cannabisnews.com: Drug Czar: Just Say No About Drug Use 





Drug Czar: Just Say No About Drug Use 
Posted by CN Staff on December 20, 2002 at 20:01:43 PT
By John Pope, Staff Writer
Source: Times-Picayune
Note to boomer parents: It's OK to lie to your children about your youthful drug use, the federal drug czar said Thursday in New Orleans."They're your kids, not your confessors," said John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. "Don't treat them like your peers. Treat them like your children."
But if parents feel their credibility will be ruined with less-than-full disclosures to inquisitive youngsters, Walters said they can still steer their children away from experimenting with narcotics. His suggestion: Temper accounts of youthful folly with tales of cultural icons whose deaths were tied to drugs, ranging from '60s figures such as Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix to grunge rockers such as Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain."No generation knows more about the harm drugs can do than baby boomers," Walters said in an interview. "They know the culture, and the body count."And if the parents' drug of choice happened to be marijuana, Walters said they should warn their children that the dope being peddled today is much more potent than what the older generation smoked.When baby boomers were coming of age, marijuana typically was viewed as a relatively harmless narcotic. But of the 6 million Americans undergoing drug treatment today, about 60 percent are marijuana-dependent, Walters said.In terms of the addiction it can induce, "marijuana is twice as important as cocaine," he said. "Marijuana is the most dangerous source of dependency."Walters, who this month marked his first anniversary as the nation's drug czar, stressed that point earlier Thursday at De La Salle High School."This is not your father's marijuana," he said. Snipped:Complete Article: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/drz.htm Source: Times-Picayune, The (LA)Author: John Pope, Staff WriterPublished: December 20, 2002Copyright: 2002 The Times-PicayuneWebsite: http://www.nola.com/t-p/Contact: letters timespicayune.comRelated Articles:Marijuana Drug Czar Distorts Report http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14054.shtmlDrug Czar Defends Campaign To Stop Marijuana http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14537.shtml
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Comment #10 posted by observer on December 23, 2002 at 18:51:44 PT
Drug Czar OKs False Witness
"Note to boomer parents: It's OK to lie to your children about your youthful drug use, the federal drug czar said Thursday in New Orleans. 'They're your kids, not your confessors,' said John Walters, director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. 'Don't treat them like your peers. Treat them like your children.' " I think this sums up the attitude of people in government, people corrupted by money and power. Authoritarian, paternalistic regimes like the Republocrats in power in the US think of all citizens as children. Small wonder people in government feel it is fine and dandy to lie to citizens. After all: citizens are not the "peers" of government. The little people are not the "confessors" of those lofty and noble souls God hath appointed to rule from positions of nobility and honor in government. If you're in government, it is acceptable and expected to lie. It's for the Greater Good. The ends justify the means. Note how admitted liars, sophists like John Walters strike out unhelpful (to them) quibbles over bearing false witness. None of that. Stiff upper lip; lie to your children with dignity and purpose! Out with the old Ten Commandments; that admonition against lying was never a good fit for the US Government in the 20th century, anyway. Better to replace that commandment with a new Commandment. A better Commandment from government to replace that tired old one against lying. What a marvelous coup government has again pulled off! They have once more triumphed in battle against the Torah, the Bible, decency, trust, and logic: Good Wise government people like John Walters look down on us from their lofty Mount Olympus, write their own commandments, make their own heaven for the drug-free, consigning to hellish jails the substance-using "sinners" who refuse to consent and go along. 
[bot] breaking drug war propaganda
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Comment #9 posted by Hope on December 21, 2002 at 09:44:55 PT
JR Bob Dobbs
I sure do hope you sent your post also as a letter to the Times-Picayune!
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Comment #8 posted by Sam Adams on December 21, 2002 at 08:40:33 PT
This is not your father's propaganda!
Could we get any closer to 1984 than this?Attention all citizens, lying has now been officially approved. Yes, society is actually BETTER with lying. Emulate your favorite political hypocrite today! For the children....
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Comment #7 posted by Patrick on December 21, 2002 at 08:32:15 PT
afterburner
That was a well-said post! I especially liked the following line and felt it deserves repeating:I hope you read this, John, because, you see, my friends and I write the truth for free while you waste taxpayer dollars on lies and propaganda. I sleep well at night. Can you say the same?
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Comment #6 posted by knox42897 on December 21, 2002 at 07:48:19 PT:
COMMITTEED
I want to suggest to Mr. Rob Kampia to have Mr. Walter's committeed. Obviously his condition is deteriorating. Not only is Walters having delusions of Grandiour, paranoid, schizophrenic, now we learn that he is a compulsive liar. Next week, I suppose Mr. Walter's will say its okay to torture your children if you catch them smoking marihuana.
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Comment #5 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on December 21, 2002 at 04:43:08 PT
Gotta love an LTE that mentions Hendrix and HST
Sirs,  Of course John Walters has no problem with parents lying to their children about drugs. After all, he's been doing it himself, with the help of our tax dollars, ever since he got the job. His predecessors did the same thing. It's practically in the job description.  Walters lies about how much stronger modern marijuana is. Nobody died from marijuana in the sixties, and nobody is dying from it today. The only thing more dangerous about modern marijuana is the number of arrests made for it - over 750,000 in 2000 alone, the majority for simple possession.   Walers also offers us three examples of "drug deaths" with which to scare the children straight. But Jimi Hendrix did not die from "drugs". What "drugs" were found in his system at the autopsy? Red wine and unusually strong sleeping pills. He choked on his own vomit because he was unable to wake up. Janis Joplin's drug of choice was Southern Comfort, not any of the drugs which John Walters wages war upon. And Kurt Cobain's death was caused by a shotgun. Walters also conveniently forgets many baby boomers who managed to lead long happy lives, like Tim Leary, Paul McCartney, and Hunter S. Thompson.  Why not tell the children the real dangers of drugs? That if you smoke marijuana, some day the police might raid your house and shoot you dead because of your dime bag, like Ohioan Clayton Helriggle. Tell the children how our government shot down a plane full of Christian missionaries over Peru, killing a woman and her small child, because they were thought to be a drug-running flight. Tell them about Tom Crosslin and Rolland Rohm, two guys who lived on a farm and threw some great parties until the government sent in 150 agents and shot them dead. Yes kids, if the government finds out you're involved with drugs, you're in big trouble - even if the government is wrong. And when you grow up, you too can send in your tax dollars to support this "freedom-loving" government's war against us all - or else.
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Comment #4 posted by delariand on December 21, 2002 at 00:49:11 PT
It shouldn't take a 'study' for people to see this
"Don't treat them like your peers. Treat them like your children."I'm not sure if Mr. Walters realizes this, but one thing teens are upset about is lack of respect from their parents. What's being advocated here is for parents to tell their kids not to use drugs, while simultaneously pushing them to rebel. If a parent were honest about marijuana and other drugs, maybe the teens could decide for themselves that smoking marijuana instead of doing homework isn't such a good idea. Of course, they're just dumb kids... I suppose they don't know anything, right?
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Comment #3 posted by afterburner on December 20, 2002 at 20:48:23 PT:
Another letter to John P. Walters.
"'This is not your father's marijuana,' he said."Yes, John, father's marijuana had not yet been sprayed with paraquat. Father's marijuana cost less than one tenth of today's inflated-by-prohibition prices. Father's marijuana was grown freely, even in the gardens of police stations. Father's marijuana was shared with friends with only mild paranoia about the possibility of arrest. But you and you cronies changed all that with your irrational war on a God-given healing plant. By the way marijuana is not a narcotic. That is a legal misrepresentation. Marijuana is medically a mild psychedelic, a mind-manifesting substance. Also, yes, John, marijuana is a medicine as legally sold and permitted in the USA prior to the ill-advised, unresearched, and undebated passage of the Marihuana Tax Act in 1937. Your predecessor, Harry J. Anslinger, had to convince the states to cede their rights to control medical practice as supported by the Constitution of the United States of America in order to seize unwarranted federal power under this Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. Your potency exaggerations are meaningless since it takes less substance smoked, eaten, or vaporized to get "high" and therefore, it does less harm, not more. An overdose of THC will just put the user into a dreamy sleep.You should know by now that the name marijuana, also spelled marihuana, is a term of prejudice against Latino culture: the correct scientific name is cannabis.Finally, your incessant harping on the "addiction" propaganda in the face of medical and governmental evidence to the contrary makes you look out-of-touch.I hope you read this, John, because, you see, my friends and I write the truth for free while you waste taxpayer dollars on lies and propaganda. I sleep well at night. Can you say the same?ego destruction or ego transcendence, that is the question.
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Comment #2 posted by BGreen on December 20, 2002 at 20:33:39 PT
Liars are Liars and Nobody Believes a Liar
It's NEVER OK to lie, because when your lies are exposed, your credibility is ZERO.That's what Walters has done and why he has no credibility, but to tell parents to lie to their kids breaks the very bond of trust that is vital to a healthy family relationship.
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Comment #1 posted by The C-I-R-C-L-E on December 20, 2002 at 20:30:44 PT
Here's the rest of the article...
During an hourlong visit at the Uptown school, Walters spoke with students and administrators about De La Salle's policy of testing students' hair samples for drug use and expelling anyone who tests positive twice. In the five years that the Catholic school has been snipping hair samples, 10 students have been forced to leave for drug-related reasons, school President Yvonne Gelpi said.Every student's hair is tested annually, but administrators said more tests are scheduled for students suspected of using narcotics. While the initial positive rate at the 800-student school is about 4 percent, that rate drops to 1 percent the second time around, Gelpi said.After the first positive test, the student, accompanied by parents, must meet with administrators to learn about the possible penalties, as well as the options of treatment and counseling. For some parents, Gelpi said, this session is the first time they discover their child is using drugs. For others, she said, it marks the first time they acknowledge it."What we're doing is holding up the mirror and saying, 'Your child is using drugs,' " she said.The testing policy received support from most of the 14 students who met with Walters between exams in a 10-minute session from which school officials were excluded. They said drug use has plummeted since the program began."It makes me feel so safe to know I'm coming into a safe environment where drugs won't be there," said Lyndsey Jalvia, a senior.The only dissent came from Vincent Vu, a senior, who said he thinks the hair testing represents an invasion of privacy. A better policy, he said, would be to test students only if they were suspected of using drugs."They don't trust us enough," Vu said. "We don't do drugs. Why don't they trust us?"Walters, who called De La Salle's program "an important example for the country," said the combination of hair testing and intervention works best if the possibility of successful treatment is stressed more than the prospect of stiff punishment.
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