ONDCP Funds Propaganda With Our Money

I was recently perusing the television advertisements released by the Office on National Drug Control Policy, curious to see how my tax dollars were being squandered. A particularly telling example of the ONDCP's determination to waste billions of dollars advancing misinformation is a series of drug war propaganda commercials featuring two characters named Nick and Norm. The Nick and Norm commercials expose the thinly veiled contempt by Washington's drug warriors for the intelligence of the American public.

Let's start with "Not That Complicated," the basic premise of which is apparently to convince all of us who like a little critical thinking with our policy decisions, that in fact, thinking is overrated. Nick dares to suggest to Norm that the connection between drugs and terror is "very complicated." Norm is aghast! How can Nick be so foolish as to believe that our widely despised war on drugs and its brand new connection to terrorism is complicated?

Lucky for Nick, Norm is there to teach this misguided fool a lesson in simplistic arguments, and just in time, too. One second more and we might have been forced to consider the possibility that the war on drugs, particularly when tied to the war on terror, is indeed a complicated thing.

Observe Norm's one-dimensional logic train, as he sums up the issue in this way: "No drug buyers, no drug money. No drug money, no drug dealers. No drug dealers, no drug murders, shootings, bribery, corruption." Nick, who now stands corrected, says contritely, "Not that complicated."

Since the first link in this chain is "no drug buyers," let's start with that. It is incredible that there are still people who believe our cornucopia of social ills will be solved by convincing everyone on the planet to stop using drugs. Considering that there has never been, in the known history of human civilization, a society that did not use drugs, this seems like a bit of a stretch.

Furthermore, the underlying assumption that legal drugs are comparably harmless is not supported by facts. Remember that even if we were to cast a magical spell that eliminated every illegal drug, we would not be a drug free society. We would still use considerable quantities of alcohol and tobacco, two dangerous legal drugs that receive plenty of congressional support in exchange for generous campaign contributions to both the Democrat and Republican parties.

Just to gain a bit of perspective on the comparative harmfulness of illegal versus legal drugs, consider that according to the World Health Organization, in the year 2000, cigarette smoking "was responsible for the premature deaths of 4.2 million people." They further note that, "Tobacco kills more than AIDS, legal drugs, illegal drugs, road accidents, murder, and suicide combined." Doesn't the legality of the deadly drug tobacco qualify as a complication when discussing the war on drugs?

Another Nick and Norm commercial begins with Nick arguing that only a couple of bucks will make it to the "bad guys" if he buys a bag of "dope." Is Nick referring to marijuana? Because if he is, Nick need only buy domestically grown marijuana, to assure himself that no money whatsoever will make it into the hands of the "bad guys." Of course, Norm doesn't make this sensible suggestion. He says, "So what you're saying is it's ok to support terrorism a little." The problem with this outrageous assessment is that there are plenty of ways in which American consumers do support terrorism, not a little but a lot.

Deborah Small, a spokesperson for the harm reduction group Drug Policy Alliance, discussed two of the more lucrative sources of terrorist funding in an interview for CounterSpin, FAIR's weekly radio show. The subject of discussion was an ONDCP commercial that aired during the Superbowl last year. This widely criticized, extremely expensive bit of propaganda was the first to attempt to create a link between drug use and terrorism by characterizing teenage pot smokers as murderers.