cannabisnews.com: New Drug Survey Demolishes Drug Czar's Claims





New Drug Survey Demolishes Drug Czar's Claims
Posted by CN Staff on September 04, 2008 at 16:23:06 PT
By Bruce Mirken, AlterNet
Source: AlterNet
Washington, D.C. -- Well, now we know why federal officials chose to release the 2007 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) on a day when the Republican convention's climax and a string of hurricanes is likely to keep it out of the headlines. The survey pretty much dynamites Office of National Drug Control Policy chief John Walters' claims of success in reducing marijuana and drug use during his tenure, which he'd like us to attribute to his aggressive policies, and particularly ONDCP's near-obsession with demonizing marijuana.
First, some raw numbers: The total number of Americans who have used illicit drugs is up from 108 million in 2002, the first full year of Walters' tenure, to 114 million in 2007. And the number of Americans who've used marijuana has passed the 100 million mark for the first time -- up from 95 million in 2002.Rates of drug use have gone up as well. In 2002, 46.0 percent of Americans had used an illicit drug at some point in their lives. In 2007 it was 46.1 percent. For marijuana, the rate went from 40.4 percent to 40.6 percent. Both the "any illicit drug" and marijuana use rates had dropped a bit in 2006 and spiked notably in the new survey. Illicit use of painkillers such as OxyContin is up notably -- a disturbing trend considering the addictive nature of such drugs, not to mention the risk of fatal overdose (a nonexistent risk with marijuana). "Current" (past 30 days) use of illicit drugs is down only marginally since 2002 -- from 8.3 percent to 8.0 percent for all illicit drugs, and the trend for marijuana is similar.And, strikingly, despite all of Walters' huffing and puffing about marijuana, the number of Americans starting marijuana use for the first time has not budged during his tenure.If this is success, someone please tell me what failure looks like.But wait, there's more. ONDCP officials regularly argue that maintaining criminal penalties for marijuana possession is essential to stopping drug abuse. So what's happened with a dangerous drug whose possession is legal: cigarettes? NSDUH conveniently provides figures for past-month cigarette use, and both the number of users and the rate of cigarette use is down markedly. In 2002, 26 percent of Americans were current cigarette smokers; now it's 24.2 percent, continuing a decades-long decline. And the decline in current cigarette smoking for 12-to-17-year-olds is even more dramatic, from 13 percent to 9.8 percent.That, of course, is with zero arrests for cigarette possession, compared with 739,000 marijuana possession arrests in 2006 (the last year for which stats are available).The numbers are in. Marijuana prohibition is a wasteful farce. And John Walters' tenure as drug czar has been a failure. Bruce Mirken is communications director for the Marijuana Policy Project. - http://www.mpp.org/Quote: "When we push back against the drug problem, it gets smaller." -- John Walters, White House Drug CzarSource: AlterNet (US)Author: Bruce Mirken, AlterNetPublished: September 4, 2008Copyright: 2008 Independent Media InstituteContact: letters alternet.org Website: http://www.alternet.org/URL: http://www.alternet.org/story/97606/CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #10 posted by Hope on October 18, 2008 at 20:22:50 PT
Oh my!
I don't believe that.Maybe Mormons. LDS or whatever those pioneer people are.Not Baptists. I know better.
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Comment #9 posted by afterburner on October 18, 2008 at 19:32:51 PT
Hey, Drug Czar, Try Church instead of Lock-up
Warning the following article contains religious propaganda. Reader discretion is advised.Religious teens half as likely to use marijuana.
Updated Sat. Oct. 18 2008 7:54 AM ET.
CTV.ca News Staff
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20081017/marijuana_study_081018/20081018?hub=Health&s_name=
{
Parents who want to keep their kids off drugs may want to start taking them to church. Religious teens are considerably less likely to use marijuana and are less susceptible to peer pressure to smoke and drink, according to a new study. Researchers from Brigham Young University studied nearly 20,000 teenagers and found the ones that frequently attended church and rated religion as highly important to them were half as likely to smoke marijuana. more...
}
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Comment #8 posted by Hope on September 06, 2008 at 10:05:29 PT
Other than a jokester poll devised by
a friend that knew I had strong feelings about it... and was trying to pull my leg, I've never been polled on anything related to the war on drugs or cannabis prohibition.A guy called the other night to poll someone... but he only wanted to speak to "A male registered voter". He said they had spoken to "Enough" registered female voters in the county. Hmmm?
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Comment #7 posted by Hope on September 06, 2008 at 09:59:51 PT
I signed up to be polled by Zogby
a few years ago. I took their polls for two or three years in hopes to get to participate in a poll related to the prohibition of cannabis or the drug war. I was never polled about anything to do with either. I'm sure I've seen Zogby mentioned in some articles as having polled questions about cannabis and the drug war. Apparently they only did it before and after the years I participated... or they purposely chose not to send me any of the polls related to such.
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Comment #6 posted by museman on September 06, 2008 at 09:54:00 PT
polls
I am taking one.How many posters here have ever been asked for their opinion in strait "What's your opinion" polls? (not the prevalent telemarket-style harrangers who keep twisting it around until you are forced to agree by their political 'logic.')I have living in one place for over 7 years (a record for me) and I have been in the phone book just as long, and I have never been included in any of these so-called random polls, yet on a side note, I find it a little bit suspiscious that every single member of my adult family here has been called to jury duty, thats about 1 a year since I've been here, while there are rednecks who have been living here for generations that have never been called.
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Comment #5 posted by tintala on September 06, 2008 at 09:21:00 PT:
THEY DIDNT ASK ME
I hear about all these polls, but why don't i ever get asked? also the prez campaign polls, they say mcain this and obama that,but I was never asked again.
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Comment #4 posted by John Tyler on September 06, 2008 at 07:06:36 PT
100 million customers
That is 1/3 of the US population. That is a huge potential customer base for any industry, not mention all of the other many associated business opportunities. I hope the politicians, etc., will be able to see the value of a legal cannabis industry, and how understand how it far outweighs the economic model of prohibition. We all know that cannabis prohibition has always been about narrow economic gain for a relative few individuals and a tool for oppression of unpopular groups. It’s time for a change. 
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Comment #3 posted by Hope on September 05, 2008 at 07:13:19 PT
At the very LEAST
a hundred million people!They didn't ask me, or probably, any of the rest of us.Every day that the injustice of this prohibition goes on, more and more of those hundred million are going to find the nerve to stand up and say, "No! Stop it! You're persecuting people needlessly and wrongly and you are wasting vast resources and lives! Stop it!"
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Comment #2 posted by Storm Crow on September 05, 2008 at 06:17:07 PT
100,000,000 Americans.........
Are those who admit it!
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Comment #1 posted by sam adams on September 04, 2008 at 18:12:58 PT
yahoo
pop the champagne, 100 million is worth celebrating!
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