Wednesday, May 12, 2004

The place to be on August 30th... ... is 7th Avenue between 28th and 34th Streets (outside Madison Square Garden) from 2pm to 6pm. That's when Russell Simmons and others are hosting a massive rally and hip-hop summit to protest the Rockefeller drug laws in New York and other mandatory minimum laws around the country. Sean "P. Diddy" Combs, Nas, 50 Cent, Ludacris, Mariah Carey and Carly Simon are among those slated to attend the rally. Russell Simmons declared, "This will be the biggest hip-hop gathering ever, and we intend for our voices to be heard. We will not be silenced. The March on New York is going down. It will be the illest march in history.." Let's see now... Checking Madison Square Garden's reservation book... August 30.. Ah, here it is: the opening day of the Republican National Convention. Should be very interesting. 10:29:51 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Your brain on drug ads Via Hit and Run: Carson B. Wagner, an advertising professor at the University of Texas at Austin, has studied the effects of anti-drug ads on viewers using a technique known as response latency measurement of strength of association: "Rather than directly asking research participants to express their attitudes about drugs, response latency SOA measures allow researchers to gauge people's attitudes without their direct knowledge, thereby yielding a more accurate measure of the research participant's attitudes that better predicts behavioral decision-making under various conditions." ... The results showed that people who self-reported their attitudes after viewing the anti-drug ads expressed strong anti-drug sentiments, as opposed to the weaker anti-drug sentiments measured in the response latency tests after viewing the same anti-drug ads. These findings suggested that, compared to response latency measures, self-report measures exaggerated the effectiveness of anti-drug ads... "Based on these findings, the self-report surveys may have produced inflated claims of the ads' effects," he concludes. Not good news for the Drug Czar, who likes to fund his own studies to insure positive results and continued funding, so I doubt that the administration will be paying much attention to this study. The study also notes that anti-drug ads may actually increase curiosity about drugs. This makes a lot of sense. I remember when I was a cigarette smoker and the Cancer Society would run nasty anti-smoking TV ads. Intellectually, I would watch the ad and say "I've got to quit," but at the same time I would reach for a cigarette, triggered by the ad. 9:49:00 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Economies dwarfed by drug trade The San Jose Mercury News had an article by Mark McDonald on Sunday; Heroin Trade Booms in Afghanistan: New Wealth Helps Terrorists Rebuild, Threatens Neighbors This is more of what we've already talked about -- the heroin trade is really the only hope for significant economic activity in Afghanistan, but unfortunately, since it's illegal, all the money goes to the criminal sector, including terrorists. But this article also talks about the neighbors: At particular risk is Tajikistan, a desperately poor, predominantly Muslim nation of 7 million. Tajikistan produces almost no opium or heroin of its own, but it has become a natural pathway for traffickers because of its 900-mile border with Afghanistan. ... Tajikistan, isolated and landlocked, has almost no industrial economy other than a state-controlled aluminum smelter.  Foreign investment is minuscule; not a single American firm is operating in the country. The national budget is barely $300 million a year, a pittance compared with the size of the drug economy.  The heroin trade alone, Yuldashov said, is 10 times as big. 10 times as big as their entire national budget! That's a recipe for disaster, and enforcement ain't gonna help. We've got to look toward new international drug policies. 9:38:05 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []