Pubdate: Sun, 24 Aug 2003 Source: Beaufort Gazette, The (SC) Copyright: 2003 The Beaufort Gazette Contact: http://www.beaufortgazette.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1806 Author: Mett Ausley Jr., M.D. Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1209/a05.html DRUG 'EPIDEMIC' MERELY PROPAGANDA The Gazette's editorial on synthetic drugs (Drug Task Force Steps Up Activity, Aug. 10) warns of a supposed "wildfire" of amphetamine and ecstasy abuse approaching from the west without documenting or explaining this peculiar geographic progression. Granted, drug use varies with locale and demographics, but common sense dictates that drugs follow the same routes and timetables as people, not the winds or Earth's rotation. I suspect these drugs have been here for some time; the imagery of an impending "epidemic" is little more than the usual overheated propaganda. As for the conclusion that "the price of drug interdiction has gone up," well certainly! When do bureaucrats admit they can get by on less? Contrary to narcotics officials' alarmism, no clinical studies on real patients indicate that synthetic drugs cause any form of progressive dementia, much less threaten to create "a generation of vegetables." As for mechanisms of brain damage, I'm familiar with concepts like demyelination and hypoxia, but only a klutzy neurosurgeon "drills holes in the brain." Excuse me if I find such reports unconvincing and advise others to regard them with skepticism. Mett Ausley Jr., M.D. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh