Monday, January 1, 2007

A new book for the new year It's available for pre-order now, and I'm definitely looking forward to it: Lies, Damned Lies, and Drug War Statistics A Critical Analysis of Claims Made by the Office of National Drug Control Policy by Matthew B. Robinson and Renee G. Scherlen This book critically analyzes claims made by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the White House agency of accountability in the nation's drug war. Specifically, the book examines six editions of the annual National Drug Control Strategy between 2000 and 2005 to determine if ONDCP accurately and honestly presents information or intentionally distorts evidence to justify continuing the war on drugs. Matthew B. Robinson and Renee G. Scherlen uncover the many ways in which ONDCP manipulates statistics and visually presents that information to the public. [...] "The authors have performed a valuable service to our democracy with their meticulous analysis of the White House ONDCP public statements and reports. They have pulled the sheet off what appears to be an official policy of deception using clever and sometimes clumsy attempts at statistical manipulation. This document, at last, gives us a map of the truth." -- Mike Gray, author of Drug Crazy: How We Got into This Mess and How We Can Get Out If that wasn't enough to convince me, there's this quote from a regular reader here: "[I]n a word it is magnificent. While the book is quite thorough, it is also amazingly concise and easy to read ... an excellent job of completely deconstructing and debunking everything the ONDCP claims." -- Brian Bennett, Former US Intelligence Analyst and author of truth: the Anti-Drugwar (http://www.briancbennett.com/) You can pre-order the paperback copy for $27.95 through SUNY Press or you can pre-order it through my bookstore for the same price. 12:53:45 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []