Pubdate: Sun, 24 Aug 2014
Source: Post-Tribune (Merrillville, IN)
Copyright: 2014 Post-Tribune
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/DenTBXGM
Website: http://posttrib.suntimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3349
Author: David Rutter

ANTI-DRUG MEATLOAF WILL MAKE US ALL MORE SOBER

Once upon a time, I stood in a batter's box and faced a baseball
pitcher who threw so hard I could not even see the ball. I just heard
it go by.

The 1960s were like that, too. I apparently missed the 1960s though I
was standing in the batter's box.

Missed drug temptation and curiosity, except for Novocain. It's a gap
in my life, which probably means I won't be enlisting in the
"transformational" anti-drug crusade in Porter County.

We appreciate the urgency to spend as much of other people's money as
possible and appear to exemplify good motives, even if there is no
evidence any of it works.

Nonetheless, one of these days I instead will fly to Denver and smoke
my first marijuana cigarette. It's a "bucket list" item.

My moment won't be "transformational" in the same way "Empower Porter
County" is transformational because that outreach organization of
Porter County government is trying to stamp out marijuana. Kill it
stone dead, so to speak.

The ambition, restated triumphantly by the organization, presumes that
we all know what we're transforming from and into. The organization's
documents about goals and capabilities evoke echoes of Andy Kaufman's
famous lip-syncing of Mighty Mouse's "Here I Come to Save The Day"
anthem.

Empower Porter County is the admission by Porter County politicians
that they've done a lousy job stamping out illicit drug use by trying
to talk it to death. But a county is never broke as long as it has a
checkbook.

Of the two-person staff's current, three-year $750,000 annual budget,
$450,000 comes from the county commissioners. Valparaiso, Portage and
the Porter County Community Foundation each kicked in $75,000. The
United Way and Porter Regional Hospital both added $30,000. NIPSCO
gave $15,000.

Empower Porter County promises it will succeed where others have
stumbled because, well, because. What they have for the money so far
is an executive director, a staff member and a website.

The website is deeply exercised about marijuana, the debate about
marijuana, the very idea that marijuana might be legalized in Indiana.
Frankly, they're a little freaky about the topic.

This apoplectic fixation crashes into history and, I fear, reality.
Hate to break the news, but the pot argument seems mostly over.

The website notes parenthetically that the organization also is
against illicit prescription drugs, which kill 700 or so Hoosiers a
year. Meth? Cocaine? Heroin? They're bad, too, but not nearly as
worrisome as pot, which kills some brain cells and many bags of Doritos.

No mention of tobacco or booze, which are sort-of-bad drugs if you
apply the "causes people to be dead" rule.

In some ways, Empower Porter County is like those ancient Japanese
soldiers who hid in Philippine jungles not knowing the war ended 70
years ago.

But as long as there's public money to spend, the war is never over.
County commission president John Evans told a reporter, "Eradicating
the drug problem is not easy or inexpensive. If this or any other
intervention measure saves a life, the cost is justified."

Any group that expects to eradicate illicit drugs by spending $750,000
might be accused of imbibing its own hallucinogen. Evans' second point
is rhetorical gibberish.

Commissioner Laura Blaney told reporters, "our children's lives are at
stake ... doing nothing will only cost more tax dollars down the road."
This 750 grand looks suspiciously like that "more tax dollars down the
road."

The county has spent millions on various anti-drug solutions over the
decades that have produced nothing but intractable bureaucracies and
resume inflation. Porter County always has shown a fondness for
quasi-governmental, perpetual motion machines. Maybe it's the thought
that counts.

But the Empower Porter County website does feature one inspired
educational component. Under the headline "Recipe of the Week" and
subtitled "First Recipe Dummy" posted on July 24, it announces
"Meatloaf." Under ingredients, it lists one. Ground beef.

That's one heck of a powerful drug-fighting recipe.

As Evans might say, if one empowered meatloaf recipe for $750,000
saves one Porter County teen from Pepto-Bismol addiction, it will be
money well spent.

As for me, I'll write from Denver and reveal details of my personal
Cheech and Chong moment. It will be transformational. 
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MAP posted-by: Jo-D