would like to share a few drinks and speak passionately on these subjects. There could even be CD regional events… NE, SE, etc.
The government gets away with it’s idiotic war on drugs because the American people are such sheep that they would conveniently accept it rather then question it. Questioning the War on Drugs requires thinking and Americans are way too sheepish to be bothered with that. The War on Drugs is a form of state terrorism.
Actually, the drugs are just a side issue, a minor bargaining chip in a larger battle for creating a mindset that leaves us susceptible to being manipulated by those in power.
We’ve had a “War on Drugs”, a “War on Poverty”, a “War on Terror” and countless lesser skirmishes and battles. What the government is doing to us is what Big Brother did to the citizens of Oceania - put us into a state of perpetual warfare with “War on This”, “War on That” and “War on T’other”. By living in this state, we become susceptible to being terrorized, not by any real enemies, but by our own leadership. There have been wars, both the shooting matches in Vietnam, Grenada, Panama and the middle east and the metaphoric wars on societal issues like drugs, crime and poverty, every single day I have been alive. This is all intended to keep us cowering in a mental bunker, fearful for our own survival, ready to turn on and turn in our fellow citizens.
If it weren’t marijuana, it would be something else, a fabricated boogeyman installed in our national closet.
My personal favorite among the bizarre, twisted pieces of government logic spawned by the drug war is that marijuana use cannot be allowed because it is dangerous to health since it is smoked (and without filters, to boot!). This is also the primary rationale used in arguments against medicinal marijuana laws.
This of course totally ignores that there are available on the market vaporizers which release the active ingredients of marijuana without combustion. No combustion, no (supposedly) carcinogenic aromatic hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, or cyanogens to inhale. Sounds like a no-brainer solution. But purchasing and posessing vaporizers is illegal, as they are considered “drug-use paraphernalia” under the laws of the same government that made the claims about the dangers of smoked marijuana in the first place. Sort of destroys their whole argument about being concerned about users’ health, doesn’t it?
One of the earlier commenters had it right. The WOD is just another cash stream for the prison/law-enforcement/military-industrial/congressional complex, also known as THE EMPIRE. They just go through the motions of inventing idiotic rationales for continuing the war so that they can fool enough people into supporting it.
Siouxrose I think a CD gathering would be a great idea. Just imagine Kem, Linda, Kathy, you, I, and others sitting in the same room; what a vibration. Almost as good as when we tried to levitate the Pentagon, but much more focused than that pipe-dream of my youth. (I was/am too much of a realist to imagine it could actually happen, but that was not really the point of that massive demonstration anyway).
The biggest problem would be logistics, since I’m in VA, Kem in AZ, Linda in HI, and you & Kathy on some other planet LOL.
On another note, I feel like I’ve been through the lifetime cycle many times before, so the tyranny of this administration doesn’t surprise me, or their failed WOP, WOD, WOT, or real wars, which are ultimately failures in the long range scheme. Although I don’t in any way believe we should ever roll over playing dead to any group of fascists, I believe the strongest soldiers in any struggle are not those with the most or biggest weapons, but those with the strength to endure then pick up the pieces. The war on poverty will eventually be won, the war on drugs always lost, and the war on terror is irrevelant because it is a fictional creation (like organized religions) only used as a tool to instill fear in populations and exert control.
I’ve posted this a number of times before, “From a historical perspective tyrannies are always temporary”, but this doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be confronted vigorously. Just as revolts are revolutions that fail, tyrants eventually fall, so there IS a silver lining to this dark cloud we are presently under. This isn’t Pollyanna-ish thinking by some bozo…it’s reality.
Hi PAUL: CD could have regional conferences. I put that proposition forth, so we’ll see what the determining powers “divine.”
I agree about the universe bending towards justice, in the fullness of time. Problem is, only sociopaths can discount the palpable suffering which at this time must constitute a chorus of wailing sounds that rings through the heavens and reverberates across the cosmos.
I remember when 60 Minutes did a story on Agent Orange, and the Buddhists of Vietnam were able to largely forgive America for compromising their health using that foul substance. It was their belief in karma that gave them the strength. They recognized that in their present pain, it was likely they were burning karma (their own actions of potential aggression) from another time. Backlash can go on indefinitely, which is why all the Masters teach the spiritually cost-effective curriculum: That of turning the other cheek, practicing forgiveness, letting go, and NOT retaliating. Bush obviously has flunked EVERY course, what a bane to the US fate that he was placed in by the sagacious robed figures who masquerade as Supreme Judges. I’d personally like to market a T-shirt with their faces that said, “Hang them all.” Now maybe THAT would come closer to justice… (note my use of personal forgiveness here. Not. Their sin is too great, nor have they put into practice the teaching Jesus related: “Go and sin no more.” Their actions keep on keeping on in the same unjust direction, evil unchallenged.)