Pompo

US Drug Czar Mis-Used Marijuana Statistics as Scare Tactics While Arrests Soar, Reports Reveal
The US House of Representatives celebrates the end of alcohol prohibition, while marijuana users are still considered criminals.
10/9/08|Salem-News.com| by Bonnie King - Salem-News.com


Photo courtesy of Salem-News.com and Current.com

The major U.S. government study of drug use shows that the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy has badly failed to meet its own goals for reducing use of marijuana and other illegal drugs, according to a pair of new reports by George Mason University senior fellow Jon Gettman, Ph.D.

In addition, ONDCP and its chief, "Drug Czar" John Walters, have misused treatment statistics to suggest that marijuana is dangerously addictive when the government's own data suggest that arrest-driven treatment admissions have wasted tax dollars by treating thousands who were not truly drug-dependent.

All while the FBI's new tally is the highest marijuana arrest total ever-reported in law enforcement history.

"The government's own statistics demolish the White House drug czar's claims of success in his obsessive war on marijuana," said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. Kampia noted that during Walters' tenure, ONDCP has released at least 127 separate anti-marijuana TV, radio and print ads and 34 press releases focused mainly on marijuana, in addition to 50 reports from ONDCP and other federal agencies on marijuana or anti-marijuana campaigns.

"The most intense war on marijuana since 'Reefer Madness,' including record numbers of arrests every year since 2003, has wasted billions of dollars and produced nothing except pain and ruined lives."

Gettman, who made international headlines in December 2006 with an analysis showing that marijuana is the top cash crop in the United States, noted the following in his new report:

*In 2007 there were 14.5 million current users of marijuana in the United States, compared with 14.6 million in 2002, while the number of Americans who have ever used marijuana actually increased.

*ONDCP has not come close to meeting its goal of reducing illegal drug use by 25 percent by 2007.

*There was a marked jump in the percentage of marijuana treatment admissions referred by the criminal justice system from 1992 to 2006, while just 45 percent of marijuana admissions met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) criteria for marijuana dependence.

According to data just released in the FBI's annual Uniform Crime Report, police in 2007 arrested over 872,000 US citizens - that's nearly one out of every two Americans busted for illicit drugs -- for weed. That is more than three times the number of citizens charged with pot violations sixteen years ago.

Of those arrested in 2007, 89 percent, that's 775,000 Americans, were charged with simple pot possession. Not trafficking, not cultivation, not selling.

Ironically, on September 17th, the US House of Representatives passed a resolution “commemorating” the repeal of the failed “Great Experiment,” commonly known as Prohibition. In the afternoon, before what turned out to be a very short debate on the House floor, Rep. Coble posted a note on a blog which said, “In 1919, following the passage of the 18th Amendment, which prohibited 'the manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors,' the United States experienced a dramatic increase in illegal activity including unsafe black market alcohol production, a growth in organized crime, and increasing noncompliance with alcohol laws.”

Cannabis and drug legalization advocates couldn't help but notice the correlation to marijuana prohibition and the millions of lives that have been lost or ruined by today's laws.

The hypocrisy and contradiction of passing this resolution while ignoring the current crime, violence, death and disease associated with today’s “War on Drugs” is not lost on any person paying attention.

The Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) and groups such as the OCTA (Oregon Cannabis Tax Act) supporters believe that the best way to minimize the harm associated with marijuana is to regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol, therefore ending another "Great Prohibition" for the American people.

Democratic President Franklin Roosevelt denounced Prohibition as "a damnable affliction," and declared, "We have…reached the point as a Nation where we must take action to save the Constitution from the Court" of "Nine Old Men." Roosevelt, America's most-loved president, said: "Let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts.... Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.... Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.... They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish."

Both reports and a summary of all the findings are available at: The Bulletin of Cannabis Reform; FBI findings at: Persons Arrested - Crime in the United States 2007.

Sources: Alternet.org; ONDCP; FBI; MPP