Does anyone care? As long as some US company is making money off the drug, everything is cool.

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First, there was generation x. Then there was generation y, and now generation rx. Maybe the powers that be should try to find a name for the next generation that isn't a slight change to the phrase 'generation x'. Besides, generation rx is much more catchy than 'generation northern lights' .

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You can be sure that the manufacturers of painkillers are happy to hear the news. They're training the next generation early, without having to spend the money on advertising to youth.

And who's really surprised by this news anyhow? When everything is an excuse to receive a prescription for some behaviour-modification drug, can people really be alarmed at the prevalence of prescription medication abuse? Furthermore, will this result in any federal action (positive or negative)? I doubt it..they're too busy patting the backs of pharmacists who refuse to disburse birth control pills.

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So what else is new. Another American liar. If somebody in this country told the truth, it would expose him as a foreigner. If the media wasn't whoring itself to pad somebody's secret and immoral agenda, it wouldn't the American media. I'm sure that everyone involved is a good church attending christian. Feel the pride. Where can I get one of those mindless flag decals for my G.M. recall? Somebody would need to put this culture out of its misery if it wasn't doing such a good job of self-destructing by itself. What a non-stop embarrassment it is to be associated with this level of dysfunction and iniquity. The American people don't seem to mind or notice much, and that is why they are no longer fit to govern themselves. But that will resolve itself soon as well.

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kids just take whatever's in their parent's medicine cabinet. when i was a kid it was valium, now it's vics.
i can't believe they never tracked prescription drugs before last year.
that org is a lame stupid waste of time and money, just like the whole drug war.

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I don’t have a great deal of respect for the Partnership for a Drug Free America: not for the rigor of their science, nor for the purity of their motives. It’s their job to find “trouble in River City” and find trouble they will. “You can’t blame a shark for biting.”

This particular study contains the usual intellectual fastball: conflation. One time use, repeated experimentation, regular use, and harm producing abuse are folded into a single term: “use and abuse of ___.” That’s how Drug War researchers get their big impressive numbers; they define their parameters to produce the results their audience will respond to.

We fall for this all the time in other studies on hot button topics. We might be told might 7/8’s of Americans are obese, overweight, or on a special diet.” Or that 90% of teens have experimented sexually – including intercourse, oral sex, other intimate touching, and masturbation. In reality, a 5% incidence of morbid obesity could be disturbing, knowing that 10% of teens experienced intercourse before the age of 14 could indicate a societal problem … but the numbers 7/8’s and 90% justify further study and a larger staff and budget far better.

This study could indicate that drug criminalization policies are so successful that kids are now reduced to getting high on what they can swipe from their parents’ liquor cabinets, paint sheds and medicine chests. But, for the Partnership such a victory would be the ultimate defeat – the end of their usefulness.

In defense of the Partnership, however, let me mention that this morning’s mail included a fund raising letter from the Drug Policy Alliance -- presented a “survey,” In return for my $35 contribution, they convey my opinions to Drug Czar John Walters’ office. I’m sure they will do it too. What I am less sure of is who they are and what they do What I am more sure of is that they will siphon contributions away from other organizations which may actually engage in lobbying or public relations.

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I don't use the term lightly. These folks at the PDFA (& most other drug warriors) do not make small errors or misstatements or misplaced emphasis or even exaggerations. They are simply flat out liars.

When pushed on the matter, they refer to a unique doctrine of theirs called "sending the correct message." The way this works is, if a statement seems like it would tend to discourage drug use (or increase funding for drug warriors-- but that's the same thing isn't it?) then it is a "correct" message. If it has any chance of giving anyone the impression that any drugs are anything less than the devil's own homebrew then that would be an "incorrect" message. Truth and falsehood DO NOT figure into this equation.

Here's an example: In a series of television commercials, a brain was identified as the brain of an MDMA user. It was, in fact, the brain of a person in a coma (who was not an MDMA user). This is a "correct" message.

OTOH, organizations trying to prevent injury to & death of those who take MDMA give out simple factual information, while maintaining a neutral stance on whether it's a good idea to roll: They say that it's a good idea to drink water so you don't get dehydrated (the only deaths that have been attributed to MDMA use were actually dehydration), & that some studies have suggested that taking Prozac when coming down might help prevent or minimize MDMA's neurotoxicity. These are factual statements, but they are (& believe me they're quite upset about this) an "incorrect" message. (It's "incorrect" because it's less scary than the idea that taking MDMA necessarily puts one into a coma.)

One popular "correct" message that the drug warriors like to reenforce whenever possible is that "today's marijuana is X times more powerful than the marijuana of yesteryear!!" This is factually incorrect for all values of X except for one. It is however "correct" in the sense that it's scary & helps to justify drug prohibition. It is in fact more & more "correct" the larger the values of X become-- there has been therefore a gradual inflation over time. (Frequently these days values of X are given that are so large that mathematics would require that either today's marijuana is significantly more than 100% THC, or that everyone in the 60s was smoking hemp & the whole thing was a placebo.)

I'd rather be "incorrect" than a liar.

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Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funding the Partnership for a Truth Free Amerika to the tune of around 30 million dollars in the last 5 to 6 years years. Don't believe it? Go to the website and check it out.

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