cannabisnews.com: Drug Czar Reports Drop in Illegal Drug Use 





Drug Czar Reports Drop in Illegal Drug Use 
Posted by CN Staff on February 09, 2007 at 16:40:26 PT
By Joseph B. Frazier, The Associated Press 
Source: Associated Press
Oregon -- Illegal drug use in the United States has dropped sharply since 2001 but abuse of one prescription drug, the pain reliever OxyContin, continues to be a problem, John Walters, director of the National Drug Control Policy, said Friday. Walters said the goal of the Bush administration is to reduce prescription drug abuse by 15 percent over three years and said the problem is second only to marijuana.
He said overall use of illegal drugs among young people is down 23 percent from 2001 and that there are 840,000 fewer teenagers using drugs now than in that year. He said similar declines were registered for older users. The data came from a survey done at the University of Michigan for the National Institute For Substance Abuse. Walters credited drug testing for much of the decline and urged its expansion in schools and elsewhere. He was in Portland to outline President Bush's anti-drug strategy for 2007, which includes a media campaign, nonpunitive random student drug testing and more local anti-drug coalitions. President Bush's drug control budget for calls for $12.9 billion for prevention, treatment and supply reduction campaigns. He said the number of small methamphetamine labs found in Oregon dropped by 87 percent from 2004-2006, the year Oregon became the first state to require a prescription for cold remedies containing pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in making methamphetamine. Walters reported some 840,000 fewer young people in the United States using drugs than in 2001. The administration report says about 19.7 million Americans reported usuing at least one illegal substance in the month before the survey. Complete Title: In Ore. Visit, Drug Czar Reports Drop in Illegal Drug UseSource: Associated Press (Wire)Author: Joseph B. Frazier, The Associated Press Published:  February 9, 2007Copyright: 2007 Associated Press Related Articles:Does Bush Want Kids To Smoke Pot?http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22616.shtmlBush Wants Funding Jump for Anti-Drug Adshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22613.shtml
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Comment #25 posted by mayan on February 11, 2007 at 13:42:58 PT
"Second" Only To Marijuana
Walters said the goal of the Bush administration is to reduce prescription drug abuse by 15 percent over three years and said the problem is second only to marijuana.Prescription drugs kill over a hundred-thousand Americans each year but cannabis kills nobody. Yeah, cannabis sure is the bigger problem. Right! 
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Comment #24 posted by charmed quark on February 11, 2007 at 09:23:46 PT
Dutch vs. US teen drug use
Dutch teen 30-day cannabis declined from 10.8% in 1996 to 8.3% in 2003 ( latest year numbers are available). In the US for the same dates, it went from about 17% to 15% ( estimate by averaging use for 8th, 10th and 12th graders - couldn't find numbers for entire age collection).So lets see - the Dutch have a significantly lower teenage frequent use of cannabis than the US and it has declined by pretty much the same percentage over time.Yet in the Netherlands it's essentially legal for adults and in the US, over that time period, marijuana arrests went from 400,000 a year to around 800,000.And Dutch youth have lower use rates of hard drugs than the US.So which policy do you think is working better?
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Comment #23 posted by John Tyler on February 11, 2007 at 07:46:52 PT
Mission Accomplished
Why don’t they dust off the old “MISSION ACCOMPLISHED” banner and hang it in front of the Drug Czar’s building then?
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Comment #22 posted by Toker00 on February 11, 2007 at 03:56:51 PT
Hope Kapt.
Yes, Hope, they have been using our heads as shovel blades. But you know what? The handle just broke on that shovel. When Dennis gets through with them, they'll be digging their graves with their own two hands. They will dig until they hit bedrock and their fingers become useless, then they will die the DEAth they deserve. Meanwhile, the shovel head has a new handle and freshly sharpened blade, anxious to begin the back fill.The black eye, the salt in the wound, now go for the gonads Dennis! Slice, Slice Kapt.!Toke. 
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Comment #21 posted by b4daylight on February 10, 2007 at 20:21:01 PT
lie
He said the number of small methamphetamine labs found in Oregon dropped by 87 percent from 2004-2006, the year Oregon became the first state to require a prescription for cold remedies containing pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in making methamphetamine.Yet at the same time illegal immigration helped spread potent Meth from Mexico in the US by the ton. 
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Comment #20 posted by kaptinemo on February 10, 2007 at 17:02:57 PT:
The final gesture of defiance
As in the pressures are mounting nationwide for Dennis Kucinich's committee to begin investigations. By a signal twist of fate, one of the most vocal critics of the DrugWar has been placed in a position of oversight of the DrugWar organization most responsible for the waste of billions of the taxpayer's dollars. Johnny Pee's little bureaucratic satrapy has enjoyed unparalleled immunity from true and effective Congressional oversight thanks to being shielded by the Republican domination of the political machinery. That shield has been removed.It was bad enough the GAO gave the ONDCP a black eye thanks to this report: Aspects of Advertising Contract Mismanaged by the Government; Contractor Improperly Charged Some Costs http://tinyurl.com/2tqn7h This is the one where the GAO took the ONDCP to task for being ripped off by the advertsing wonks they hired to make those insulting 2002 Super Bowl ads. There were a couple of indictments out of that one; pity the ONDCP personnel didn't catch a little of the Hell those ad wonks did; they're just as guilty in my book.Even worse when the GAO released this one: Contractor’s National Evaluation Did Not Find That the Youth Anti-Drug Media
Campaign Was Effective in Reducing Youth Drug Use: http://tinyurl.com/2vfdkn This one just poured salt in the wound made by the previous report; not only was their effort a flop, but a flop that thudded into the ground with the force of 1 billion dollars plus. That's a lot of treatment center budgets. Both eyes blackened and bruised, and they have the gall to say that they are effective? They should lay off the alcohol; it's becoming evident they are suffering brain cell loss from claiming that they are having a positive effect when every government yardstick used says otherwise. Dennis's committee has had a huge plate of Sitting Duck put in front of it when it gained oversight of the ONDCP. It's already been plucked, skinned, dressed and cooked courtesy of the above reports. All Dennis has to do is start slicing. I can't wait...
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Comment #19 posted by potpal on February 10, 2007 at 14:20:15 PT
timing
John Walters, drug whorrior, apparently timing the bullsh*t for a bump in his propaganda budget. Who believes him?Sow every seed.
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Comment #18 posted by charmed quark on February 10, 2007 at 08:49:46 PT
Cannabis use down - hard drugs steady
I like the way they lump all drugs together as if they all are just as dangerous. I tried to wade through their source material. They don't give an uncertainty to the numbers the way you do with scientific surveys. My gues is, there is at least a 3-5% uncertainty in the answers.The numbers, of course, are driven by cannabis. Any use at any time of any drug for 12th graders was 54% in 2001 and 48% in 2006. Probably just outside the statistical noise. Drug use excluding marijuana was 31% in 2001 and 27% in 2006 - probably within the sampling noise.More interesting, inhalent use essential steady over this period for 8th graders at around 17% ( actually went up a bit in between and then down a bit, all within the noise, I think).So how successful is a policy where the main change in the last 5 years MAY have been a slight decline in pot use while inhalent abuse stay the same and misuse of powerful prescription drugs may have gone up?
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Comment #17 posted by Hope on February 10, 2007 at 08:21:45 PT
Toker00
Bet you're right!It's not going to be as easy for them as it always has...and the thing is...the more people they arrest... the more our case is made.Yup. I think they're digging there own graves. Trouble is...they're using our heads for shovels.
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Comment #16 posted by Toker00 on February 10, 2007 at 08:16:20 PT
Thanks, FoM.
I tell ya, the '08 candidates are going to have a hard time dodging our questions about these enormous problems we face. They are going to have to crawl so far under the Fascist rock they won't be visible and the ones that are, will be the ones who have listened to us and will take the Lead in this soon to be New World.Toke.
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Comment #15 posted by Toker00 on February 10, 2007 at 08:09:35 PT
Drug Prohibition
Has been a failure since it's inception, and constantly propped up by lies and lobbies by Elito-Petro-Pharmo-Fascists. It's merely a compilation of several failed agencies rolled into one mega-FAILURE that has culminated into Global Warming, The American Police State, The Destruction of our Constitution and the War OF Terror. One plant could have, and eventually will, prevent all of that. But it can't if we don't protect it from these idolaters of Power and Money.Flood the world with cannabis and put out the fires of hatred, violence and intolerance. GROW, GROW, GROW!CANNABIS: A history. Martin Booth.:...'Twenty-three months later, Nixon announced to the US Congress a war on drugs, declared the situation was tantamount to a national emergency and instituted the Special Action Office for Drug Abuse Prevention and the  Office for Drug Abuse Law Enforcement (ODALE). These were given the right to freeze suspected drug dealers' assets and seize property and bank accounts. US Embassies abroad were told to target drug producers and millions of dollars were put aside for crop-substitution programmes, replacing opium poppies, coca bushes and marijuana with commercial fruit or vegetable crops.ADMINISTRATIVELY, THE WAR ON DRUGS ALSO RESTRUCTURED THE AMERICAN LAW-ENFORCEMENT SYSTEM.'Yeah!!! They restructured it alright. They took away Peace Officers and gave us War Officers. WAR AGAINST US IS DISJUSTICE! WAR AGAINST US IS DISJUSTICE! Not to mention unconstitutional.'By 1968, the FBN was in turmoil. It had become inefficient and, worse, corrupt. Additionally, it was also at permanent loggerheads with the Bureau of Drug Abuse Control (BDAC), the enforcement arm of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). In 1968, these two bureaus were combined into the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs (BNADD) in the US Justice Department. In 1973, Nixon amalgamated the BNDD, ODALE and all other drug-associated offices, such as the Office of National Narcotics Intelligence (ONNI), into one unit. It was called the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) which, by the mid-1970s, had about ten thousand agents operating world-wide.'And the entire world has suffered NEEDLESSLY since. It's up to us to heal the world. We must Free Cannabis.Toke. 
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Comment #14 posted by FoM on February 10, 2007 at 07:52:23 PT
Toker00
Maybe some libraries might have the movie. http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/IndividualItemPages/CrudeImpact.html
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Comment #13 posted by FoM on February 10, 2007 at 07:38:06 PT
Toker00
This link was a part of the movie last night.http://www.pachamama.org/
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on February 10, 2007 at 07:26:24 PT
Toker00
I was really impacted by the program last night. I don't know if they have a transcript but I will look. They do have a couple videos on Link TV but if you are having trouble getting videos that won't help much I know. I was following links from the program and found a 4 part series from the BBC called Why We Fight. I am going to try to watch this today sometime.This was what I saw last night.Crude ImpactLength: 01:00 Type of program: DocumentarySee clips from the film: WATCH VIDEO: Crude Impact: Oil, the Earth and HumanityWATCH VIDEO: Crude Impact: The Sixth Great ExtinctionWATCH VIDEO: Crude Impact: Proof of Peak OilFor upcoming airtimes, see Special: The End of Oil - Part 1, which features Crude Impact. The new documentary Crude Impact by filmmaker and environmentalist James Wood explores the interconnection between human domination of the planet and the discovery and use of oil. It also exposes our deep-rooted dependency on the availability of fossil fuel energy and examines the future implications of peak oil, which Wood describes as “the point in time when the quantity of oil extracted from the earth begins to irreversibly decline.” “The ramifications of peak oil are terrifying,” Wood says, “and they reverberate all across the globe.” Journeying from the West African delta region to the heart of the Amazon rainforest, from Washington to Shanghai, and from early man to the unknown future, Crude Impact chronicles the collision of our insatiable appetite for oil with the rights and livelihoods of indigenous cultures, other species and the planet itself. Woods drew his inspiration for the film from his work with the Pachamama Alliance, whose mission is to preserve the Amazon rainforest by empowering its indigenous people and promoting a new global vision of sustainability.  This exclusive sneak peak of Crude Impact is a 60-minute excerpt from the 98-minute full-length feature film. http://www.worldlinktv.org/programming/programDescription.php4?code=end_oil1Why We Fight: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xYeuzG24mo
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Comment #11 posted by Toker00 on February 10, 2007 at 07:19:03 PT
Cannabis: A History. Martin Booth.
'Harry J.Anslinger died on 14 November 1975, in Atoona, Pennsylvania. He was eighty-three, blind and reliant upon morphine as a pain killer. He must have been delusioned. Everything for which he had striven seemed to have come apart and he could not understand how middle America had become so besotted with the idea of marijuana and, to a lesser degree, LSD.'His DEAth legacy is Blind, Delusional and just as addicted to legal drugs as he was. Pray for it's DEAth. Obituary: THE DRUG WAR DIED ON -- NOVEMBER 2007, INTERNATIONALLY.Here's something interesting about President Gerald Ford:'One of those demanding the reassessment of Anslinger's and his successor's policies was President Gerald Ford who did not have the views on drug abuse held by his predecessor, Richard Nixon. Ford preferred that federal policy should admit the reality of drug abuse and ordered yet another commission to look at the issue. In 1975, it reiterated the previous findings that marijuana was not a threat to society, the elimination of drug abuse was unlikely and government actions could contain the problem and limit any adverse effects. It also suggested that federal funding should target the big international drug cartels not small domestic growers.'Reform was within our grasp until Mexico started planting opium poppies along with cannabis and the rest is Drug War history.Toke.
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Comment #10 posted by Toker00 on February 10, 2007 at 04:52:20 PT
FoM
Is there anyplace that has just the transcript of the program? My videoing days have never been very good, but this is one I want to watch/read about. The Crude Impact book is available but money isn't right now. You seem to have been "Impacted" by this program. Curious to see why. I've read peak oil, but this seems to be about something we can do about it. I'll get the DVDs and book eventually. Thanks for the link.Toke.
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Comment #9 posted by afterburner on February 09, 2007 at 21:57:26 PT
Two Relevant Views
CN NF: PUB LTE: The Drug Deal: Columnist Offers Excellent, The Aurora, (05 Feb 2007) 
http://www.mapinc.org/newstcl/v07/n151/a03.html?176
Robert Sharpe, MPA Policy Analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy CN NF: PUB LTE: The Drug Deal, The Aurora, (05 Feb 2007) 
http://www.mapinc.org/newstcl/v07/n151/a10.html?176
Russell Barth, Federal Medical Marijuana License Holder Must rest now. Talk later.
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on February 09, 2007 at 21:34:54 PT
About The Program
It almost scared me to think they said what they did. This movie was an eye opener for me. http://www.crudeimpact.com/page.asp?content_id=9585
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Comment #7 posted by Hope on February 09, 2007 at 21:22:45 PT
Comment 2  A "real" hippie.
Peter Coyote.
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Comment #6 posted by Hope on February 09, 2007 at 20:26:17 PT
Survey?
I've finally figured out, I think, where these "surveys" come from. Prison, probation, and parole records...and "reports", "data", and "statistics" on reported drug tests.
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Comment #5 posted by Toker00 on February 09, 2007 at 19:42:51 PT
Let's shut this Religous Right pie hole!
Attack from ALL angles.http://ga3.org/campaign/donohueToke.
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Comment #4 posted by Toker00 on February 09, 2007 at 19:31:19 PT
Can you please help? Mimi Kennedy
Dear Fellow Progressives, They're shooting down our helicopters in Iraq. Bush and Congress have waited so long that our troops are now imperiled 
in the air -- the route many of them will have to take home. This blood-soaked stubbornness, stupidity and greed has to stop. It 
isn't helping Iraqis; diplomacy and honest reconstruction could help 
Iraqis. We elected a Democratic Congress with the understanding that they were 
to stop this war. Incredibly, leadership is falling back on 
narcissistic habits of posturing for imaginary electoral advantage, while the 
troops they insist we support die in greater numbers than ever. I'm an actor, but these words spring from the heart - in my capacity as 
the national chair of Progressive Democrats of America. PDA backed Jim McGovern's de-funding bill in the 109th Congress and 
backs it now as H.R. 746, "The Safe and Orderly Withdrawal from Iraq Act."  
This bill would bring about a withdrawal of our troops from Iraq over a 
180-day period. Upon completion of withdrawal it would terminate funds 
for all military deployment in Iraq. PDA also backs H.R. 508, "The Bring the Troops Home and Iraq 
Sovereignty Restoration Act" from PDA Board and Congressional Progressive Caucus 
members Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee and Maxine Waters. This bill would 
bring U.S. troops and military contractors in Iraq home in a six-month 
time frame as part of a fully-funded redeployment plan. It would 
renounce permanent U.S. military bases in Iraq and rescind the President's 
Iraq war authority granted him in Oct. 2002. It would help with 
reconstruction under Iraqi contracts. And it would fully fund mental and 
physical health care for our returning vets. PDA, funded by you, did much to elect this Congress. Our creative 
strategies and coalitions protected the vote when Democratic leadership 
closed their eyes to the problem of vote fraud. Our mobilizing and 
delivering the progressive vote increased progressive representation. Our 
friends on Capitol Hill are telling us that many new House members are 
strongly progressive and want the strongest possible legislation to end 
the war. They're making the leadership anxious.  PDA is keeping up the pressure, thanks to you. Here come the 
presidential candidates to Hollywood, trolling for money, while the killing 
continues. PDA is working to save lives. Give your money to PDA and it 
goes to push Democrats to end this war, period. Without that, their 
campaign promises are blood-soaked dreams. Peace,Mimi KennedyPDA ChairProgressive Democrats of America is a grassroots PAC that works both 
inside the Democratic Party and outside in movements for peace and 
justice. Our goal: Extend the victory of Nov. 2006 into a permanent, 
progressive majority. PDA's advisory board includes six members of Congress 
and activist leaders such as Tom Hayden, Cindy Sheehan, Medea Benjamin 
and Rev. Lennox Yearwood. More info: http://pdamerica.org/.   Donate to help PDA grow. Toke.
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Comment #3 posted by Toker00 on February 09, 2007 at 18:51:09 PT
Like Bush, like Walters.
Like Anslinger, like Bush, like Walters. Lie your way into the office, lie the entire time you are in office, then lie your way out of office. The DEAth are not LAW Enforcers, they are LIE Enforcers. I've said that before and you'll hear me say it again. We've had to expose these LIES in order to change the LAWS. Kucinich, we have done the Labor, now you do the Policy changing. You have at least 20 million Americans counting on you. Three hundred million actually, the other 280 million just don't know it yet.Toke. 
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on February 09, 2007 at 17:47:37 PT
Off Topic: Special: The End of Oil - Part 2 
This program is excellent. The End of Oil - Part 2 is the second half of a special four-hour programming block exposing the facts and quickly approaching consequences of our dwindling world oil supply. The special features Link TV’s original program Outside the Box with Peter Coyote: Beyond Big Oil and the controversial BBC documentary Global Warming: Bush’s Climate of Fear. The special will be hosted and debated throughout by renowned environmental reporter Mark Hertsgaard, actor/writer Peter Coyote, author Antonia Juhasz ("The Bush Agenda: Invading the World, One Economy at a Time") and James Wood, director of Crude Impact.http://www.worldlinktv.org/programming/programDescription.php4?code=end_oil 
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Comment #1 posted by MikeEEEEE on February 09, 2007 at 16:50:07 PT
Cough
Cough....cough...BS...cough....cough....BS...Often involuntarily....they use the kiddies, who probably don't know or can't read a constitution. Let alone, protect their own freedoms.It's been said before: these numbers can't be accurate because of the incrimination associated with the illegal status.
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