The Drug Czar has a new website. It appears to be an effort to coordinate all the White House websites, and even all the White House blogs. It looks pretty, but unfortunately is based on the same old propaganda.
If anyone can figure out the new RSS feed for the Drug Czar’s “blog,” let me know. I can’t seem to find it.
Discovered it yesterday when the link to the Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 1998 in your post “the Drug Czar is Required by Law to Lie” (http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/drug-czar-required/) failed. If you decide to update it, it’s now available at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/ondcp/reauthorization-act
Thank you so much! Both for letting me know and for the new link. I’ve updated the page.
“”Drug use affects every sector of society, straining our economy, our healthcare and criminal justice systems, and endangering the futures of young people. While many challenges remain, overall drug use in the United States has dropped substantially over the past thirty years.””
Are you going to call them out on their statement about drug use dropping substantially?
Nearly every SAMSHA report I ever read said increases.
But the “increases” are measured from cherry picked data. Using the recent hogwash published by the ONDCP as an example, increased since 2007. Whether “drug” use has increased or decreased depends on what they think will most effectively pad their budget.
Are there really people who think things fall in a linear fashion? Quite frankly the only chart I’ve seen present a linear decline is per capita cigarette use from 1973 to 2006.
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/data_statistics/tables/economics/consumption/index.htm
That linear decline over that many years for so many tens and tens of millions of people is simply astounding and unprecedented.
Say, what year was cigarette advertising tossed off of the TV?
What an interesting coinky dink. But even total number of cigarettes consumed in the US saw year over year increases as late as 1993 to 1995 albeit very small increases. Regardless, it’s still a one of a kind chart. But that’s why it’s such a great device for demonstrating that people will abandon behavior that’s proven deleterious to health without making it against the law.
I’ve mentioned that my current entertainment obsession is the classic “Perry Mason” reruns. I’m currently in 1959-1960. Of course there are lots of cigarettes smoked. It seems no one gets introduced to someone else without offering or being offered a cigarette. Paul & Perry paid a visit to a pathetic drunk who they felt sorry for and who had run out of cigarettes. The last thing Paul did before leaving was to pull his cigarette pack out and surreptitiously leave it for the poor drunken stumblebum. But the most recent episode I watched featured a pipe smoker. I had completely forgotten that they existed. I wonder, is Dr. Grabow is still selling tobacco smoking pipes or have they folded up the tents?
Evidently yes, they are: http://www.drgrabow.net/
When was the last time you saw a guy with a tobacco pipe actually smoking pipe tobacco?
The actors who played Lt.Tragg, Mr. Ham Burger, and Paul Drake all died of tobacco related diseases. You know, I don’t think that Della Street smoked.
I liked this: “Decades of research have shown that drugs and crime are inextricably linked.”
Well, yeah, by criminalizing the possession and sale of certain drugs, you’ve “inextricably linked” them to crime. That seems kind of definitional.
Oh, that’s not what you meant? You meant violent crime? Hmmm… let’s see. So you’ve made the sale of certain drugs illegal, thus making them extremely expensive–and hugely profitable. (ECON 101: risk demands compensation.) But (from the sellers’ perspective) you’ve made their situation extremely precarious because, for starters, THERE ARE ARMED AGENTS OF THE STATE WHOSE ENTIRE JOB IS TO CONFISCATE THEIR PROFITS AND LOCK THEM IN A CAGE. (Hint: most sellers don’t like this.) By making these drugs illegal, you’ve also created a situation where contracts are unenforceable and competitors can’t go to the courts or police to challenge intimidation. I can’t imagine why these conditions might lead to violence. But you’re right, legalizing drugs would obviously be crazy — because of their “inextricable” link to crime.
Lighten up, Francis.
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
In fact, very well said.
Thanks! And no worries about the Francis jokes. It’s actually a “nom de plume”–which I’ve recently learned (courtesy of one of our own commenters) makes me a coward and traitor to the cause.
“francis” is a reference to what? Pls share….
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My grandfather’s name was Francis. Just for kicks and giggles he and grandma named my mother Frances. I learned to differentiate the masculine and feminine forms of that name at a very early age.
Of course one of my favorite people, and I hope yours as well is DEA administrative law Judge Francis Young.
Pay no heed to “the nattering nabobs of negativity”.
divadab, well the Francis from “Stripes” is great, but I actually had this one in mind.
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It’s the nattering nabobs of negativism. Sheesh, who the heck misquotes Spiro Agnew anymore? Well that and his line about long haired dope smoking avatar reading living in the unwashed hippie Marxist are the only two Spiroisms I recall and I suspect the latter may have been foisted into his quoteography by somebody else. Yeah, the only place a Google search finds it is someone having a conniption fit because Chuck Norris spat on the Congressional Medal of Honor and fell in love with Ted Turner. Somebody needs to learn how to use question marks, sheesh. But those Humboldt Hog-nosed Skunks are really potent critters, I had forgotten all about their existence. Pee-ewe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humboldt%27s_hog-nosed_skunk
Those “Agnewisms” Like nattering nabobs and “Pusillanimous pussyfooters” were all William Safire. He wrote every one of them as Agnew’s speech writerOh and WTF?
i made no accusations of treason — i merely point out that remaining “anonymous” pretty much guarantees that no one has to give a shit about your rights.
a large part of what ails our “movement” is that far too many hide in the shadows. a bigger impediment is the lack of reading comprehension they evidence.
carry on ghosties.
lol
Indeed. Francis, I think you’ve got it! Well said.
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From time to time I wonder if people arrested for cannabis law violations are included when the statistic “(insert insanely high number) per cent of people arrested test positive for cannabis metabolites” is presented as if it proves anything more that that those who are willing to break the law are more willing to break the law than those who don’t.
yes, they are included in those tallies
Its like making safty equipment illegal in cars then saying cars are dangerous and must be banned lol.
Seems the more insane the lies our government put out…the more people believe them.
New Look!..same old crappy product!
Gosh! I’m underwhelmed… the ONDCP continues to remind me of a well financed snake oil merchant, well dressed but as slimey as they come.
It’s amazing what decades of perpetual propagandizing can accomplish! The gummint and exspurts call obesity (with it’s attendant health and medical costs) an epidemic but no SWAT raids on BK and Mickey D’s… no national banning of biscuits and gravy… nearly 40 years ago Dick Gregory was calling sugar the most dangerous drug in America. hmmm…
And the blog…? Clueless and classless. I’m pretty sure Pete’s couch has more visitors than the ONDCP’s cheap, ass-chapping folding chairs. And the fact of no comment/discussion renders it pretty much a nonblog.
Many years ago, miffed at the attention MAP’s DrugNews archive had achieved the ONDCP sought to create it’s own “Drug News” but after 2 years and only a few hundred articles posted (favoriting their view of course) they gave up. The DrugNews archive ( http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/ ) now has nearly 230,000 articles in it. I guess amotivation is kind of in the eye of the beholder eh…
They actually tried that? They would have had a hard time coming up with enough stuff for a MONTHLY update if their criteria were as I suspect it was…They just should have made up the news. Oh…wait…
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Let’s not forget that cannabis has been acquitted of the trumped up charge of causing obesity. It seems those who regularly enjoy cannabis, and particularly those who frequently enjoy cannabis experience obesity at only 2/3 the rate of those who don’t partake.
God forbid anyone should have a good thought about cannabis.
Someday I really would like the opportunity to strangle one of these assholes. Just for a few minutes, perhaps five at the most.
sadly, the more likely explanation is that they realized that they don’t have to do anything to maintain the status quo
there are only a few tens of thousands of us — and we are simply not threatening to them in the least.
Throw a chart at em!
they aren’t the ones that matter — yet another failure on the part of the dpr “leadership”
This seems to work:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/ondcp/blog/atom.xml