Saturday, April 11, 2009

Open Thread Talk about data quality... This was a a few weeks ago, but I still get a kick out of it. Investigators Get Government Approval for Fake Medical Product: The Government Accountability Office was able to register with the Health and Human Services Department a fictitious institutional review board and panel of doctors and scientists that was led by a dog named Trooper. Another wrong address drug raid. Don't know much about the details on this one, but a family about an hour away from me is suing police for a raid on the wrong apartment. Legalizing Key to Ending Drug Violence. Bill Steigerwald interviews Jeffrey Miron. If there were no demand for drugs, there would be no drug market. It wouldn't matter whether we prohibited drugs; there would be no violence. But there is going to be a demand for drugs whether we like it or not, and if we drive the market underground we are going to have many more negative sideeffects of that market than if we were to adopt a regime of legalization. Wall Street Journal: The Antidrug Campaign Tries a New Message. Um, no. It's an old message and it doesn't work. Lloyd Johnston, principal investigator of the University of Michigan's "Monitoring the Future Study," which is funded by the federal government's National Institute on Drug Abuse and tracks drug, alcohol and tobacco use, says he plans to press the Obama administration and the Partnership for a Drug-Free America to use the death toll in Mexico to engage the consciences of pot smokers. Mr. Johnston likens the Mexico argument to the campaign against secondhand cigarette smoke; when smokers learned their habit was harming others, he says, many quit who wouldn't have otherwise. Yeah, like that terrorism thing, right? The argument that pot smokers are unintentional collaborators in drug-related violence has been tried before. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the ONDCP ran ads in which one middle-aged man told another that buying drugs supported international terrorism. That campaign broadened into ads saying that casual drug use supported violent groups in Mexico, Colombia and U.S. cities. "A lot of young people, especially teenagers, can sometimes be a little impervious to just simply, 'This is bad for your health,' or 'This is bad for your future,"' says Mr. Walters. "They are idealistic and ... they don't like supporting people who kill others and harm the innocent." But research suggested the ads did not work. A federally funded study released in 2006 and conducted by the research firm Westat and the University of Pennsylvania's Annenberg School for Communication found that antidrug ads by the ONDCP during that time had no effect on the kids who'd seen them, and in some cases actually made them more interested in marijuana. Outstanding OpEd by Mike Gray in the Washington Post - a must read. We Tried A War Like This Once Before Capone and his boys were agents of misguided policy. Ninety years ago, the United States tried to cure the national thirst for alcohol, and it led to an explosion of violence unlike anything we'd ever seen. Today, it's hard to ignore the echoes of Prohibition in the drug-related mayhem along our southern border. Over the past 15 months, there have been 7,200 drug-war deaths in Mexico alone, as the government there battles an army of killers that would scare the pants off Al Capone. Obama taps addiction specialist for No. 2 drug czar In another clear break from past policy, President Obama announced Friday that he intended to nominate as the nation's No. 2 drug czar a scientist often considered the No. 1 researcher on addiction and treatment. OK, but it's hard to get excited when the Partnership for a Drug-Free America approves... "We're blown away. He understands," said Stephen J. Pasierb, president and chief executive of the Partnership for a Drug-Free America, that addiction "is a parent, a family, a child issue." In an article about the Supreme Court case of the 13-year-old girl who was strip-searched in school over trying to find some non-prescription Advil, this passage really points out the cluelessness that we see so often in the drug war. "I guess it's the fact that they think they were not wrong, they're not remorseful, never said they were sorry," April Redding said this week, as she and Savana talked about the legal fight over that search, which has now reached the Supreme Court. And even more: When, days later, the principal met with April Redding to discuss what had happened, she said he was dismissive of an event so humiliating that her daughter never returned to classes at Safford Middle School. "He said, 'There was an incident with some pills, and we had to find out if Savana had them, but you should be happy because we didn't find any on her,' " Redding recalled. "I got really upset and was telling him, 'Why did you do this to her? How could you do this to her?' " We humiliated you and violated your rights, but you should be happy! We didn't find anything so you're innocent. Why are you upset? DrugSense Weekly 12:31:48 PM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []

Data Quality Act Petition: 'I'm not dead yet.' Yes, old timers. I'm talking about the Data Quality Act - the DQA - aka the IQA. Does it bring back memories? Are you feeling ancient right now? Quick primer for the newbies: The Data Quality Act was a regulation put into effect requiring government agencies to disseminate accurate and truthful information (really!), allowing groups or individuals to challenge that information, and requiring the agencies to respond in 60 days. Well, Americans for Safe Access (ASA) decided to put that to the test. Health and Human Services had a lot of inaccurate information (OK, lies) about medical marijuana on their website and other materials. If corrected to the real truth about the medical validity of marijuana, it would actually make it much harder for the federal government to deny marijuana re-scheduling appeals (ie, if HHS has the truth on their website, then the DEA can't point to HHS and say "see, there's no accepted medical use for cannabis - HHS says so"). So the petition went forward... October 6, 2004: Original complaint filed (good, I thought -- HHS will have to correct its information by the end of the year. Right.) December 1, 2004. HHS says it needs more time. (Note: You can read all the letters here) February 2, 2005. HHS says it needs more time. April 5, 2005. HHS says it needs more time. April 20, 2005. HHS claims that it doesn't really need to respond. May 19, 2005. ASA appeals the non-response. July 28, 2005. HHS says it needs more time to respond to the appeal. October 5, 2005. HHS says it needs more time. December 8, 2005. HHS says it needs more time. February 7, 2006. HHS says it needs more time. April 12, 2006. HHS says it needs more time. April 20, 2006. FDA comes out with its nonsense declaration about marijuana not being medicine. May 2, 2006. ASA sends a letter threatening to sue if HHS continues to delay. July 12, 2006. HHS denies the appeal (by avoiding the question) February 21, 2007: ASA files lawsuit in district court. May 25, 2007. Government files motion to dismiss claiming that the courts don't have jurisdiction and that ASA doesn't have standing. June 21, 2007. ASA responds November 20, 2007. District court dismisses ASA's lawsuit, stating that HHS wasn't really required to do anything. and now... ASA has filed an appeal in the 9th Circuit Court. This is from their opening brief. The primary issue on appeal is whether the "Information Quality Act" ... ("IQA," also referred to as the Data Quality Act)... gave ASA a legal right to obtain a timely, substantive response to its IQA Petition, or whether, as the district court held, the IQA is merely horatory and that Congress intended to allow agencies to obey the IQA's commands, or not, as they choose, free from all judicial review. Good luck, ASA! I admire your perseverance. One of the standard tactics of the federal government is to delay, delay, delay hoping you'll tire or die before they have to do anything. Of course, it would be foolish to depend only on the results of a drawn-out administrative procedure, but hitting them from all sides -- that's powerful. So, pursuing the DQA, pushing for re-scheduling, lobbying Congress, educating the people, correcting the media, writing letters in newspapers, committing acts of civil disobedience, demanding scientific truth, writing a blog -- it all adds up to critical mass. 11:52:38 AM | drug policy | Related  | permalink | comment []