How the Corporate Media and Journalists Perpetuate Lies and Misinformation About Drugs
From the article:
Journalists are no less likely to take drugs than anyone else—indeed, in my admittedly anecdotal experience, they’re more likely to use. You’d think that this would make us especially skeptical both about federal policies that failed to prevent our own drug-taking and about extreme claims about drug users.
But the press may actually be one of the biggest obstacles to reform. Instead of asking tough questions, reporters tend to simply parrot conventional wisdom—and reinforce the idea that the drug war is the only way, even when drug warriors’ claims contradict the evidence of the writers’ own lives.
Unfortunately, the release of a study last week purporting to show that casual marijuana use causes brain damage shows that this is not an isolated incident. Here are just some of the headlines, as gathered by one of the few skeptical articles, written by John Gever for MedPage Today:
“Marijuana News: Casual Pot Use Impacts Brains of Young Adults, Researchers Find” (The Oregonian)
“Study Finds Brain Changes in Young Marijuana Users” (Boston Globe)
“Casual Marijuana Use Linked to Brain Changes” (USA Today)
“Even Casually Smoking Marijuana Can Change Your Brain, Study Says” (Washington Post)
“Study Finds Changes in Pot Smokers’ Brains” (Denver Post)
“Recreational Pot Use Harmful to Young People’s Brains” (Time)
So, what’s the problem here? Although the press release that accompanied the study implied otherwise, the research itself is completely mis-characterized in these stories.
The “book” and the DEA/FDA tells us that these drugs are ADDICTIVE.. when in fact that they are POTENTIALLY ADDICTIVE..
Just think about it… all the opiates that you dispense for acute pain.. one or two Rxs for one or two dozen doses of opiates… and you never see the pt after that for any more opiates.. WHY didn’t they become ADDICTED ? If these drugs are so ADDICTING ?
Recently the Feds announced that they are allocating 200 million dollars to treat those with mental health issues.. that are addicted to drugs or at risk of becoming addicted to drugs.. It is estimated that there is some SIX MILLION people abusing some substance.. so that is a WHOPPING $33.00 per person to fight mental health and addiction.
According to this article : http://www.drugpolicy.org/wasted-tax-dollars
We spend 51 BILLION DOLLARS annually .. fighting the war on drugs.. that is $8,500 per person abusing some substance.. and we have spent more than ONE TRILLION DOLLARS in the last FOUR DECADES.. fighting this war.
So we spend TWO HUNDRED FIFTY TIMES the dollars in fighting the war.. than what we have now allocated to help treat the mental health issues.. that we all know is the underlying causing of nearly all people who abuse some substance.
I believe that the war on drugs is a self-perpetuating INDUSTRY… What do you think ?
Filed under: General Problems
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