"When we push back against the drug problem, it gets smaller."                         -- John Walters, White House Drug Czar  Well, now we know why federal officials chose to release the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) on a day when the Republican convention's climax and a string of hurricanes is likely to keep it out of the headlines. The survey pretty much dynamites Office of National Drug Control Policy chief John Walters' claims of success in reducing marijuana and drug…

The revelation that Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has acknowledged using marijuana -- but now thinks it should remain illegal -- prompted the Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill to invite MPP to post our thoughts on this issue on the paper's blog. Previous marijuana discussions on The Hill's blog have generated heated debate, so check out the link above and join the conversation.

Noting that his just-announced vice presidential pick, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, has acknowledged having smoked marijuana, MPP is urging Sen. John McCain to respect states' rights to set their own marijuana policies if he is elected president. On Aug. 6, 2006, the Anchorage Daily News reported: Palin said she has smoked marijuana -- remember, it was legal under state law, she said, even if illegal under U.S. law -- but says she didn't like it and doesn't smoke it now.  'I can't claim a Bill Clinton…

Today's Associated Press story on a group of college presidents proposing reconsideration of the legal drinking age is accompanied in some outlets by a fascinating graph, reproduced here. Two things are striking: 1) The number of alcohol poisoning deaths in the U.S. each year is shockingly high, consistently between 300 and 400. The number of annual deaths from marijuana poisoning remains -- as always -- zero. 2) The number of alcohol poisoning deaths spiked just as the U.S. government started…

A new study just published in Archives of Internal Medicine shows a 360.5% increase in the death rate from fatal medication errors (FMEs) from 1983 to 2004, vastly outstripping most other causes of death. Notably, most of the increase in deaths took place at home, not in medical settings or other locations. FMEs are defined as deaths from mistakes involving medications: accidental overdoses, the wrong drug being taken, etc. They do not include deaths from "adverse reactions" (side effects) involving…

Short answer: Don't hold your breath! It could certainly be interesting though if Senator Obama offered the slot to Senator Jim Webb (D-Va.), who says the following in his new book: "The time has come to stop locking up people for mere possession and use of marijuana. It makes far more sense to take the money that would be saved by such a policy and use it for enforcement of gang-related activities." Other then Webb, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico stands out for his yeoman's work on getting…