Another Drug Czar Marijuana Offense
Yesterday, Bruce pointed out that the latest government data indicate that over the past 15 years teen cigarette use has declined and marijuana use increased to the point where teens use them pretty much equally now.
At his press conference announcing the annual report, Monitoring the Future, I asked White House drug czar John Walters to explain his insistence that marijuana must be prohibited for adults in order to protect children when the data suggest the exact opposite.
I don’t have a transcript yet, so what follows is my recollection of the exchange. However, if Walters or anybody from his Office of National Drug Control Policy public affairs department wants to dispute any of it and give me a transcript or video, I’d be grateful.
Anyway, the substance of his response was pretty much his standard circular logic: Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug for teens and therefore must remain illegal. Or something. Again, help me out here, ONDCP public affairs.
He could have stopped there, and I kind of wish he had, because frankly I’m tired of making fun of this guy. But he couldn’t resist adding that he believes the real reason marijuana prohibition has been so impotent is that organizations like MPP devote so much time and energy to recruiting the next generation of potheads.
That’s right – I’ve just pointed out to him that youth use rates of a taxed and regulated substance, tobacco, have plummeted, and he accused MPP of wanting to adopt the same model to control marijuana because we secretly want to encourage teen use.
Of course, he knows this is nonsense, so I said, “Ok, Director Walters, you know that’s not true.” He muttered something feeble about how maybe MPP has been more effective reaching kids than he was. Which is funny, since ONDCP has spent billions on misleading, ineffective ads that condescend to kids, while MPP spends nothing. And why should we? We’re a policy organization. Policy is for grownups.
A lot of my colleagues feel understandably offended by the ridiculous accusation that any of us would favor encouraging children to engage in risky or dangerous behaviors. But Walters has resorted to that particular tantrum many times, and I find it more pathetic than offensive.
You know what bothers me? Where was the press? The biggest successes in reducing teen drug use, according to Monitoring the Future data, involve substances that are responsibly taxed and regulated – alcohol and tobacco. Meanwhile, we flounder with teen marijuana use rates. That’s news, folks.
But it wasn’t spelled out in the official press release, so nobody thought to ask about it. Except me. But then again, I work for an organization that, for some reason, wants to corrupt children.
Tagged with: drug czar and Prohibition and Research and Tax and Regulate by the author
14 comments
Fuck John Walters, he is a piece of shit.
Well it can be because of regulation that’s too easy
The guy is obviously a mouthpiece for the prohibitionists, the government’s old tired addiction to public monies and big contracts for the corrections industry and black market profiteers. We Shall Overcome !
Man, sue his keester for slander. Seriously, he’s the top cop for the ONDCP and he’s publicly stating that the MPP has an agenda for promoting marijuana use among minors? He’s not only supposed to be an authority, he’s supposed to be THE AUTHORITY on drug enforcement in the U.S. and as such, his word should theoretically be granite. People whose first exposure to the issue is this slander could beome deaf to MPP as well as drug law reform in general. Sue him, sue him, sue him, loud and clear so that everybody can have the opportunity to think it over. Even if you didn’t win the suit, it would be more exposure.
I agree with Jeff here. Sue him. I am a reasonable person. In this reasonable person’s opinion, it seems like he was just trying to make your perfectly legally operating group look like poison to the people. As Jeff said, that’s slander. I say something ‘untrue’ to make you look bad, that’s slander. Get the statement he made, get records of actions, and take him to court.
NO ONE is above the law, not even the law, and slander is def. against the law.
-Dan
I challenge John Walters to answer the following question, posed to Antonio Maria Costa by Fredrick Polak
EMBARRASSMENT FOR UNITED NATIONS DRUG-CZAR COSTA
>
> Amsterdam – Antonio Maria Costa, the Italian Executive Director of the
> UN Office on Drugs and Crime, is seriously embarrassed because of a
> solo-action by Amsterdam psychiatrist Fredrick Polak. In an open letter
> published today, Polak demands an answer to a simple question. Despite
> earlier promises the global drug czar has been dodging the question for
> exactly one year.
>
> “How do you explain the low level of cannabis use in the Netherlands
> compared to surrounding countries, despite its free availability in
> coffeeshops?”
>
>
> On the internet two YouTube-videos show Costa avoiding the question time
> after time. To Polak the issue is of crucial importance as if falsifies
> the basic assumptions underlying drug prohibition. Therefore he
> continues to harass Costa with it.
>
> Polak, board-member of ENCOD (European Coalition for Just and Effective
> Drug Policies): “The primary objective of drug prohibition is reduction
> of consumption and addiction. However, the Dutch experience with
> coffeeshops of over thirty years has proved convincingly that without
> enforcement of this prohibition levels of use won’t skyrocket – which is
> what the drug warriors want us to believe. No wonder Costa is at a loss
> how to respond to the question.”
>
> Reprimand
>
> One year ago Polak first posed the question on a drug policy conference
> in New Orleans. Costa ignored it, but used the occasion to scold the
> Dutch government for “poisoning Europe” with amphetamines. That remark
> got Costa a reprimand from the Dutch government, at which he had to bite
> the dust and offer a letter of apology.
>
> Nonetheless, at a second occasion in March 2008 in Vienna, Costa again
> avoided the question. This time he claimed that more than 2000
> coffeeshops had already been closed, and that the city of Amsterdam had
> decided to move all coffeeshops “from the red light district to the
> borders with France, Belgium and Germany”. Polak: “Apparently Mr. Costa
> thought Holland (or Amsterdam) borders on France. And that figure was
> totally unfounded.”
>
> Waste
>
> Shortly thereafter, Costa checked in with the authorities in Amsterdam
> and The Hague for a “study mission” including a visit to coffeeshop De
> Dampkring (The Atmosphere). At the next conference in Barcelona Polak
> asked him about his findings. Polak: “This time Costa really went too
> far, claiming that Amsterdam has three times more cannabis addicts than
> anywhere else in Europe.” Costa promised a discussion paper with the
> scientific basis for this claim, to be published on his website “very
> soon”. Until today Costa hasn’t lived up to this promise nor has he
> answered Polak’s initial question. Reason for Polak to draw media
> attention to the affair.
>
> Holland consistently scores low to average in Europe in drug consumption
> surveys. To Polak this justifies a call for the abolition of drug
> prohibition: “That will save us a lot of misery, and a huge waste of
> taxpayers’ money. What is the use of all the effort to enforce
> prohibition, when clearly it doesn’t diminish consumption?”
>
> Polak concludes his open letter on a positive note, suggesting Costa
> (67) not to wait until after his retirement to acknowledge the failure
> of drug prohibition. “Doing so now would earn him eternal fame.”
The fact is that John Walters is working to create “forbidden fruit” in order to stimulate and institutionalize the economics of punishment.
The ONDCP is responsible for more drugs on the streets and in the hands of kids than any cartel. Since their charter requires them to lie, kids quickly understand they’re being lied to. “If the ONDCP says it’s black, it must be white,” is what they come to think. Johnny boy is nothing but an “addicted dealer.”
[...] latest government data indicated that over the past 15 years teen cigarette use declined while marijuana use increased to the point where teens use them pretty much equally [...]
Would not the differing socio-economic and cultural differences between Holland and the USA reap differing reactions at a community level when a drug is legalised or banned?
Hopefully here in Australia we may have wise leaders who are informed on how to deal with this human, not economic, issue…
Is rising teen use a good thing from a developmental physiological POV?
Just a pot head playing devil’s advocate guys, keep up the good work
Jeff and Dan are correct. Sue ONDCP. You have access to the lawyers and the money, and lawsuits generate free press. Walters lies with impunity, sometimes before Congress, and that’s perjury. Sue him for damages, his false claims cannot stand up in court and he knows it.
Stepping on the third rail: would it not be a good thing if teen use of marijuana increased, even doubled?
1. What if it enabled many of the nearly million youngsters per year now recruited into lifelong nicotine slavery to bypass tobacco entirely, resulting in hundreds of thousands fewer deaths per year down the road?
2. What if it produced a drastic drop in binge drinking, vehicular homicides and gun murders?
3. What if, as many expect, it increased consciousness of diet and reduced obesity-related illnesses?
With 440,000 deaths a year, Big Tobackgo has the most to lose. Then there’s Big Pharma (100,000 deaths a year) profiting off the need for “medications” to treat avoidable illnesses caused by tobacco.
[...] latest government data indicated that over the past 15 years teen cigarette use declined while marijuana use increased to the point where teens use them pretty much equally [...]
Sue. His. Ass.
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