Monday, May 30, 2005

Why we must educate the press on the dangers of 'Experts' In this article: Addiction Worker Warns Abuse Is Deadly, Norma Medulun, Hotel Dieu Hospital's director of addiction, autism and developmental services, delivers one of the most stupid statements I've heard from a prohibitionist in some time. "Ongoing use of marijuana will lead to diseases of the lung such as you get with tobacco because of the high nicotine and THC," said Medulun. Can you believe it? High nicotine in marijuana? (There is no nicotine in marijuana. Zero, nada, zip. There are roughly 315 compounds in marijuana, and none of them is nicotine. If you took all the marijuana in the world, and extracted all the nicotine and put it into an empty container, you'd have an empty container.) THC causes lung disease? (Not possible. Even if the assumptions by some are right that prolonged smoking of marijuana can cause lung disease, which is still very much unproven, it would be the tars that would be the problem, not the THC.) I've written a letter to the editor, and also to Kevin Vallier, the manager of public relations and development at the hospital (the hospital should be considering whether having a person like Norma Medulun on staff is good for their reputation -- I know it would make me think twice about using their services -- and she's in charge of a program for assessing children). Be polite if you write. [A big thanks to Tim Meehan] Update: Eric in comments informs me that it's more like 483 compounds in marijuana. And still none of them are nicotine. 11:37:27 AM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

You can make a difference I reported a few days back on a fairly bizarre article from Virginia about (in part) the assistance that Andrea Barthwell and John Pastuovic have provided for promoting a school drug testing program in Williamsburg. Several people contact the editor about the story, and he appears truly interested in learning more; he indicated that he intends to question Andrea and John about their connections to GW Pharmaceuticals; and he printed this outstanding letter by Charles M. Darlington. Just goes to show that just a little bit of speaking up can go a long way. Very often, reporters simply do not know about the prohibitionists' agendas, or about the other sides to an issue like drug testing. Not only did this letter get published, but it's likely that the reporter will, from now on, ask more probing questions about drug testing in Williamsburg. One great way to get involved is through MAPinc. - The Media Awareness Project (by DrugSense). This incredible site archives drug policy articles and letters to the editor from newspapers around the world. It is an indispensable research tool for me. I'm able to search for past articles when I do a story, find quotes by the Drug Czar, research reactions to an event and much more. MAPinc also has great resources for letter-writing, including specific action alerts and tips on writing letters to the editor. They astutely note that getting a letter published is the equivalent of an expensive advertisement when it comes to column inch visibility in the paper. Letter writers through MAP have gotten letters published with a combined value of over $2 million each year. And the great thing? These are not astroturf (which I despise), but individually composed letters by real people, expressing their own views. Not a writer? Then be a newshawk. Find articles about the Drug War and pass them on to the editors at MAPinc so they can be archived (and so I can find them there the next time I search). You'll even have your name attached to the article as the newshawk for finding it. (If you don't want the credit, you can always put in http://www.DrugWarRant.com as the newshawk and get me some free publicity.) Don't have time for any of those things? Then donate. 8:38:50 AM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []