Pubdate: Sun, 02 Jul 2000 Source: Santa Barbara News-Press (CA) Copyright: 2000 Santa Barbara News-Press Contact: P.O. Box 1359, Santa Barbara, CA 93102 Website: http://www.newspress.com/ Author: Travis L. Moon, is a Carpinteria writer. EXPLOITING INEQUITIES IN DRUGS OF CHOICE The recent and tragic sexual assault of a young Santa Barbara woman by three men who apparently used the so-called date-rape drug, GHB (gamma hydroxybutyrate) has exposed some of the most egregious hypocrisy by law enforcement and local media in regard to licit and illicit drugs. It is disappointing that the local media allow themselves to be willing accessories to the hyperbole and dissemination of anti-drug propaganda by those whose goal is to control illicit drug use by creating mass hysteria among citizens. According to the local media, authorities describe GHB sexual assaults as a "disturbing local trend." A deputy District Attorney says these types of assaults are reaching "epidemic proportions." Of course a handful of assaults on the Central Coast in the past year seems alarming at first. The idea that such assaults are reaching epidemic status is preposterous when one realizes that, at the current rate of alleged GHB assaults reported by the media, GHB would have to be around hundreds of years in order to even begin to scratch the surface of the damage done by alcohol and tobacco. What happened next was equally outlandish. The News-Press reported that downtown-area bars were reported to be "on alert" for "men spiking women's drinks with mind-altering substances," particularly GHB. A more honest and realistic statement is that bars were on alert for men spiking women's mind-altering substance with mind-altering substances. The idea that one can drug another's drink is absurdly redundant. Downtown bar owners have put up posters urging customers to "party smart" -- purchase their party drugs -- and to not let anyone spike their drinks -- another redundancy. It was further reported that bar employees and owners desire information in order to help to prevent the date-rape drug from claiming another victim. Despite the best efforts of the media and anti-drug coalitions to reduce GHB to a simple date-rape drug, I have to believe that most everyone recognizes the true date-rape drug is, was and always will be alcohol. These concerned bar owners and employees are just one more type of drug dealer, albeit legal. Every evening thousands of women across America become victims of physical and sexual assault as a result of alcohol intoxication. Individuals commit hundreds of crimes under the influence of alcohol, yet nobody refers to alcohol as the date-rape drug. Why is this? Why is it that GHB has been singled out? Why, according to media reports, is the drug MDMA (Ecstasy) a terrible scourge on society, second only to GHB, when the smallest percentage of users ever get harmed? To answer this question requires one to look back almost four decades. Even as late as 1960, LSD -- another Schedule 1 substance defined by the FDA as mind-altering with no good medical use -- was viewed as a promising drug. Researchers believed LSD was a useful and valuable tool in curing drug addiction, alcoholism, frigidity, psoriasis and other ailments. Of course, it was also used recreationally by the counter culture to enhance the senses, for recreation and to achieve spiritual goals. Slowly but surely, throughout the '60s, sensational media reports painted a bleak picture of LSD. Supposedly people were jumping out of windows thinking they could fly -- the only confirmed death from window jumping was a CIA employee who was given the drug without his knowledge or consent. Pseudo-scientists wrongly reported that LSD damaged chromosomes. Worse yet, any alleged murderer could blame his sociopathic behavior on LSD. The result is that LSD-related offenses are today punished more severely than some violent crimes. Drugs like LSD -- and soon to be MDMA and GHB -- are the only substances seen as such a threat that most states issue mandatory-minimum sentences to those found guilty of such offenses. These types of sentences are responsible for a three-fold increase in our prison population in the last decade. By the time spin-doctors got finished with LSD in the '70s, use of the drug was aligned more with evil and dark world of Charles Manson than with the joy and color of the Beatles. Absurdly long and harsh prison sentences related to use and dispensing of such drugs is almost surely to blame for the recent suicide of a Santa Barbara resident charged with possession of several vials of GHB. She was to stand trial here on felony charges, crimes for which there was no victim, and fearing a long prison sentence ironically chose alcohol and prescription medication -- lethal, but legal drugs - -- to end her life. Any reasonable person should recognize there is something amiss in our war on drugs when individuals choose death rather than serve absurdly long prison sentences for victimless crimes. She understood that her trial would be greatly influenced by the negative media reports of recent months, and that she would most likely have received a lengthy prison sentence to be made an example of. Law enforcement insists on reducing such a problem to the simple catch-phrase, "If you can't do the time, don't do the crime." The problem is, again, that the punishments for such crimes as possessing and using these substances are not proportionate to the harm done to society, if any harm is done at all. Media and law enforcement make the most out of propagandizing such rare cases where individuals commit real crimes while under the influence of GHB and other drugs but the people who pay the price in the end are those who use these drugs responsibly but somehow get caught anyway. What we find, then, is that authorities today are exploiting a tragic and horrific crime to further their own ends, which is to stop all illicit drug use while turning their backs on the dangers of socially acceptable, addictive drugs like alcohol and cigarettes. Those who are paying attention are able to witness the genesis of a propaganda campaign that 10 years from now may result in real capital charges against users of GHB and MDMA, valuable and enjoyable drugs that, with the right education, can enhance the quality of people's lives, and at the same time put alcohol companies right out of business. The final chapter on GHB and similar substances will be similar to that of LSD. You can bet that if the media, law enforcement and moralists have their way, ridiculously high prison sentences for GHB are sure to be on the horizon. While alcohol and cigarettes continue to destroy families with liver disease, cancer, alcoholism and drunk-driving accidents, potentially useful drugs such as GHB, LSD and MDMA will be blamed for the minute damage caused by the actions of very few people. It's a shame. With all the good that could come from open and honest discussions about the nature and value of illicit drugs in our society, the powers that be always choose the low road. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek