Monday, March 31, 2008

I'm cheesing my f-ing brains out The latest drug craze. A great South Park episode, between the Heavy Metal references, the sudden drug war hysteria, and hiding kittens in attics to keep them from being seized by the DEA. 9:30:25 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

The success of employee drug testing Via CESAR Fax (may not yet be up on their site), comes this chart showing a 10 year comparison of employee positive drug tests from Quest Diagnostics. The Quest statistics are often trotted out in cherry-picked portions to proclaim a dramatic reduction in cocaine use or marijuana use or meth use, but rarely showing the whole picture. Is this supposed to be good? Overall, the total percentage of workers with positive drug tests showed an insignificant reduction, one that could be more than offset by the substitution effect (switching from marijuana that stays in your blood a long time to other drugs that don't). I don't see how anyone can call this chart an example of success. Also, notice the workplace drug that's missing? 9:04:22 PM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []

Opium Brides of Afghanistan Newsweek Farmers in Afghanistan can't make enough to feed their families on traditional crops. Opium pays 10 times as much as wheat or corn, and yet opium farmers still earn about $300 per family member per year (the real money goes to traffickers) To get through the year, they often get a loan on the future crop from the traffickers. Then eradicators, encouraged by the U.S., destroy the crop. Unable to deliver the opium to the traffickers, the farmer faces death. So the farmer sells his 10-year-old daughter to be the trafficker's "bride." How's that drug war going? 8:03:47 AM |  drug policy | Links | permalink | comment []