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Drug War Super Hype: Some Facts |
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CHICAGO, IL - Illinois NORML is adding some facts to the super hype known as the Office of Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). With another Super Bowl comes another series of ads portraying marijuana as the number one threat to the nation.
Contrary to what the ONDCP would have you believe, drug reformers do have concerns about marijuana and its affect on youth. NORML does not advocate teen use of any drugs, to include alcohol or tobacco.
In March of 2002 it was reported that the ONDCP???s $1.5 billion anti-drug campaign failed to influence teens to refrain from using illegal drugs, particularly marijuana, according to an evaluation by Westat Inc. and the Annenberg Public Policy Center for the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse. What drug reform organizations oppose is the approach taken by the ONDCP. Instead of a reasonable approach to drug information, one based on science, all we get is sensationalism: hype over substance.
During Sunday???s Super Bowl and pregame show, the ONDCP will continue this failed policy by spending $4 million to tell us that someone playing with a gun while high might accidentally shoot someone. Or if you smoke marijuana you might lose your judgment and have unprotected sex. Or that someone driving while high is a danger to the community. According to the ONDCP, marijuana use leads to guns, unprotected sex and death. As noted above, exaggerated claims are ineffective.
NORML does not believe the effects of smoking marijuana are harmless or that teens should be smoking marijuana. Taking any drug, be it aspirin or heroin, caffeine or codeine, has its effects. But to portray the facts skewed so far from reality is to propagandize an issue. And government propaganda is not good policy. Here are some facts that never seem to make any of the ONDCP ads. For example:
48.5% of all arrests in Illinois are for drug violations. (2001 Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority)
90% of Illinois drug admissions to prison are African-American males. (2000 Human Rights Watch)
#1. Illinois leads the nation in locking up black males with 1,146 per 100,000 going to jail for drug crimes. This compares to 20 per 100,000 for white males. This new Jim Crow system leads the nation with a 57 to 1 ratio. (2000 Human Rights Watch)
According to the findings in a pair of 2002 international studies, marijuana has far less impact on psychomotor skills than alcohol and is seldom a causal factor in automobile accidents. Researchers further noted that subjects under the influence of marijuana - unlike alcohol - were aware of their impairment and attempted to compensate for it by driving more cautiously. (Britain's Transport Research Laboratory; Department of Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology at the University of Adelaide)
$242,000,000. The amount the Illinois Department of Corrections spends every year incarcerating over 11,200 drug prisoners. This is $11 million more than the annual Operations budget for the Illinois State Police. (2002 Illinois Department of Corrections: 2003 Illinois State Budget)
Ending the drug war will improve our culture.
For more information contact Bryan Brickner, Executive Director, Illinois NORML at 773.395.9708 or
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Last Updated ( Friday, 26 May 2006 )
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