What a stretch!

It continues to amaze me how much the Drug Czar and his puppets are willing to bend and mutilate data in order to attempt to make a case for the dangers of drugged driving.
The drug czar’s “blog” touts some supposedly important new information:

But in West Virginia, the regular testing has enabled the CDC to determine that drugs are found in 25.8 percent of people killed in wrecks. That’s similar to the percentage of victims found with a blood alcohol level above the legal limit — about 27.7 percent.
“These results suggest that drug use contributes substantially to driver impairment in West Virginia,” the report says.
President Bush has declared December National Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month.

Notice how they attempt to conflate the drugged percentage with the above the legal limit alcohol percentage?
OK, now note that this is a complete crock. And you don’t even have to read the study. Just read the linked article with more than a 5 year old comprehension and you discover the following:

• In this study, drugs were found in 25.8 percent of those killed in wrecks. That includes passengers, pedestrians, drivers who weren’t at fault, etc. There’s no way of knowing how many of the drivers (or for that matter if any at all) were drugged.
• The most prevalent kind of drugs found were prescription drugs.
• There was no way to identify whether the prescription drugs were legally obtained or prescribed.
• The fact that marijuana was the most commonly found illicit drug is not a surprise at all — it’s the most commonly used and stays in the blood the longest. The fact that it came in well below prescription drugs just shows how prevalent prescription drug use is in the population.
• The study had no information about impairment, and therefore could not offer a single, solitary bit of evidence regarding the connection between drug use and fatal car accidents.

Once again, the drug czar lies.
And yes, I am at war with government officials who technically say truthful things with an intent to deceive. That practice is lying, pure and simple.