Friday, November 18, 2005

Oh, for some facts!

Well, the folks at DEA have a new Web site, Just Think Twice, up to warn Americans of the new dangers of drugs.

It has the higher production values we would expect of an agency swimming in a lake of your money. But the factual standards haven't improved.

Here's the lead discussion on DEA's fact and fiction page:

"Discussion of the drug issue is sometimes filled with emotion, inaccuracies and wishful thinking. In many cases, what is represented as "fact" is really fiction, and it's hard to notice the difference. Some people downplay the dangers of drugs, their effects on society and their effects on our bodies and brains. Others claim that restrictive government drug policies have harmed our country. Still others tell us that drugs should be plentiful and legal."

DEA suggests that arguments against prohibition come from the drug dealers: "The drug market is controlled by greedy individuals and organizations who believe they can make a living off your choices. Their advertising is word-of-mouth, glamorization of drugs through our culture, and dissemination of bad information."

DEA says, of course, the marijuana is not medicine. They point to a tragic case of 14-year old Irma Perez, who was poisoned with bogus "Ecstasy," and stopped breathing. According to DEA Administrator Karen Tandy, Perez' friends believing marijuana was medicine, stuffed marijuana leaves into her mouth. Irma slipped into a coma and died, thus proving the marijuana is not medicine.


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