Friday, May 13, 2005

ONDCP gets Slammed Citizens Against Government Waste just released a powerful special report: Up In Smoke: ONDCP's Wasted Efforts In the War on Drugs, by Angela French. The report covers the Drug Czar's agency since its beginning, and the cumulative waste and corruption detailed is astonishing. Check out the introduction: Established in 1988 to oversee all aspects of America's war on drugs and to coordinate U.S. domestic and international anti-drug efforts, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has morphed into a federal wasteland, throwing taxpayer money toward numerous high-priced drug control programs that have failed to show results. After 17 years of operation and funding, ONDCP has not achieved its objectives of reducing "illicit drug use, manufacturing, and trafficking, drug-related crime and violence, and drug-related health consequences."[1] Instead of curbing America's drug problem, ONDCP has wasted $4.2 billion since fiscal 1997 on media advertising, fighting state legislation, and deficient anti-drug trafficking programs. Has morphed into a federal wasteland. Yep. The report several times notes that the ONDCP has not only been wasteful, but has repeatedly broken federal laws. Areas discussed in the report include the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign... One of ONDCP's cornerstone programs, the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, has been an utter failure. The five-year effort has wasted $2 billion on propaganda with no measurable results. ...along with covert government propaganda efforts uncovered by investigative reporter Daniel Forbes (for those who don't remember, the ONDCP was bribing TV producers to approve their storylines and messages, including "ER," "Beverly Hills 90210," "Chicago Hope," "The Drew Carey Show," and "7th Heaven")... ... the Anti-Medicinal Marijuana Campaigns... While ONDCP has failed to reveal the total of these expenditures, it is nonetheless an inappropriate use of federal tax dollars to fly to Nevada on two separate occasions to voice opposition to a state law. Big Brother also stepped in during the 2004 elections. ONDCP officials visited Vermont to stop its medicinal marijuana bill, even though the law had already passed the state Senate and was on its way to a House committee. Deputy drug czar Scott Burns visited Montana to stop its pot proposition and stood firm that U.S. citizens should "look to experts to tell us what is safe"[44] and "none of them say smoking this weed is medicine."[45] The rights of states to regulate medicine is continuously challenged by the federal government, costing taxpayers millions of dollars in court fees. ... and the pork-ridden High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program... Another ONDCP program that has left the taxpayers high and dry is the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Program (HIDTA). Designed chiefly to curb drug trafficking across America's borders, the program has become a drug prevention funding free-for-all for power-hungry politicians to bring home the bacon to their districts at the taxpayers' expense, and has decreased drug enforcement in areas where it is critically needed. Powerful stuff. And an excerpt from the conclusion: ONDCP was created to coordinate all aspects of America's war on drugs. Yet, the office has not been successful in its efforts to reduce the presence of illicit drugs in America. Instead, ONDCP burns through tax dollars by funding wasteful and unnecessary projects. Partly to thwart state efforts to regulate marijuana, the drug czar created a $2 billion national anti-drug campaign, produced expensive propaganda ads that failed to reduce drug use among America's youth, and in the process, violated federal law. Furthermore, the office wastes federal resources by opposing any legalization of marijuana, including medicinal use, which has nothing to do with the war on drugs. Finally, ONDCP's HIDTA program is an example of a well-intentioned project going to waste. Like other recent reports, the Citizens Against Government Waste Report hits the ONDCP big time (and multiple times) for its emphasis on the propaganda campaign against marijuana. As it should. This would be a good report to send to your Congressperson. 8:23:59 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

94,900,000 Americans Who Smoked Pot Fail to Commit Suicide Washington: A new report issued today by the Bureau of Government Statistics came out with the startling news that close to 95 million American pot smokers had not yet committed suicide despite the so-called Scaggs evidence. This large group of Americans includes both heavy users and those who just used it at some point in their past. 16-year-old Alyse Caton tearfully confided on local talk radio show "Breakfast with Les and Bess": "My parents caught me smoking pot almost a year ago. I know I'm supposed to kill myself, but I just don't feel like it." Her parents say they are concerned, but support their daughter. We caught up with 103-year-old lifetime marijuana smoker Ida Mae Johnson organizing a pot-luck supper at church. "Don't look at me," she snapped. "I've been busy." Bruce Birken, from the radical pro-drug group Marijuana Policy Alliance suggested "Maybe we should look at other factors besides marijuana?" This brought an angry response from Jennifer L. Unbalanced, of the ONDCP: "These 95 million Americans are in denial, pure and simple, and to suggest otherwise tarnishes the memory of all those who will soon be gone." The Bureau of Government Statistics report also noted that this problem could affect the future of Social Security, with warnings that the lack of suicides would likely bankrupt the system sometime between the year 2685 and next Tuesday. [satire] 7:35:29 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Drug Czar Sinks Even Lower Regarding last night's post about how the drug czar's office used the suicide death of a 15-year-old to imply the relationship between marijuana and suicide -- despite the fact that the teenager had tested negative for pot four times and only had alcohol in his blood at the time of the suicide... The Marijuana Policy Project called them on it, and in this article in the Rocky Mountain News, the parents and ONDCP go nuclear. The grieving, but seriously delusional, father said: "You can tell those dumb b------- up there I buried my 15-year-old son because of marijuana, and that's how I feel," Ernest Skaggs said. "Ain't no one using me at all." That's fine. You're welcome to feel that way. But once you decide to take your son's story public and do interviews, don't get bent out of shape when someone calls you on clear contradictions. And then came the really offensive: ONDCP spokeswoman Jennifer de Vallance said she was outraged by the group's attacks. "Mr. and Mrs. Skaggs have demonstrated tremendous courage and really are doing a public service to tell their very painful story in the hopes that other families and other parents won't go through the same thing," de Vallance said. "It truly is despicable to belittle their very courageous and important contribution to this public health effort," de Vallance said. Using someone's death as an excuse to lie, and then trying to shift that onto the one who points it out -- that's despicable. Update: In comments over at Hit and Run, Independent Worm brings out the sarcasm: Well, there ya go. Victims are always right, after all. Suffering a tragedy bestows infallibility upon the victim -- a kind of karmic reward for having lost something. Which is why it makes so much sense to base law and policy on the hysterical ravings of angry, freaked-out victims. They and they alone possess the clarity of thought and the kind of wise, sober, carefully crafted ideas that make for good policy. 7:54:06 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []