Jennifer Corbett Dooren in the Wall Street Journal subjects us to a particularly vapid article: Study Tracks Drug-Related Teen Suicides
Teenage girls are about three times as likely as boys to attempt suicide for drug-related reasons, according to an analysis of emergency-room visits. A government study also found boys are far more likely to attempt drug-related suicide in the month of December, while the suicide rate for girls stays fairly steady throughout the year.
The study, conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, found an average of 178,423 ER visits a year from 2004 to 2008 for drug-related suicide attempts involving people age 12 or older. The study looked at the percentage and timing of such attempts among adolescents ages 12 to 17, adults ages 18 to 49 and adults age 50 and older. The study also tracked the number of visits each month to see if there was seasonal variation in the data.
Other research has suggested depression, which is a risk factor for suicide attempts, can worsen in the fall or around major holidays. But the study found that for the population as a whole, there was little seasonal variation in drug-related suicide attempts.
It continues on with such fact-filled, but content empty nonsense for a couple more paragraphs and ends:
The study didn’t look at the reasons behind suicide attempts and only included drug-related suicide attempts that resulted in an ER visit.
Nobody reading that article can possibly come away knowing what drug-related teen suicides are. She even contradicts herself in her opening and closing sentences. “three times as likely as boys to attempt suicide for drug-related reasons… study didn’t look at the reasons”
The best you can do as a reader is to go to the SAMHSA site and find the study yourself (because of course, not having the integrity of a blogger, she doesn’t link to it). I’m guessing this is it (or at least one relevant report from the same study type). There you learn:
DAWN data can be used to examine ED visits for drug-related suicide attempts. Although DAWN includes only suicide attempts that involve drugs, these attempts are not limited to drug overdoses. If there is drug involvement in a suicide attempt by other means (e.g., cut wrists while drinking alcohol), the case is included as drug related. Excluded are suicide attempts with no drug involvement and suicide-related behaviors other than actual attempts (e.g., suicidal ideation or suicidal thoughts).
In other words, not extraordinarily useful information. But Dooren needed to make dull data seem “newsworthy,” without bothering to actually, you know, learn what it meant.
Aren’t there any standards for reporters at the Journal?
Rupert Murdoch. W.R. Hearst for the new age.
The few times I have ever even considered killing myself, I was drunk every time. I have done many drugs through my life and never once even considered such a thing on any substance other than alcohol. I also know three people who committed suicide, all 3 were drunk, 2 of the 3 had never done an illegal drug in their lives.
Saying “drug-related teen suicides” without specifically mentioning alcohol is a farce.
No mention of paracetamol (acetaminophen) either.
Could it be that women are more likely to choose pills than men as a suicide method?
Wall Street Journal = Fox News
You should see how they treat the estate tax: total hysteria and pearl clutching paranoia. And lies.
When checking in, many times through the E.R., Suicides are admitted with a very thorough standard assessment (varies by State) that includes a drug history. Any drug history at all becomes part of the admission record and patient data. We all know that results in a drug related admission due to their collection criteria. Suicides who fail are remarkably open during this refractory emotional phase, and willingly tell everything, abuse history, drug use, all of it. Guess where the information in question comes from? All impeachable, every data point.
I’d add to that though, that sometimes the government publications can be as incoherent as the news stories that try and interpret them. I was digging around CDC and ONDCP’s websites yesterday to try and find some stats about drug-related deaths and it was nigh on impossible. The closest I could find was this: it tells me how many people have died from opioid substances, but not the number of heroin or cocaine overdoses, and gives me no idea where to get the actual raw data that informed the study.
Try the FDA:
In the US, the FDA reports that there are about 112,000 poisoning calls, 56,000 emergency department (ED) visits, 26,000 hospitalisations and over 450 deaths annually associated with paracetamol poisoning. FDA statistics also show that children aged 16 years or younger account for about 33% of ED visits, 24% of hospitalisations
http://www.unisanet.unisa.edu.au/Resources/sgrhs/Rural%20Medical%20Program/Fifth%20Year/Paediatrics/Resources2010/management%20of%20paracetamol%20OD.pdf/326/7397/1006.full.pdf
They might have stats for other types of drug deaths too,
Actually, the CDC may be a better place to start.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/su6001a12.htm
Found this:
http://i.imgur.com/MqB2R.png
http://www.cdc.gov/HomeandRecreationalSafety/pdf/poison-issue-brief.pdf
What’s so confusing? They know if they make the data easily accessible that it’s game, set, match. I mean what the heck got into SAMHSA? Now all their data is easily accessed, searched, compared, whatever, and even silly me has been able to use December’s reports to tear the Know Nothings a new one. Just tonight one told me the SAMHSA report on drugged driving in 2009 was a straw man argument. How did these people get in charge?
So here’s what I’ve got so far:
In 2007, 29,846 (74 percent) of the 40,059 poisoning deaths in the United States were unintentional drug induced deaths
~12,000 of these were caused by opioid analgesics (Oxy, Vicodin etc)
~6,000 were caused by cocaine
~2,000 were caused by diamporphine (Heroin)
That leaves ~10,000 drug induced deaths unaccounted for. I’ll keep digging though I doubt that LSD or cannabis is going to feature prominently in these remaining figures.
overview of deaths by underlying cause of death type:
http://www.briancbennett.com/charts/death/icd10-drug-induced.htm
click the links in the table or graphics to get to the breakout by drug class
what drug types are actually specified in the death certificates:
http://www.briancbennett.com/charts/death/icd10-drug-induced-drug-tallies.htm
click the nav graphics at the bottom of the page to get to the tallies of drug types by underlying cause of death
have fun
Below is the letter I just emailed to the Chief Editor, VP of Customer Experience and Website feed back address.
As a graduate student I have found that the Wall Street Journal is usually a wonderful place to look for interesting research being done in my field of study, Pharmaceutical Chemistry and Clinical Laboratory Science. Recently I was reading one of the articles posted onto your website in the Health Section and was not only gravely disappointed but down right offended by the lack of journalistic integrity. I would like to ensure you my feelings had nothing to do with the opinions expressed by the author, one of the things I enjoy about the Wall Street Journal is that it is usually quite diversified when it comes to differing opinions on a subject. That being said I would like to briefly explain my disappointment because, unfortunately, a continuation of such a lack of integrity in Wall Street Journal reporting will lead to me no longer purchasing or reading the Wall Street Journal.
The article is “Suicide Rates Among Teens Diverge, New Study Finds.” by Jennifer Corbett Dooren. It is a very short article that briefly describes the findings of a report by SAMHSA on Teen Suicide. Not only does the author directly contradict herself in the first and last sentences of the article but she neither names the study she is reporting on or provides a link to it so that the reader may go to the study himself. I would not even expect this sort of Journalism from my College news paper, much less The Wall Street Journal. This is the sort of article I would enjoy sharing with other students and faculty but I cannot in good sense direct another student or a member of academia to an article that doesn’t even bother to site it’s single source much less an article that looks as if it wasn’t proof read before being published due to its blaring contradiction. I have provided the link to the article and the exact first and last sentences that contradict themselves below.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703313304576132672563248028.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_health
“Teenage girls are about three times as likely as boys to attempt suicide for drug-related reasons” followed by “The study didn’t look at the reasons behind suicide attempts and only included drug-related suicide attempts that resulted in an ER visit.”
Thank You For Your Time and I look forward to hopefully enjoying many more articles from The Wall Street Journal that meet the highest standards of journalistic integrity the Wall Street Journal has been known for in the past.
Julian Joiner
So they are counting the use of sleeping pills/sedatives as “drug related”? Christ. Isn’t that the most popular method amongst females, slit wrists being number two? Pills are so easy to get and not as messy as other methods.
The single time I tried to do that deed I’d yet to even know what a reefer was and the only drug I’d had so far in life was crappy warm beer and coffee (not together). So I guess if my angsty self had succeeded I would be a drug warrior stat point? Thank goodness it didn’t work out!
Wasn’t there a famous one, a number of years ago where the kid had been urine tested for the 6 months previous and despite the absence of drugs positives they still blamed it on cannabis? They even trotted out this kids poor, grieving old man to validate the absurd claim?
………………………………………………………
I hate the Wall Street Journal. They told me I had to use my real name to post and didn’t believe me when I told them that it’s Nunya Bidness. I even tried insisting while using a tone of authority, and they still didn’t buy it!
is that really your name? if it is, awesome!
It’s common for reporters who lack a hard science degree, or a strong familiarity with a particular science, to get things completely right involving topics on statistics and science. Just as drug war pieces tend to be really scrambled when the journalist doesn’t do drugs.
I once knew a physicist who complained to me that had his name not been in a newspaper article describing his scientific work, he never would have known who the article was about.
This article is to vague for me.
Suicides in teens ,Divorce,low self esteem.bullying,cutting,Eating disorders,emotional problems,relationships and the heartbreak accompanying are some of reasons for attempted suicide,The drugs are usually just self medicating for most part,against the real more pressing reason behind suicides or attempted suicides.
That’s my humble take on this.
It seems to me every time like lately there’s been some solid articles on good health attributes of Cannabis,LSD,Ecstasy possibly being used for depression and Alcohol is actually way more dangerous than most other Drugs,That was in report from England I think you know all of a sudden in last couple of months we have stories on Cannabis causes schizophrenia,and paranoid permanent behavior,I heard that one on radio news other day a plethora of bad news against drug use that is over the top,exaggerated like article on Drug Suicides.
They do seem to be able to produce “research” on cue.
Have you ever wondered why the Know Nothing prohibitionists are always armed with the latest “studies” that prove that cannabis is bad mmm-kay? It’s because their “studies” seem to have a short shelf life before being discredited.
In a few short years the tobacco hater will celebrate 50 years working the Surgeon General’s 1964 study. Isn’t science supposed to stand the test of time, not turn to dust and blow away in the wind? Where are my man teats? Oh well I’d never get away from the mirror if that one was true.
Same flim flam as the Schizophrenia gossip. MTV quack doctor drew pansy or something, kept going on about Ganja and suicides, he operates a TV rehab show. I believe he has killed kids with his nonsense. By not dealing with the underlying problems and blaming Ganja for cheap publicity. Once he made the claim, all the talking heads wanted him. Fucking parasite. So as with some Schizophrenics finding relief with Ganja, not Ganja causing Schizophrenia, or A-motivational people enjoying Ganja, not caused by it. This same lame tactic of putting the cart before the mule headed drug worriers. Just to sell cheap reefer madness to dumbass reporters. If a potential suicide victim doesn’t have the support or even anyone to red flag the warnings. One split second can come along and with the means to the end. Shit happens. If Ganja reduces stress, and rounds off the razor edge in speed users. Its most likely does the same for potential suicides. It rounds off the razor edge and keeps the final step from happening. If you blame the Ganja and remove it as the fix you still have the problems heavy enough for the kid to end it. Now nothing to round off the edges. This quack even admitted many suicides happened 6 months or so after the kids quit smoking pot. He actually tried to use that as part of the demonizing. Low life sonsabitches profit on misery. Why do we keep dragging DAWN out of the closet? Haven’t they been exposed enough for keyrist sakes.
Addiction: Do You Need Help?â€
Member question: I have smoked pot for a number of years as an antistressor. Currently I’m having thick sinus congestion and very bad headaches and sore throat. I also have ulcerative colitis. What treatments can help me regain my health as I am very tired and in a lot of discomfort? I want to quit the smoke altogether.
Dr. Drew: You no longer use marijuana as a stress reducer. You are an addict and this addiction will not stop without treatment. I would suggest you look into Marijuana Anonymous. You need careful supervision when you stop this drug. There is an extraordinarily high incident of suicide in the first six months of marijuana abstinence.
The syndrome of marijuana addiction is always the same: A profound euphoria is experienced, usually after the second or third exposure to it, and from that moment on the addict pursues, preoccupies, or uses that drug every day. Somewhere down the line, exactly what you are experiencing develops; the addict gets depressed, has trouble sleeping and being motivated. Of course, the addict’s response is to smoke more or better pot to deal with “the stress,” which only accelerates the decline into depression.
Dr. Drew Pinsky is on the wrong side of the drug issue
Marijuana Anonymous has no opinion on outside issues including medical advice or opinions.
Q: I think a friend is using marijuana… I want to help him stop.
A: This may sound cruel, but getting caught may be the best thing that could happen to your friend. He needs to suffer the consequences of his behavior. When he recognizes what he’s doing to himself, and possibly others, hopefully he’ll realize that smoking marijuana isn’t worth damaging friendships or his future…
The (F)Utility of DAWN: Experts Look at the Drug Abuse Warning Network
Provoked by Walters’ propaganda move, DRCNet asked Dr. David Duncan, a clinical associate professor at the Brown University School of Medicine and private research consultant, just what the marijuana figures indicated. “They tell us very little,” he replied. “Does a marijuana ‘mention’ mean that marijuana played a vital role or was it ancillary? No one knows because DAWN was not set up to collect that data,” he said.
“Mr. Walters and many, many others have used this data in the wrong way,” Duncan continued. “DAWN was never set up to collect enough information to tell you useful things about problems coming into the emergency room. When someone uses DAWN numbers to try to tell you how dangerous a drug is, it’s just not set up for that.”
Duncan also questioned DAWN’s 30,000 marijuana-only “unexpected reaction or overdose” reports. He scoffed at the very notion of a marijuana overdose. “Marijuana overdose just doesn’t happen, as the term is normally used in medicine,” he said. “What I expect is being labeled an overdose is really an unexpected reaction. You can get very stoned or paranoid or have psychedelic effects with very large doses, but that is not an overdose in the normal sense of the term.”
A cannabis overdose is theoretically possible, Duncan conceded, but a practical impossibility. “The estimate is that a 150-pound man would have to eat five pounds of hashish,” he said. “What that means is that you can’t eat enough to produce a life-threatening overdose.”
Which profession has the highest suicide rate?
elderly white males
dentists, white male physicians, and third are veterinarians. Easy access to drugs, high stress job.’Acceptance of euthanasia’ cannot be considered a factor. Dentistry is considered the highest as most of their time is spent staring into someone’s mouth, with little else to do in their job. Despite earning a lot of money, this cannot make up for the little job satisfaction available.
Answer two:
“health care professions in general show a higher than average suicide rate. This is especially true of those in emergency services, EMTs and paramedics who respond to crisis calls.” per an Associated Content article by Michelle L Devon
The occupation with the highest suicide rate
By Ilan Shrira on August 1, 2009
For many years now, physicians have had the highest suicide rate compared to people in any other line of work… A more unexpected finding concerning physician suicides is that there’s no difference in the rates between male and female doctors…
Why do dentists have the highest suicide rate?
Since the 1960s dental journals have been carrying articles with headlines like “The Suicidal Professions.” Dozens of studies have looked at suicide not only among dentists but among health-care workers in general. With few exceptions, research over the past 40 years has found that dentists (and doctors) take their own lives at a higher-than-average rate.
Which Occupation Has The Highest Suicide Rate?
Occupation is not much of a factor in suicide. Psychologists have researched on this and found that among the top predictors for suicide are diagnosable mental disorder, loss of social support , stress etc. http://www.blurtit.com/q994815.html#
However different researches shows different data. A study shows that Food batch-makers and Physicians have the highest suicide rates. Another research shows that veterinarians have the highest suicide rate in Britain
One of the cops at the Integrated Road Safety Unit checkpoint that took my car away 2 years ago was himself just busted for Impaired driving… I’m tickled pink.
You are an addict and this addiction will not stop without treatment.
This crock of shit can easily be refuted.
Population studies have always shown that most people who stop using drugs, do so without any treatment whatsover. Hundreds of millions of people have quit cigarettes, for instance, completely unaided – it remains to this day the most popular and successful way of quitting.
You’ll never hear anyone in the treatment industry tell you that though.
Reference:
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000216
Dr Drew Pinsky He just gets on my nerves,Every time I see him on TV, He’s a smug know it all.
Probably just another prohib who despite if you showed him that Cannabis was great medicine, He would probably say its not worth the risk to addict young folks. Oh screw it.
Follow the money. He’s drumming up business. Good old American dream. Perverted with the drug war. At a cost of American lives no less dead than the kids sent to Iraq and Afghanistan. For a lie and a paycheck? Can humans sink to that level? Can Americans sink to that level? To know it’s gossip and intentionally spread it for propaganda to continue the war and therefore the profits made on the war. Dream up hobgoblins in right and left wing think-tanks to sell to the public and people die because of it. Sick people get thrown on the floor with automatic weapons pointed at their heads and some get shot, For gossip so rehabs and prisons can maintain their inventory?
Sick way to make a buck.
Obama’s Drug War by Michelle Alexander
$343 billion in federal budget cuts including eliminating the Office Of National Drug Control Policy and the Justice Assistance Grant program which gives money to regional drug task forces.
The State vs. Doctors by Congressman Ron Paul, MD
“The drug war will continue to affect the way we practice medicine. Law enforcement pesters us to be their assistants in turning over to them patients who break the drug laws. This encourages patients to hide rather than reveal vital information to their physicians. Drug laws have also caused many physicians to inadequately treat the pain of the dying patient out of fear of the law. Nursing care has been affected as well.”
Patriot Act Fails in House
Government’s authority to conduct roving wiretaps of terror suspects, along with two other expiring provisions of the Patriot Act fell short of the two-thirds majority needed.. Representative Lamar Smith said he hoped to bring up the legislation in two days under rules allowing passage by a simple majority.
Bush Cabal Hides Patriot II Police State in HR2417 12/22/03
I used to think the Internet might help ‘improve the breed’ when it came to journalism, but sadly, the most it’s done is illustrate that laziness trumps ethics, every time. ‘Style over substance’, and all that. ‘Cut-and-paste’ replacing ‘investigation’.
Which is why I get most of my news from various blogs I visit daily; IMNHO, far too many official, accredited, degree’ed ‘journalists’, for all they paid for said degrees, have been ‘weighed in the balance, and found wanting’.
You want real journalism, go to Greg Palast’s or Al Giordano’s place. Raw Story and AlterNet, too. No blow-dried BS there…
OT: Brutal drug war spreads to Mexico’s second city; Alliance of gangs fight Sinaloa cartel; Guadalajara to host PanAm Games
Yepper, more dead (brown people’s) bodies mean, according to the (largely WASP) prohibs ‘we’re winning!’.
I doubt the surviving loved ones of the victims would agree…
They think the cartels will never cross the border. Talk about a case of being “in denial” (of reality). They’ve already established a beachhead.
I’m looking forward to the first satchel of disarticulated human heads being delivered to either the press or civil authorities to “send them a message”. That will certify that we are indeed living in interesting times.
Duncan, Scott Henson over at GritsforBreakfast has been warning about the ‘incursion’ of the cartels into major US cities for years, now. They apparently have a very extensive presence all through the southern US States and as far north as Illinois and east as the New England area.
As for the decapitations, it’s already started. I, too, have been awaiting such a move on the part of the cartels, and they didn’t disappoint. Not only that, but the cartels have been impersonating police to conduct assassinations on their rivals in the US.
It’s not a metter of if but when a major shootout on US soil takes place between LEOs and cartel members. I don’t mean what’s already happened, I mean one where there’s at least 10-20 casualties between combatants (not to mention innocent bystanders).
Anyone want to make a wager that, after that, we can expect an even louder wrong-headed drumbeat for militarizing the police further, rather than dealing with the root problem of prohibition, itself? Place yer bets, ladies and gentlemen, place yer bets!
.
.
If Scott screams the message at the top of his lungs to a crowd wearing earplugs, hands over their eyes and singing “lalalalalalala, I can’t HEAR you” did he make a sound?
Oh my yes, the people will come out in force demanding goose stepping and sieg heiling when it happens.
(PS I do not acknowledge Godwin’s law as valid.
http://tinyurl.com/Godwins-Law-Uncyclopedia )
It’s very interesting that the “cause” of Prohibition has not been talked about more by journalists, at least journalists that have an audience. (And I know why it hasn’t been talked). Is there truly a journalist that gets called out on their horrible writing and says to themselves they should correct the information?
The cause, the initial starting point of all this pain and misery is compliments of the U.S. G. Period.
Have you seen this one kaptinemo?
http://www.cryptome.org/
Even when we look back in nostalgic day dreams of honest eager investigative journalists we find that even Woodward and Burnstein were either involved or patsies for the Post. Covering up in plain view. Two bit burglary headlines while the CSA lumps in RxGanja and Hemp without a peep. Same as the yellow journalist bastards before them. Walter Cronkite was the most trusted man in journalism. Even claimed to be against the drug war. The most trusted man couldn’t stop it or even get the story told. Edward R Morrow? Today it’s a freak show. Talking heads don’t even pretend to be non-bias. Blogs more often than not try to tell it like it is and all 50 readers agree but the 300 million remaining citizens get no word of it. We don’t even acknowledge it. Still pretending to make policy on sound rational decisions? Including piss tastes and mandatory minimums. More fluff about politicians texting shirtless poses than substance. Free Speech TV gets more alternative view details but its still not about the drug war or Ganja. When it is its a little more than the blogs. Next selection people will vote for one of the above and those acting all Liberty minded will loose. That’s probably why they call it Fascism. Or rather why they don’t.
Al Capone and Watergate were red herrings to divert the countries attention from the Fascist acts of eliminating competition. Booze/Ethanol or Ganja//Hemp.
The new face of America?
Paracetamol (Tylenol) was probably left out because of it’s dirty secret, a secret directly attributable to prohibition. To whit:
“Opiophobia” being what it is, US healthcare types have long pushed combos of various meds, particularly Tylenol, with low doses of opioids like hydro and oxy codone in order to use as little as possible of the “bad” opioid drugs. Been around a long time. Now, most folks know that Tylenol in large doses poisons the hell out of a liver. Most kids, however, don’t know this. Therefore, what happens when someone, chasing an opiate buzz, gulps down a handful of Percocet? Liver-sausage!
The FDA is finally doing something about this. It is restricting the use of such drugs in combination like this. http://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm239747.htm
They are restricting the Tylenol in opioid combos to 325 mgs per dose. A typical committee solution that will do little to stop the majority of deaths and severe injuries.
What this amounts to is yet another of those hidden Prohibition-caused harms which, in this case, the prohibots get to use as “drug-related deaths,” in their never-ending propaganda.
That’s interesting, not surprising but interesting. Like the hundreds of additional chemicals added to tobacco to form cigarettes. Like the fossil fools producing power for running electric cars. Like taking a costly hazardous waste from converting bauxite into aluminum and putting it in toothpaste! Oh my the Nazi’s gassed millions of Jews. Then we got all of their technology and technicians to create NASA and the jet rocket programs. How many hazardous waste products are hidden in the pesticides and fertilizers? The AMA only recognizes “treatment” of symptoms, never cures or prevention. Think the dems will save ya? Klintoon was so paranoid of RxGanja being used for wasting syndrome he re-legalized Thalidomide. Flipper babies and now 2nd generation deformities. The FDA is a political wing of the chemical industry. What about aspartame or radiation? The nukes were going to make giant pumpkins to feed the world. All of IG Farben industries, including Bayer. Now the question is. Would the same mindset that gassed millions of humans lie? Could they intentionally sell us poisons and then sell us treatments for the poisons? Then cage us when we use alternatives? Are they low enough to use humans as profit? They gassed millions. Of coarse they would make us sick for money. Who’s gonna nark them out, the free press? he he he. Well what other evil deeds lurk in the minds of prohibitionists, or should I just simplify it and call them Nazi’s part Deux.
Chemical Manipulation of Consciousness
CITIZENS FOR SAFE DRINKING WATER
Seeking Rest From the Terrors, New York Pops Pills 01/05/02
Thalidomide studied as weight therapy 02/03/01
I ran across a comment recently, it was some superficial photo story about a family struggling with the down turn, but I’ve heard it’s equivalent a few times over the years. Bugs me to no end. Gets under my skin.
The comment was: “They where so poor they had to roll their own cigarettes, the tobacco came from a local farmer.” The assumption being, only poor people would do this. Ie. To all you middle classed reading this article, what they are doing is not a GOOD thing.
Regarding natural products the media message is fascinating and contradictory. Either you’re so poor you grow your own [tomatoes], or your so rich that you buy form someone who grows their own [tomatoes]. Or, and this one’s interesting, you’re so rich that you can afford the time to [insert DIY thing here] or you’re so poor that have nothing better to do but [insert DIY thing here.]
Maria – that could make an absolutely outstanding pair of short stories. A picture of a man in shabby clothes, sitting on a rough-hewn porch in a rocking chair, smoking a hand-rolled cigarette. Same picture, two stories.
1. Man of means, no longer needs to work, but can enjoy his leisure at an old shed he bought to get back closer to nature. Traded the suits for comfortable clothes and enjoys his hand-rolled cigarettes to his exacting specifications made from hand selected leaves from a neighboring plantation.
2. Man of poverty, can’t get a job so sits vacantly all day on the porch of his run-down home in hand-me-down clothes, can’t afford real cigarettes, so he rolls his own using the tobacco leavings from a neighboring plantation.
I received a response from the Wall Street Journal staff regarding my criticism of this article. It is far more then I expected, usually I don’t even get a response much less an editors personal work email.
Hi Julian. Thanks for taking the time to get in touch with us. I’m sorry you found the article to be substandard and I promise you that I will forward your comments to Jennifer and her editor.
While I don’t know the specifics of this article, I do know that the editing process can sometimes (often, maybe) dilute the overall context of articles. We strive to ensure that doesn’t happen, of course, and I’ll admit that we don’t always succeed.
I certainly appreciate the thoughtfulness of your criticism, and it is well-received. Please know that we make every effort to be fair and accurate, and we attempt to do so with a high degree of integrity. Keen readers like you help keep us in check.
Please keep my email address handy. I hope you don’t have to use it, but I do want you to have a direct line to the Journal in case you have concerns in the future.
Kind regards,
Chris Hardesty
WSJ.com
Nicely worded response.
Calling a suicide “drug-related” just because certian drugs are present is a lie. The whole premise of the study is a lie. The lie then hits new heights when the reporter turns “drug-related suicide” into “suicide for drug-related reasons.” Maybe since drug warriors spend every waking moment thinking about drugs, they assume that drug users do too. Maybe they believe their own propaganda, that drugs can actually rob a person of free will. Or maybe they’re just disgusting monsters who see other people’s suffering as an opportunity to further their own agenda. What a comfort to know that, even in death, our children continue to serve as pawns in this dirty war.