Tuesday, February 6, 2007

USA Today, featuring Reefer Madness This may be the worst mainstream media article in some time. Rita Rubin vomits a piece in USA TODAY today: CAUTION: Marijuana may not be lesser evil -- 'Gateway drug' or not, experts say, it's not a benign path for teens It's a big steaming pile of poor journalism, including the standard anecdotal "evidence" By the time Gardner was a junior, he started skipping high school regularly to smoke pot. "I would always find somebody who wasn't at school that day and get high with them," he says. Gardner says he missed 50 days in the first semester of his senior year. His parents discovered his stash of marijuana and sent him to a psychiatrist. His grades plummeted; his college plans evaporated. or... Rachel Kinsey says drug addiction runs in her mother's family, although not in her immediate family. Kinsey, 24, started drinking alcohol at 14 and smoking marijuana at 15 -- "definitely a predecessor for everything else I used." She began using Ecstasy and cocaine at 17, then heroin at 18. But the article headline also promised experts, right? Adolescents have the greatest rates of marijuana use, and they also have the greatest amount to lose by using marijuana, scientists say. Ah, good. Scientists. Here we go... "Adolescence is about risk-taking, experimentation," says Yasmin Hurd, professor of psychiatry, pharmacology and biological chemistry at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York who published a rat study last summer that found early exposure to THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, led to a greater sensitivity to heroin in adulthood. Wait a second. Yasmin Hurd? Rat study? Oh, yeah. That would be this nonsense and as it turns out actually appeared to prove that of those rats who were forced to use heroin, those who hadn't previously been pre-treated with THC were more likely to become heavily addicted to heroin. (At least to the extent that you can draw any relevant conclusions out of a situation involving THC-pre-treated rats who are due to be decapitated.) And, of course, the thing we know for certain about the gateway theory: Over 99% of those who never try marijuana will not become addicted to heroin. Over 99% of those who do try marijuana will not become addicted to heroin. Update: Jacob Sullum has a more charitable description of Rita Rubin's journalism, claiming that she is trying to undermine her paper's propaganda. I suppose that's possible, but it looks more to me like a half-assed attempt to show "balance" in a piece that's clearly written with an anti-marijuana agenda. 10:30:30 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Stupid Drug War Tricks Scott Morgan at Stop the Drug War found this bizarre and freakish opinion piece: A new strategy -- Expert: War on drugs should shift focus The expert? A former DEA agent. The plan? In his book "Fight Back -- How to Take Your Own Neighborhood Back From the Drug Dealers," Levine shifts the focus from the drug dealer to the user, who he calls pejoratively the "druggie." It's simple business principles at work, he says. Without demand, there would be no need for more supplies brought in. That's right. Get rid of the druggies and you win the drug war. Hmmm... let's see. According to 2002 NSDUH, roughly 108 million Americans had used illicit drugs in their lifetimes. So if we just arrest them... Now, where to put them.... Levine also wants new drug education approaches in Hollywood and schools: Levine says druggies should be depicted "convulsing and vomiting on themselves in detoxification wards; or staring vacant eyed on the benches of intake centers and emergency wards. That is what being a druggie is really all about, and that is what we should want our kids to see and understand." The entire piece is a bunch of similar nonsense, complete with a rather strange discussion in comments. ... For a much more intelligent view of the drug war, check out Terry Nelson's OpEd in the Hood County News last week: Legalize All Drugs, where he makes a very telling point against those who call for winning the war by increasing penalties: According to the Associated Press KUWAIT CITY ( AP ) -- A court has convicted a member of Kuwait's ruling family for drug trafficking and the court has condemned him to death, according to a ruling obtained Monday. It is believed to be the first time that a member of a ruling family in one of the Gulf Arab states received the death sentence for a drug offense. Even facing the death penalty, being wealthy and having connections to royalty, the allure of additional riches derived from drugs is too strong. So, we can conclude from this and our own prison population, that no matter how severe the penalty there will always be those willing to run the risk for the rewards. We will never stop trafficking in drugs as long as they are illegal, the market is there and the profit so substantial. The solution is glaringly obvious. The solution is to legalize all drugs, regulate and control the manufacturing process and license the marketplace. [...] Nelson's got Levine beat by a mile, in terms of practicality, the truth... and basic intelligence. 8:58:24 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []