Pubdate: Wed, 13 Mar 2013
Source: Glendale News-Press (CA)
Copyright: 2013 Times Community Newspapers
Contact:  http://www.glendalenewspress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/167
Author: Scott Peer

STORIES DON'T TELL WHOLE DRUG-WAR STORY

I am disappointed to see that the Glendale News-Press continues to
support our nation's failed war on drugs ("Police: Man busted with meth, 
ill child," March 7 and "Woman killed crossing Central Avenue," March 
7). Like alcohol prohibition before it, drug prohibition has fueled 
violent crime.

Our current prohibition has also made it harder for addicts to get
treatment and made the U.S. the world leader in incarceration. The
true cost of the drug war is easy to find at sources like the Drug
Policy Alliance.

But this side of the story is entirely absent in Glendale News-Press
reporting. Instead, we get a sensational article about an addict that
fails to mention that he might have been cured if we invested in
treatment, rather than prisons. The article about the tragic
pedestrian death insinuates that the reason she was killed was because
the driver was under the influence of marijuana. But the article does
not mention how weak the studies are that link marijuana use to unsafe
driving, and how those studies were funded by groups that benefit from
the war on drugs. Although both articles may be factually correct, it
is clear that they chose their facts to support the drug war.

Scott Peer

Glendale
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