Regarding Nick Gillespie's excellent October 8 essay ["Your bong: Basis of "narco-terrorism"?], the illicit drug of choice in America is domestically grown marijuana, not Colombian cocaine or Afghan heroin. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Admininstration's misleading drug-terror propaganda may lead Americans to mistakenly conclude that marijuana smokers are somehow responsible for the tragic events of September 11. That misperception is likely no accident. Taxing and regulating marijuana would render the drug war obsolete. As long as marijuana remains illegal and distributed by organized crime, consumers will continue to come into contact with hard drugs like cocaine and heroin. For obvious reasons, government bureaucrats-- whose jobs depend on a never-ending drug war-- prefer to blame the plant itself for the alleged "gateway" to hard drugs. Robert Sharpe Policy Analyst, Common Sense for Drug Policy Washington, D.C. [end]
Two cheers for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), whose latest public relations effort usefully reminds us that propaganda is not simply intellectually dishonest. It's also morally repulsive. Even critical news accounts of the DEA's traveling exhibit, "Target America: Drug Traffickers, Terrorists, and You" don't quite convey the truly repugnant nature of this taxpayer- and government-contractor-funded display of drug war hysteria. Originally created in 2002, the exhibit debuted in a newly expanded version on September 14 in the lobby of One Times Square-- the famous triangular building in arguably the busiest intersection in America-- and there it will stay until January 2005, courtesy of the folks at the DEA, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the biometric technology giant CrossMatch, and many others. [continues 808 words]
UVA School of Medicine and Patients Out of Time are sponsoring the Third National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics May 20-22 in Charlottesville at the Omni, and are urging legislators to attend. [end]
