Home
Archive
Newsletters
Video
Blogs
Discuss
About
Search
Donate
Advertise

Is the Drug Czar Afraid to Debate?

By Rob Kampia, AlterNet. Posted October 1, 2003.


U.S. drug czar John Walters says it's time for 'a national debate' on pot. Sounds good but does he really mean it?

Share and save this post:

      

      

Share on Facebook       

AlterNet Social Networks:
follow us on twitter
find us on Facebook

In Special Coverage

Belief:
Is Belief in God Hurting America?
David Villano

Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace:
The Vampire Banks Are Back: Will There Ever Be Meaningful Financial Reform?
Dean Baker

DrugReporter:
The War on Weed: Marijuana Is Basically Harmless -- The Monumentally Stupid Drug War Is Not
Jim Hightower

Environment:
White House Garden Won't Make Up for Obama's Nomination of Pesticide Lobbyist for US Chief Agriculture Negotiator
Jill Richardson

Food:
Don't Be Scared of Food: Are We Being Needlessly Hysterical About Food Safety?
David E. Gumpert

Health and Wellness:
47,000 Women Could Die As a Result of the New Mammogram Guidelines
George Lakoff

Immigration:
Hate Group, FAIR, Is Looking for "Ethnically Ambiguous" Actors to Amplify Its Racism
Adam Luna

Media and Technology:
The Memory Scrub About Why Ft. Hood Happened Is Almost Complete ... If It Weren't for Archives
Mark Ames

Movie Mix:
The Yes Men: Pranksters Out to Fix the World
Mark Engler

Politics:
Just When You Thought It Was Safe: 3 Potential Obstacles to Health-Care Reform
Adele M. Stan

Reproductive Justice and Gender:
Why Can't We Look Away From Sarah Palin?
Vanessa Richmond

Rights and Liberties:
Murder at Guantanamo? The Mysterious, Unsolved Death of Mohammad Saleh al Hanashi
Jeffrey S. Kaye

Sex and Relationships:
Hot Mormon Muffins and Models for Jesus: What's With All the Sexy Christians?
Liz Langley

Take Action:
G-20 Meetings: Nothing Much Happened in the Suites, and There Was Too Much Punch in the Streets
Laura Flanders

Water:
Poseidon's Financial Shell Game: Why Is a Private Desalination Plant Asking for Public Money?
Peter Gleick

World:
What Nidal Hasan, Timothy McVeigh, and the Beltway Sniper Have in Common: All Were Scarred by Pointless U.S. Wars
Nora Eisenberg

More stories by Rob Kampia

Advertisement
Upcoming AlterNet stories on Digg

On September 10, White House Drug Czar John Walters called for "a national debate" about marijuana policy. The Marijuana Policy Project hopes he meant it.

As soon as Walters' offer to debate was reported in the September 17 Seattle Weekly, we faxed the following letter to his office:

John Walters, Director
Office of National Drug Control Policy
The White House

Dear Mr. Walters,

I was pleased to hear that in your Sept. 10 news conference in Seattle, you said, "The real issue is, should we legalize marijuana? Let's have a national debate about that."

You were absolutely correct when you told your Seattle audience that marijuana policy has never been properly and thoroughly debated in this country. It's time to have that debate, so I am pleased to accept your invitation.

I propose that you and I immediately agree to hold a public debate within the next six months in the vicinity of Washington, D.C. The time and place should be suitable for national television coverage, and the debate should be moderated by a neutral journalist chosen by mutual agreement.

I am confident your offer represents a genuine desire to move past the demonization of those who disagree with your policies by finally having an honest debate about the impact of marijuana prohibition. I have no doubt that -- once armed with all the facts -- the American people will make wise choices.

Please have your staff contact my executive assistant, Jen Grizard, as soon as possible so that we can begin making the necessary arrangements. I look forward to working with you on this effort.

Sincerely,
Robert Kampia, Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
The offer to debate marks a shift for Walters, who has previously ducked every opportunity to debate knowledgeable critics of his policies. Instead, he has made phony offers -- for example, singling out just one of my organization's 13,000 members and offering to debate him -- while hiding from real debate invitations.

Is he serious this time? We don't know. We haven't received a response yet, but remain hopeful, because Walters' Seattle statement was right: It is time for a national debate on marijuana prohibition.

It is time for the White House's drug czar to explain why he continues to paint a distorted, exaggerated picture of marijuana's dangers while experts around the world are coming to the opposite conclusion. Just a few days ago, for example, the Swiss Institute for Prevention of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse told the medical journal The Lancet, "For the sake of our own credibility we cannot allow that alcohol and tobacco, which kill 10,000 people a year in Switzerland, are sold with all kinds of marketing wizardry, while consumption of cannabis, a less dangerous product, is a legal offense."

It is time for the drug czar to explain why he wants to continue present policies when all signs point to their utter failure. Consider the results from the just-released national PRIDE Survey of U.S. teenagers, one of two surveys designated by Congress as official measures of the drug czar's success. Walters carpet-bombed the airwaves with scary commercials telling teens that if they light up a joint they're likely to commit date rape and shoot their friends, and what happened?

  • The proportion of eighth graders using marijuana in the past month ("current use" in research parlance) rocketed from 7.2 percent to 10.2 percent -- a 43 percent increase.


  • Among sixth graders, current marijuana use doubled, from 1.7 percent to 3.4 percent.


  • Current use of cocaine rose among all age groups over the last year, nearly doubling among sixth and ninth graders.


  • Current heroin use among junior high students increased 60 percent.


No sane person can look at these numbers without being alarmed. All of us owe the public an informed, fact-based debate on whether our country should be considering alternatives to marijuana prohibition. The lives of our nation's young people are at stake.

We're ready, Mr. Walters. Are you?

Robert Kampia is executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project, based in Washington, D.C.

Digg!    Share on facebook   submit to reddit    Bookmark on Delicious   Stumble This  

Liked this story? Get top stories in your inbox each week from AlterNet! Sign up now »


Murder at Guantanamo? The Mysterious, Unsolved Death of Mohammad Saleh al Hanashi
Rights and Liberties: Mohammad Saleh al Hanashi was found dead inside a psych ward at Guantanamo. It was ruled a suicide. But disturbing evidence suggest the truth may be far uglier.
By Jeffrey S. Kaye, TruthOut.org. November 25, 2009.
White House Garden Won't Make Up for Obama's Nomination of Pesticide Lobbyist for US Chief Agriculture Negotiator
Food: Obama's statements about food and agriculture trend moderate to progressive, but his nominations for top positions in his administration tell a different story.
By Jill Richardson, Commonweal Institute. November 25, 2009.
Black Teacher May Get 15 Years in Prison for Cutting in Line at Wal-Mart
Rights and Liberties: This is not how our criminal justice system is supposed to operate.
By Devona Walker, The Loop. November 25, 2009.
Advertisement
Advertisement

 

  • AlterNetYour turn

Support AlterNet
Do you value the information you're getting from AlterNet? Please show your support with a tax-deductible donation.


Feedback
Tell us how we're doing.

Advertisement
Advertisement