The Drug That Pretends It Isn't |
Posted by FoM on April 02, 2000 at 19:41:29 PT By Anna Quindlen Source: Newsweek Car accidents, date rapes, domestic violence—and it goes so well with Chinese food and pizza! Spring break in Jamaica, and the patios of the waterfront bars are so packed that it seems the crowds of students must go tumbling into the aquamarine sea, still clutching their glasses. Even at the airport one drunken young man with a peeling nose argues with a flight attendant about whether he can bring his Red Stripe, kept cold in an insulated sleeve, aboard the plane heading home. The giggle about Jamaica for American visitors has always been the availability of ganja; half the T shirts in the souvenir shops have slogans about smoking grass. But the students thronging the streets of Montego Bay seem more comfortable with their habitual drug of choice: alcohol. Whoops! Sorry! Not supposed to call alcohol a drug. Some of the people who lead anti-drug organizations don't like it because they fear it dilutes the message about the "real" drugs, heroin, cocaine and marijuana. Parents are offended by it; as they try to figure out which vodka bottle came from their party and which from their teenager's, they sigh and say, "Well, at least it's not drugs." And naturally the lobbyists for the industry hate it. They're power guys, these guys: the wine guy is George W's brother-in-law, the beer guy meets regularly with House Majority Whip Tom DeLay. When you lump a cocktail in with a joint, it makes them crazy. And it's true: booze and beer are not the same as illegal drugs. They're worse. A policy-research group called Drug Strategies has produced a report that calls alcohol "America's most pervasive drug problem" and then goes on to document the claim. Alcohol-related deaths outnumber deaths related to drugs four to one. Alcohol is a factor in more than half of all domestic-violence and sexual-assault cases. Between accidents, health problems, crime and lost productivity, researchers estimate alcohol abuse costs the economy $167 billion a year. In 1995 four out of every 10 people on probation said they were drinking when they committed a violent crime, while only one in 10 admitted using illicit drugs. Close your eyes and substitute the word blah-blah for alcohol in any of those sentences, and you'd have to conclude that an all-out war on blah-blah would result. Yet when members of Congress tried to pass legislation that would make alcohol part of the purview of the nation's drug czar the measure failed. Mothers Against Drunk Driving faces opposition to both its education programs and its public-service ads from principals and parents who think illicit drugs should be given greater priority. The argument is this: heroin, cocaine and marijuana are harmful and against the law, but alcohol is used in moderation with no ill effects by many people. Here's the counterargument: there are an enormous number of people who cannot and will never be able to drink in moderation. And what they leave in their wake is often more difficult to quantify than DWIs or date rapes. In his memoir, "A Drinking Life," Pete Hamill describes simply and eloquently the binges, the blackouts, the routine: "If I wrote a good column for the newspaper, I'd go to the bar and celebrate; if I wrote a poor column, I would drink away my regret. Then I'd go home, another dinner missed, another chance to play with the children gone, and in the morning, hung over, thick-tongued, and thick-fingered, I'd attempt through my disgust to make amends." Hamill and I used to drink, when we were younger, at a dark place down a short flight of stairs in the Village called the Lion's Head. There were book jackets covering the walls, jackets that I looked at with envy, books by the newspapermen and novelists who used to drink there. But then I got older, and when I passed the Head I sometimes thought of how many books had never been written at all because of the drinking. Everyone has a friend/an uncle/a co-worker/a spouse/a neighbor who drinks too much. A recent poll of 7,000 adults found that 82 percent said they'd even be willing to pay more for a drink if the money were used to combat alcohol abuse. New Mexico and Montana already use excise taxes on alcohol to pay for treatment programs. It's probably just coincidence that, as Drug Strategies reports, the average excise tax on beer is 19 cents a gallon, while in Missouri and Wisconsin, homes to Anheuser-Busch and Miller, respectively, the tax is only six cents. A wholesale uprising in Washington against Philip Morris, which owns Miller Brewing and was the largest donor of soft money to the Republicans in 1998, or against Seagram, which did the same for the Democrats in 1996, doesn't seem likely. Home schooling is in order, a harder sell even than to elected officials, since many parents prefer lessons that do not require self-examination. Talking about underage drinking and peer pressure lets them off the hook by suggesting that it's all about 16-year-olds with six-packs. But the peer group is everywhere, from the frogs that croak "Bud" on commercials to those tiresome folks who behave as if wine were as important as books (it's not) to parents who drink to excess and teach an indelible life lesson. Prohibition was cooked up to try to ameliorate the damage that drinking does to daily life. It didn't work. But there is always self-prohibition. It's not easy, since all the world's a speakeasy. "Not even wine?" Hamill recalls he was asked at dinner parties after he stopped. Of course children should not drink, and people who sell them alcohol should be prosecuted. Of course people should not drink and drive, and those who do should be punished. But 21 is not a magic number, and the living room is not necessarily a safe place. There is a larger story that needs to be told, loud and clear, in homes and schools and on commercials given as much prominence and paid for in the same way as those that talk about the dangers of smack or crack: that alcohol is a mind-altering, mood-altering drug, and that lots of people should never start to drink at all. "I have no talent for it," Hamill told friends. Just like that. By Anna Quindlen CannabisNews Articles Concerning Alcohol - over 900: http://ussc.alltheweb.com/cgi-bin/search?type=all&query=cannabisnews+alcohol Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
Comment #13 posted by kaptinemo on April 04, 2000 at 16:36:00 PT:
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Alexandre pointed out something that struck a memory, and I went and looked up one of the first links I ever saw on this kind of subject. The entire article is an outstanding piece of work, but the very last 4 paragraphs are of special note, in that the author predicted what Alexaandre has speculated on. The idea that a government so blind and bullheaded as this one is *would* make this kind of mistake (attempting to outlaw alcohol again) struck me as so typical. It was stupid to try it then. It would be stupid to try it now. But, it is already engaged in acts of truly breattaking stupidity with the WoSD; doing idiotic things seems to be the prerogative of being the only remaining 'superpower', I suppose.
Comment #12 posted by FoM on April 04, 2000 at 09:30:41 PT |
Addiction in it's worse case senerio is horrible. I was addicted to prescription drugs for years and finally had to go to a detox center to quit. Withdrawal is the most unbelievable pain I ever experienced and I never want to go thru that again but many people are in the exact same condition I was in years ago and we need to address the shortage of quality re-hab or just good de-tox facilities. I swore to myself that someday I would help in this area because the need is so great. Alcohol is the worse drug of all and one I was dependent on for a few years of my life but I don't even like drinking and never did. That prooved to me that having an addiction problem is more then wanting to constantly be high. It is something in many of us that is just in our family line most times. Most addictive natured people also have other family members with a problem with substances. I hope this makes sense and thanks again everyone.
Peace, FoM!
Comment #11 posted by Alexandre Oeming on April 04, 2000 at 07:29:07 PT:
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Exactly my point. What alcohol and tobacco users (by far and large) do not want to understand is that if the gov't can crack down with such viciousness on something so benign as MJ, they can do the exact same thing to their CURRENTLY-legal drugs in the blink of an eye. Alcohol users might feel smug and safe b/c "we already tried prohibiting that once and it didn't fly", but those lessons didn't work on a VERY thin tangent wrt the current illicits, so they're only fooling themselves if they think McCzar and his cronies won't ignore the obvious repetition in their zeal to "save the children" or some other such filth. I wouldn't be surprised one iota to see tobacco as the new crack rock in a decade or less, considering how things are going now. The cops have been busting people for years already for SMUGGLING tobacco from state to state to skirt varying taxes. The phony WOsD will end faster than you can say "hypocritical beaureaucrats" if you add our youth's two most abused and favored drugs to the mix, mark my words.
BTW, to FoM and dddd, i feel your pain wrt cigs. I'm a reformed smoker (haven't had a puff since last August) and know exactly what you're going through. It really grates me when i hear ANYONE say that tobacco isn't addictive. If that's not addiction, i don't want to know what the real thing is like!
Out.
Comment #10 posted by dddd on April 03, 2000 at 23:41:41 PT |
I want to thank you for this excellent website.It is a good and nice thing,and I think you are a good and nice person.
I am sure you put a considerable amount of time and effort into providing and maintaining this thing,and I want you to know that I appreciate it....
Thank You...Sincerely.dddd
Comment #9 posted by legalizeit on April 03, 2000 at 22:27:42 PT |
This statement alone would do it:
>And it's true: booze and beer are not the same as illegal drugs. They're worse.
McBizarro: (slams down magazine) "Ack! Someone is telling the truth! How dare she! Everyone's supposed to know that the most dangerous drug is a 12-year-old smoking marijuana! No kickback for Newsweek this week."
Comment #8 posted by FoM on April 03, 2000 at 21:54:58 PT |
Comment #7 posted by dddd on April 03, 2000 at 21:24:44 PT |
Comment #6 posted by LSN on April 03, 2000 at 20:46:36 PT |
But thinks Quindlen did a great job in spreading THE message: "And it's true: booze and beer are not the same as illegal drugs. They're worse."
Comment #5 posted by Dankhank on April 03, 2000 at 18:32:00 PT:
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Nicotine kills tens of thousands a year as does alcohol.
To suggest that we could use their support is to suggest that we have something in common with them. The only thing we hold in commonality is making a choice.
We choose life and a plant that is beneficial in many ways.
They choose death and a drug that is damaging to an extent that is very hard to accurately document. The facts that ARE agreed upon as to the danger of alcohol and nicotine are scary enough.
Nicotine kills ...
Alcohol kills ...
Marijuana is life ...
God made pot, just pull it out of the ground, dry it and light it ...
Man made alcohol and smokable nicotine ...
Who do YOU trust???
Comment #4 posted by kaptinemo on April 03, 2000 at 16:35:36 PT:
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on April 03, 2000 at 08:04:21 PT:
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Comment #2 posted by Alexandre Oeming on April 03, 2000 at 07:16:26 PT:
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Actually, i consider this a great article, but certainly not for the puritanical outlook expressed by the author. Rather, i think it represents true irony for the boozers and cancerstick smokers to get a big ole dose of their own medicine for once or thrice. "When they came for the druggies, i didn't say anything b/c i wasn't a druggie. Then, when booze was outlawed, there was no one left to defend me." Alcohol and tobacco users COULD be our greatest allies. It's just a matter of making them realize it.
>Even in my older years, puritanical articles like this make me want to have a drink for the first time in over a decade.
Anna needs to loosen up.
Perhaps, but i still maintain she's helping the illicits much more than she's harming anything.
>> Yet when members of Congress tried to pass legislation that would make alcohol part of the purview of the nation's drug czar the measure failed.
>I suppose it is worth mentioning that the Partnership and ONDCP lobbied against this inclusion. Late in the debate, ONDCP changed it's stance to neutral, out of an
uncharacteristic discomfort with their inconsistency.
Awwwwww ... poor oldman McCzar has to decide which side his bread is buttered on and then be held accountable for his sick hypocrisy? Pity no one in this country really cares about the "morals" this guy and his ilk really exemplify. After he dies, i hope he comes back so we can all hold a press conference on just how hot Hell really is.
Out.
Comment #1 posted by Freedom on April 02, 2000 at 21:29:37 PT |
Even in my older years, puritanical articles like this make me want to have a drink for the first time in over a decade.
Anna needs to loosen up.
> Yet when members of Congress tried to pass legislation that would make alcohol part of the purview of the nation's drug czar the measure failed.
I suppose it is worth mentioning that the Partnership and ONDCP lobbied against this inclusion. Late in the debate, ONDCP changed it's stance to neutral, out of an uncharacteristic discomfort with their inconsistency.
How quick memories fade...
The War on Drugs has always been a War on Marijuana. Always has been, always will be. Anything that distracts from maintaining marijuana prohibition is unwelcome in the federally funded elite circles that now form our current drug policy.
"To erase the grim legacy of Woodstock,
we need a total war against drugs."
-Nixon
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