Posted on 09/27/2010 7:19:45 AM PDT by bassmaner
Kathryn, theres no need to go through the drug debate all over again, but I did read what Bill Bennett and the others had to say, and I am afraid I was left shaking my head. After the destruction that the drug warriors have caused in this country and others (not to speak of their disastrous contribution to the war in Afghanistan), a little more humility on their part would go a long, long way. Weve yet to see it.
No matter. I had a look at the report cited by Mr. Bennett and, having done so, I can only congratulate him on the deft way he has borrowed the classic liberal technique of persuasion by crisis. I guess big government types are pretty much the same on either side of the aisle.
The alarm being sounded is that drug use was on the rise in 2009. Looking at the same statistics (which are taken from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health) as Mr. Bennett, that certainly seems to be true, but what does that rise really mean? If we look more closely at the data (and, more specifically, at the percentage of the population over the age of 12 using a particular drug), we see that cocaine use is flat (and down from the levels of a couple of years ago), hallucinogen consumption is up, but the overall level remains relatively low as a percentage of the population (and is the same as where it stood in 2002), the illicit use of psychotherapeutics (prescription drugs) is up, but to 2007 levels, and is still below the total estimated for 2006. The largest increase has been in marijuana use. 6.6 percent of the population were estimated to tried pot in the last month up from the roughly 6 percent that has been the norm since 2002, a jump certainly, but given the inevitable uncertainties that surround this data, and given that marijuana is a relatively benign drug, hardly cause for an Al Gore-style shriek.
Relatively benign? Well, lets look at the total of nearly 40,000 fatal drug overdoses (from all drugs) used by Mr. Bennett as the centerpiece of his piece. Thats not a number I can find in the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (perhaps the fault is mine), but if we turn to a recent piece of commentary on a CDC injury center blog, a total of 28,000 deaths from accidental drug overdose is given by the CDC for 2006, with the increase being primarily attributable to prescription drugs. No reference is made to marijuana.
Could it be because killing yourself with a marijuana overdose would require rather more energy than most stoners can manage? On some estimates, the user would have to consume (in one session) an amount roughly equivalent to some five thousand times the dose needed to get high. Im reluctant to say that it could never have happened, but the record appears to show that there have been no deaths directly and/or solely attributable to marijuana overdose in the United States.
Food for thought, I would think
Just bet him that he is wrong.....
(snicker)
LOL!
Leftists are all pro legalizing drugs, that is one of the left's fundamental principals, like outlawing abortion is to conservatives.
Nevermind that. Ask all of these “return to Constitutional limits” people where the Constitutional power can be found that authorized the Controlled Substance Act or the DEA. The best they can do is say the Commerce Clause,which puts them on all fours with FDR and the worst liberals we’ve ever had. So it goes.
“Could it be because killing yourself with a marijuana overdose would require rather more energy than most stoners can manage? Food for thought,”
Hehe hehe hehe hehe. Stoned. Food. MUNCHIES! I’ve got dibs on the White Castles! LOL.
You could never get that stoned. You’d pass out first. Or forget where you put your stash.
FReepers LOVE the big government Commerce Clause.
They help keep the left in power because without the New Deal Commerce Clause, you need a Prohibition Amendment.
FReepers love the War on Drugs more than they dislike Socialism.
Bennett is a tool of the Left.
I win the debate.
And they are against tobacco, booze, gambling and other personal vice like stuff too that the Constitution says are illegal....
Or did no one here get that addendum?
Right, before the leftist/libertarians made their massive gains in the 1960s and after, the American people were very conservative, and maintained control over their culture and vice laws.
The first national drug prohibition law was passed 1914 and signed into law by Woodrow Wilson.
The first national marijuana prohibition law was passed in 1937 and signed into law by FDR.
Che Guevara constantly railed against drugs and alcohol because they inhibited 'revolutionary fervor'.
Now what side's 'fundamental principles' are being violated by the re-legalization of certain drugs?
“Leftists are all pro legalizing drugs, “
I’m not sure of this. The left in Congress vote in all the tough dope laws. Nobody runs on a pro-dope platform that I know of (except the fringe parties, Peace&Freedom, www.maybelogic.com/gunsanddopeparty/ )
Since the abuse of prescription drugs is included in this drug abuse statistic, are you against prescriptions being required for any substance?
If they were over the counter, insurance companies would cheer because they wouldn’t have to offer a “co-pay” anymore.
There are nations that have such policy.
You really are not aware that it is the left that drives the pro dope position? That is your honest confession?
I didn’t notice you denying that “Leftists are all pro legalizing drugs, that is one of the left’s fundamental principals”.
The fact that some leftists may want to decriminalize drugs on a Federal level does not, repeat not, make the opposite position a Constitutional one.
Since the drug trade is an international war against America involving dozens of nations, it would be pretty hard to deal with it on a purely state by state basis. Nebraska might like Afghan Opium and Cannabis products but them dealing directly with Afghanistan or for Colombian Cocaine supplies would sure complicate things.
My limited look at voting records suggests that the lefties in congress frequently vote for anti-drug laws.
On the state level, the recent vote to ban salvia in Delaware was supported by dems and pubbies.
You do not think that the left is the primary force behind pushing the pro drug agenda in America?
I don’t know. Why do you think they are?
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