NATIONAL COLUMNIST REBUTS DRUG CZAR FANTASIES PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE DrugSense FOCUS Alert #244 May 28, 2002 Since his appointment to the unenviable job of being the nation's leading drug warrior this past December, John Walters has written several opinion pieces which quite frankly have been a few cards short of a full deck with regards to credibility and accuracy. From his suggestion that American marijuana users support international terrorism to the idea that they are major contributors to global ecological destruction, Walters has not only come across as dishonest, he has bordered on the hysterical. Nowhere was this more obvious than his late April rant that was published in the Washington Post and subsequently picked up on the syndicate wire by a half dozen other newspapers. Here he gravely intoned the dangers of 'harmless marijuana'. He prefaced by noting that for decades the American populace has snickered over reefer-madness propaganda and then he proceeded to lay out a full column's worth of the same misleading information. This column was nicely rebutted in each of the newspapers it ran in -- both by letter writers and also in a counterpoint column which ran in the St Petersburg Times. Now, three weeks after the fact, Chicago Tribune columnist Clarence Page wrote his own rebuttal and utterly dismantled the key talking points offered by Walters in his ill-advised piece. Page clearly shows how Walters manufactures imaginary statistics regarding marijuana potency levels. He also provides clear and honest examples of how the voters in eight states and the District of Columbia have decisively supported the legal access to medical marijuana within their own borders. This was in direct contrast to the assertions by Walters that such support constituted a 'cynical campaign' to covertly 'legalize drugs of all kinds'. In short, Page's column was as strong a refutation of a public policy official's dishonesty as we have seen at a national level in quite some time. To date, we know of six newspapers that ran Page's column. Interestingly, the combined circulation of these six easily surpassed the circulation of the six papers the Walters column was published in. Thus far more Americans were exposed to the truthful rebuttal than to the original misleading column by Walters. Please consider writing letters to the papers which showed the courage to run an opinion column that quite frankly states a federal official of Walters' stature is at best misleading the American public and at worst is outright lying. Only in this way will these and other papers have the future fortitude to run important and honest rebuttals of any drug warring official's opinions which may find their way into print during the coming months. Thanks for your effort and support. WRITE A LETTER TODAY It's not what others do it's what YOU do PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID (Letter, Phone, fax etc.) Please post a copy your letter or report your action to the sent letter list () if you are subscribed, or by E-mailing a copy directly to if you are not subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list with so others can learn from your efforts and be motivated to follow suit. Subscribing to the Sent LTE list () will help you to review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing efforts. To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm and/or http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form This is VERY IMPORTANT as it is one very effective way of gauging our impact and effectiveness. The Page column was originally printed in his hometown newspaper, The Chicago Tribune. We also have five other newspapers that picked up the column off the syndicate wire. Please consider sending a letter to each one. If you do this via e-mail, please be sure to send individual mailings, though your content may be the same for each letter. LTE Editors do not like using letters which are CCd to more than one outlet. If you reference the headline be sure to use the correct on for each publication as they vary from one paper to another. Drug Czar Pushes Marijuana Myths With Tax Money URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n988/a01.html Pubdate: Wed, 22 May 2002 Source: Chicago Tribune (IL) Contact: Drug Czar Pushes Marijuana Myths With Tax Money URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n990/a02.html Pubdate: Sun, 26 May 2002 Source: Dallas Morning News (TX) Contact: Drug Czar Pushes Myths URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n987/a01.html Pubdate: Sat, 25 May 2002 Source: Buffalo News (NY) Contact: 'Reefer Madness,' The Sequel: The Drug Czar's Odd Ideas URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n984/a07.html Pubdate: Sat, 25 May 2002 Source: Sacramento Bee (CA) Contact: Drug Czar Perpetuates Pot Myths URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n981/a11.html Pubdate: Sat, 25 May 2002 Source: Charlotte Observer (NC) Contact: Pushing Drug Myths With Our Taxes URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n976/a07.html Pubdate: Thu, 23 May 2002 Source: The Dominion Post (WV) Contact: What's So Scary About Marijuana? URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1002/a07.html Pubdate: Tue, 28 May 2002 Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO) Contact: Hysterical Pot Shots Discredit Drug Czar URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1002/a08.html Pubdate: Fri, 24 May 2002 Source: Baltimore Sun (MD) Contact: DRUG CZAR PUSHES MARIJUANA MYTHS WITH TAX MONEY by Clarence Page -- Chicago Tribune Our nation's drug czar is annoyed. If proponents have their way, the District of Columbia will vote later this year to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes for the second time. John P. Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, took some pot shots at the issue in a recent Washington Post piece that has been reprinted across the country. Unfortunately, he brings more smoke than light. "After years of giggling at quaintly outdated marijuana scare stories like the 1936 movie 'Reefer Madness,"' he writes, "we've become almost conditioned to think that any warning about the true dangers of marijuana are overblown." He then proceeds with unintended irony to give an "overblown" warning of his own about "The Myth of 'Harmless' Marijuana." He warns baby boomer parents that "today's marijuana is different from that of a generation ago, with potency levels 10 to 20 times stronger than the marijuana with which they were familiar." He doesn't say where he gets that whopper of a statistic and that's too bad, since it conflicts with a federally funded investigation of marijuana samples confiscated by law enforcement over the past two decades. Published in the January, 2000, Journal of Forensic Science, that study found the THC content (that's the active ingredient that gets you high) had only doubled to 4.2 percent from about 2 percent from 1980 to 1997. Those are not undesirable potency levels when you are using it to relieve illness. Yes, marijuana is dangerous. So are cigarettes, liquor and prescription drugs. The question that Walters fails to address is why marijuana should be treated differently from those other drugs? We allow adults to buy cigarettes and alcohol, even though both are highly addictive and kill thousands every year. Doctors treat the ill with numerous prescription drugs that are more dangerous and addictive than marijuana. But they are not allowed to treat the ill with marijuana, even though many wish they could. Instead, thousands of Americans have become criminals by purchasing marijuana rather than seeing their loved ones suffer. Yet, Walters lambastes what he calls the "cynical campaign underway" in the District of Columbia and elsewhere "to proclaim the virtues of 'medical' marijuana." In fact, those "cynical" campaigners include the American Public Health Association, the New England Journal of Medicine and almost 80 other state and national health-care organizations that support legal patient access to marijuana for medicinal treatment. So far, eight states have legalized medical use of marijuana by ballot initiative or legislation. District of Columbia voters also passed a referendum in 1998, but it has been blocked by Congress. Where referendums have been held, they have passed. But, alas, Walters is following in the path of past drug czars who feel they know what's better for voters than the voters themselves do. Walters dismisses those initiatives as "based on pseudo-science." Maybe he did not read the 1999 report by the Institute of Medicine, a branch of the National Academy of Sciences. It confirmed the effectiveness of marijuana's active components in treating pain, nausea and the anorexic-wasting syndrome associated with AIDS. Walters says we should wait for more information. He praises a study now under way at the University of California's Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research. But, if that study doesn't come out the way Walters would like, you have to wonder, will he ignore that one, too? "By now most Americans realize that the push to 'normalize' marijuana for medical use is part of the drug legalization agenda," he says, mentioning financier George Soros and others who have contributed to the legalization cause. Walters does not mention the billions of tax dollars that he, as drug czar, has at his disposal to push marijuana myths - with our tax money! Instead, Walters arouses our passions by recounting the lawlessness of violent marijuana-dealing street gangs in the District. If anything, pot gangs offer us another good reason to legalize marijuana. After all, when a drug is outlawed, only outlaws will have the drug. SAMPLE LETTER To the Editors: Thank you for publishing Clarence Page's outstanding OPED: "DRUG CZAR PUSHES MYTHS" (Sat, 25 May 2002). I agree with Drug Czar John P. Walters' assertion that many of those that support the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes have an agenda beyond just the legalization of marijuana for medicine. I proudly count myself as having such an agenda. Those who opposed slavery had an agenda, as did those who opposed the mass murder of Jews and other minorities in Germany. And those who opposed racial segregation, obviously had an agenda. Those who opposed alcohol prohibition because it was counter- productive and caused much more harm than it prevented obviously had an agenda. And yes, we who oppose recreational drug prohibition because it is counterproductive and is causing much more harm than it prevents, proudly have an agenda. Best regards, Kirk Muse IMPORTANT: Always include your address and telephone number Please note: If you choose to use this letter as a model please modify it at least somewhat so that the paper does not receive numerous copies of the same letter and so that the original author receives credit for his/her work. TO SUBSCRIBE, DONATE, VOLUNTEER TO HELP, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL SEE http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm TO UNSUBSCRIBE SEE http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts 3 Tips for Letter Writers http://www.mapinc.org/3tips.htm Letter Writers Style Guide http://www.mapinc.org/style.htm Prepared by Stephen Heath http://www.flcan.org Focus Alert Specialist

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