Pubdate: Thu, 17 Nov 2005
Source: Phoenix New Times (AZ)
Copyright: 2005 New Times, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/640
Author: Thomas Aikens
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05.n1736.a06.html

MEDIA CULPA

Meth has become the scourge of our society. Yet all you hear about on TV
news and in daily newspapers, such as the Arizona Republic, is crack
cocaine. Even the almost anachronistic drug, heroin, gets more air time and
column space.

Sure, TV news and newspapers mention it when the cops bust a meth
dealer, or a meth lab blows up. All this is pretty much in the vein of
making publicity whores like Sheriff Joe Arpaio look like they're
solving the meth problem, which (if you believe TV and the Republic)
is confined to a few rednecks and Mexican gang members. From the looks
of it, the media, particularly the Republic and its broadcast clone,
Channel 12, are in bed with local law enforcement to masquerade that
there's really no meth problem, and that what little there is is being
taken care of by big, bad cops like Sheriff Joke.

Paul Rubin's story on the "deaths by meth" was riveting proof of what
a huge problem this drug is, and how it could affect every one of us.
Some meth head could just bump into you at the state fair, get pissed
and blow you away for nothing. Look at that psychotic-because-of-meth
kid who blew away Phoenix police officer David Uribe. That kid never
would have even conceived of such a thing if he hadn't been psychotic
on this horrible drug.

Meth is truly the worst drug problem we've faced, and it has been
treated as just something a bunch of Hells Angels and trailer-trash
hillbillies use. And if we don't hang with such people, then we have
nothing to worry about. What bullshit!

Thanks for informing the politicians who run this county that meth --
the vast majority of which is coming in from Mexico (duh!) -- is a
bigger problem than ever. And for telling the politicians that the
cops they employ definitely don't have a handle on things.

Thomas Aikens

via the Internet
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