Saturday, October 7, 2006

Open Thread Check out the current issue of DrugSense Weekly (One of my posts here was featured). It's a great source for catching up with the news of the past week. The current issue of The Drug War Chronicle asks "Do We Really Want to Help Kids Find the Drug Dealers?" Link: "Clinical trial data... demonstrates that the administration of cannabis extracts can reduce feelings of neuropathic pain, as well as spasticity and incontinence in patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and other diseases." 10:09:30 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

ONDCP hides the truth Yeah, like that's a surprise... From National Journal (subscription only) The effectiveness of government-produced ads in curtailing drug use has long been a matter of debate. At the start of its media campaign in 1998, the ONDCP hired Westat, a firm that specializes in research for government, to gauge whether the advertisements were decreasing drug use among youth. Westat analyzed parents' and teenagers' responses to the ads and concluded that the messages did not lead young people to disapprove of drug use. In fact, researchers concluded the opposite, finding that in some cases the ads increased first-time marijuana use. Westat released the results to the White House office in 2004. But the report went no further for a year and a half, until the Government Accountability Office demanded its release in August 2006. According to John Carnevale, the former director of budget and planning for the ONDCP, the office did not like the report's conclusions and chose to sit on it -- even though Congress had appropriated $1.2 billion between 1998 and 2004 for the ONDCP's media campaign, according to GAO data. [emphasis added] Just another routine part of the Drug Czar's main job -- lying to America. 10:07:37 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []