Next week is Drug Facts Week, an event organized by NIDA supposedly to promote facts, but in actuality more to promote propaganda.
So we have our own counter version at DrugWarFacts.com, which I’ve been advertising on Google (as well as on this site), and it’s gotten some pretty good hits, particularly lately. To take a page from their social marketing plans, I plan on doing some tweeting and facebooking of drug facts and getting others to do so during this week.
Give me your best facts. Real facts. Both drug facts and drug war facts. Ideally, these should be 98 characters or less including spaces (in order to tweet it and provide the appropriate link and hashtag). Short and sweet.
Examples (you don’t have to give me the character count — these are just to give you an idea of the approximate length you should aim for):
Fact: Most marijuana users never use any other illicit drug. What gateway? (74 characters)
The largest study (by NIDA) showed no increased risk of cancer for even heavy marijuana smokers. (97 characters)
And go.
Update: Give me a source link, when possible. I’m going to list these at the drug facts site and have links to the sources of info.
Fact: No one has ever died of a cannabis overdose.
I am far, far to old to tweet.
Here’s mine:
Smart people support drug reform. Our government doesn’t. You make the call.
(78 characters?)
Fact: Marijuana is non-toxic and has no dangerous side effects.
48 characters.
Fact: Marijuana does not interact with other drugs, and cannot contribute to poly-drug overdose.
74 Characters.
Fact: The drug czar is a lying sack.
23 Characters.
How about “The Drug Czar is required by law to lie.” And then I put a link to that page at the Drug War Facts site.
Okay…but I still like mine better…
Lol, hear, hear!
I pointed that out on NIDA’s facebook page. I also posted a link to the top ten government-funded studies that proved the hypocritical stance on marijuana by the federal government. I was booted from their page rather quickly.
http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/drug-czar-required/ –> http://bit.ly/2jYsGN
Marijuana users don’t have hangovers.
Some would argue that. I know I’ve personally experienced a certain grogginess and slight headache the morning after smoking a bit too much. However, it passes quickly and isn’t nearly has debilitating as an alcohol hangover.
The only time I had the mentioned headache was when I smoked someone else.s weed that I couldn’t vouch was organic or not treated with chemicals.
Pete, you may want to amend that cancer factoid from “(by NIDA)” to “(funded by NIDA)”. Tashkin et al. used a NIDA grant, but theirs wasn’t NIDA in-house research.
My understanding on Tashkin was that he worked for NIDA,searching for harm in marijuana for 15(?) years,before he got the grant for the lung function study.
Thanks, Daksya… I’ll have to cut letters elsewhere to do it (Twitter doesn’t really lend itself to conveying all nuances and legalisms). I’m going to have more information for each factoid at the site where it links. That should clarify it.
Fact: Your body has receptors in it that only cannabis can provide.
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Prohibition sux!
Not exactly what I’m looking for, but thanks for playing.
Fact: Our government would rather cage, assault and sodomize cannabis users than let them have their constitutional rights.
I would include some facts related to harms caused by alcohol, e.g., addictiveness, health risks, role in fueling violence, etc.
Fact: The federal gov’t has provided medical marijuana to patients for over 20 years.
Fact: Marijuana is the most common illegal drug used by criminals, US presidents, and everyone else.
Fact: Marijuana arrests occur every 19 seconds in the US, over 4 out of 5 are for possession.
Fact: Methamphetamine is considered safer than pot, according to US law.
Fact: The gov’t no longer calls it “The War on Drugs” and they want you to know that’s a big change.
Fact: House Speaker John Boehner has multiple alcoholic drinks almost every day.
Fact: China is the world’s largest hemp producer; the US is among the top recipients of its products.
Fact: The Justice Dept. believes medical marijuana patients aren’t entitled to the 2nd, 4th, 9th, and 10th amendments.
The AMA opposed cannabis prohibition in 1937.
The California Medical Association supports marijuana legalization.
Prez Franklin Pierce used cannabis in Mexican-American war, wrote to family “about the only good thing” there.
In 1988 DEA Judge F Young called cannabis “one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.â€
In 1986 DEA Judge Young ruled that ecstasy had “accepted medical use” and “accepted safety”.
http://www.maps.org/dea-mdma/#conclusions
Two doses ecstasy was an effective treatment for PTSD in a placebo-controlled trial.
http://www.maps.org/sys/w3pb.pl?mode=search&c_pkey=23124&displayformat=allinfo&type=citation
US prison pop increase 1925-1972: 105%; drug war era 1972-2010: up 705%
100 years ago heroin, cocaine, and cannabis were sold over-the-counter in the US, use was much lower than today.
There is no evidence that prohibition has ever had a long-term effect on drug use.
Federal law allows medical use of cocaine but not cannabis.
The feds say children as young as 6 can have meth legally (Desoxyn) but no one can use cannabis.
Incarceration for drug offenses correlates more closely with law enforcement funding than with drug use rates. (http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/node/63)
The gov’t has known since 1974 that cannabis fights cancer (this one sits high atop my list – that fact appalls me)
( http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n572/a11.html?310095 )
“every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish” (RM Nixon to HR Haldemann) (perhaps a category for anti-facts?)
( http://www.csdp.org/news/news/nixon.htm )
Turkey eliminated criminal control of heroin by legalizing the growing of opium for medicine.
( http://www.encod.de/info/AF-LEGAL-SOLUTIONS-FOR-OPIUM.html )
DEA law judge Young called pot “one of the safest therapeutic substances know to man.”
( http://www.druglibrary.org/olsen/medical/young/young4.html )
the greatest risk to cannabis users is the law
OR
the dangers of cannabis are far outweighed by the risk of being caught
THC,the devils drug for 25 years,now a medicine sold by big pharmacy.
fact: cannabis sells itself. prohibition has to be shoved down your throat.
(off topic)….candidate blames it on pot smoking:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/27/linda-wall-virginia-lesbian-affair_n_1034914.html
That’s really sick ):
Only two groups benfit from the War on Drugs: Drug Cartels and the DEA. Can you tell the difference?
Fact: The DEA and violent drug cartels both want the same thing: higher drug prices.
Fact: The Commerce Clause has been irrationally applied to allow the Controlled Substances Act.
Fact: Marijuana is a schedule 1 controlled substance along with meth, lsd and heroin.
This is completely off topic but MPP is listed in the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) this year. This is a yearly campaign where federal employees can donate a portion of their salary, or simply give a one-time donation to any organization on the list and it is pushed pretty hard on all military installations – NORML was actually on this list a few years ago and I don’t know why LEAP isn’t. The ironic thing about this is that it is a way for money to go DIRECT from the federal gubmint into a drug law reform organization. So if any of you know of anyone who is in a position to contribute, please let them know about this.
http://www.bestcfc.org/detail.asp?ID=11181
that’s good news sukoi! about a decade and a half ago i started boycotting CFC because they *didn’t* have any reform orgs in the program.
of course, these days i wouldn’t donate to any of them via CFC except LEAP, but it’s great that for those who wish to do so they have such an ironic vector.
i’ll pass it along to my friends who still remain in government service.
I’ve always liked pointing out that morphine, meth and cocaine are all schedule 2, while cannabis is schedule 1. This alone should be enough to convince anyone that the scheduling of cannabis is not based on the actual potential for harm or medicinal uses, but politics.
yeah, me too — but i also emphasize the more important corollary that med pot will in no way facilitate recreational legalization.
.
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A study done in Canada quantifies the increased cost of health care for cannabis users at $20.50.
http://www.heretohelp.bc.ca/publications/cannabis/bck/7
……………………………………………………
The Canadians are obviously don’t think of “Hi, I’m from the government and I’m here to help” as a joke.
this was around half of 1% of the total spent on “enforcement”
.
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But that was too many characters.
How about 2 consecutive entries?
A study done in Canada quantifies the increased cost of health care for cannabis users at $20.50.
A study done in Canada quantifies the annual cost of law enforcement for cannabis at $328.00.
Politicians who lie about the effects of marijuana lie about other drugs, too.
“Storm Crow’s List” –Google it!
Fact: Nora Volkow’s brain scans don’t imply that prohibition is the best policy.
Fact: If every injection drug user used clean needles there would be no intravenous transmission of HIV.
yes there would — some people would still share needles.
Pro Life? Not even anti abortionists
The Conservative Argument for Legalization
* The war on drugs corrupts our police
* America’s Plague of Bad Cops
* Cops Against the Drugwar
The items posted here describe the growing disillusionment with the War on Drugs in the law enforcement community, the growing support for reform, and some of the ways in which the Drug War corrupts police forces and encourages a war mentality that is at odds with a police officer’s intended role as an officer of the peace.
* Lost political causes
* Perjury everywhere?
* AN END TO Marijuana Prohibition
~ By William Buckley
“Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could.”
– William F. Buckley Jr.
Fellow Conservatives: Our Position Is Hypocritical April 22, 2001
As a fellow conservative, I find myself asking: Why is the drug war worth fighting at an estimated $60 billion annually, while far more modest measures to keep weapons from criminals and emotionally volatile teenagers are doomed to failure?
OiNkDeCePtion
Fact: Marijuana is not going away.
Fact: Medical marijuana is here to stay.
Fact: Marijuana makes prohibitionists act totally crazy.
Fact: The US imprisons more citizens than China in large part because of the drug war.
Al Capone and Watergate were red herrings to divert the countries attention from the Fascist acts of eliminating competition. Booze/Ethanol or Ganja//Hemp. Get Over it!
Fact: Cocaine’s purity has risen and its price dropped for the last two decades despite the drug war: http://tinyurl.com/4yzvlaa
The US now incarcerates almost 6X more young black males per capita than S. Africa during Apartheid. ( http://www.prisonsucks.com/ )
Each year 6+ million die of cancer without pain meds because of anti-opiate hysteria.
(http://www.who.int/medicines/areas/quality_safety/Impaired_Access/en/index.html)
(http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/peopleandpower/2011/07/2011720113555645271.html)
The “Chinese opium plague” was a myth, most use was for medical purposes.
(http://web.mac.com/dikotter/Dikotter/Publications_files/The%20Myth%20of%20Opium.pdf)
Any of the facts on http://www.countthecosts.org/
Einstein: The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by prohibition.
“The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced. It is an open secret that the dangerous increase of crime in this country is closely connected with this.”
Albert Einstein, “My First Impression of the U.S.A.”, 1921
“From 1970 to 2004, the percentage of Americans who smoke cigarettes declined from approximately 40 percent to approximately 20 percent — without incarcerating a single person for smoking.” Here’s the link. You could also juxtapose that with some stats showing an increase / non-decline in the use of illicit drugs over a comparable period of time.
How about “Fact: Cannabis has no established LD-50 despite 40 years of research attempting to find one.”
You been trying that long, Kap?
No,,but it has been how long the drug warriors and NIDA have been searching for any harm from cannabis,,and all they can come up with is “could be linked with” or “suspected results” never hardcore proof of any harm from marijuana except that the police can kill you for having some.
i have
Reefer madness 1927 = media regurgitating crude government propaganda
Reefer madness 2011 = a flourishing police state driven by asset forfeiture laws
FACT: One chemical from cannabis is a promising treatment for advanced breast cancer. http://www.letfreedomgrow.com/cmu/cbd_breast_cancer.pdf
# “Life” can change the way your brain functions, impair your senses, memory, judgment, & coordination. #drugfacts2011
# Propaganda can change the brain and affect your ability to weigh risks and make good decisions. #drugfacts2011
# Rx drugs can have dangerous short- & long-term health effects when used w/o education. #drugfacts2011
(I know. I know. That’s not quite what we need in this case. More actual facts and not just mirrored rhetoric but … it’s all so maddening. Because these are “their” drug facts copied from their site with one word changed.)
Pete, are you using the same hashtag as NIDA? “#drugfacts2011” to piggyback on the trend? If there’s character room we can use “#drugwarfacts” as well.
Another one from their templates:
I give my NDFW CyberShoutout to @drugwarrant @ssdp @norml @______ http://bit.ly/2jYsGN #drugfacts2011 #drugwarfacts
Lol. “cybershoutout”… fuck me are they stuck in the late 90s?
Also, is LEAP or CSDP on twitter?
Cocaine is as safe or safer then caffeine and nicotine, in the contexts commonly accepted for these latter two drugs.