Blogging for Freedom

 
Dear Karen Tandy, Director of the DEA

High school and college kids like to get high. Parents may not want to hear it, the schools are struggling with it, and you refuse to tolerate it, but it’s the truth. A significant number of adults also like to get high. If we didn’t, the liquor, wine and beer industries wouldn’t have multi-billion dollar sales every year since Prohibition. So I’m thinking, if a lot of us like to alter our mood a bit why do we think young people are any different?

The answer, of course, is that the young don’t have the information or understanding or maturity level to be counted on to make wise decisions. They do stupid things just because. They may know that 6 shots of tequila can make you so sick you want to die, but do they know that chugging 21 shots of alcohol on their 21^st birthday can kill them? Binge-drinking in universities and colleges is skyrocketing. Even though it is estimated that only 10 percent of the students are drinking about 70 percent of the alcohol, it has become a pervading culture and mindset. Those who party, party really, really hard.

In 2004, there were 20 alcohol poisoning deaths reported on American college campuses. How many alcohol-related accidents and near-deaths involving students is not recorded so we really don’t know the extent of the problem. I know just reading the newspaper and watching TV that college kids do really dumb stuff. I remember the 19-year old girl who dove head-first off a two-story dormitory walkway onto concrete when she and her friends decided to see how far they could spit over the ledge. The newspaper article ended with “Authorities report that alcohol has been determined to be a factor in this tragic accident”. Oh, what a surprise.

So Karen, considering the death and destruction of our young people resulting from alcohol use and abuse, why is it never mentioned in your multi-million dollar anti-drug DEA ad campaigns? Alcohol is the leading drug of choice among our youth and it has the serious potential to injure and kill them. So I want to know, where’s all the warnings in your slick TV commercials about the danger of drink?

Or, how about prescription drugs? Even elementary-school kids are taking whatever drugs they find in their parents’ medicine cabinet. “Pharming parties” let kids get together to swap, sell, buy and trade pills they’ve easily acquired in our own homes and communities. For the most part, they have absolutely no idea what they are taking and how very dangerous these substances are. Here’s an example: At a middle-school in a small town north of here (but it could have been anywhere) 6 girls went to a grocery store and bought cold medicine. After drinking it for lunch, they proceeded to overdose during class and were rushed to the hospital and, thankfully, saved. It could so easily have gone the other way because these kids had no idea “just cold medicine from Safeway” could make them so sick. Again I ask, where’s the DEA media campaign to warn kids about prescription and over-the-counter drugs?

Meth, crack, heroin. Now these are horrifying drugs. These drugs destroy lives and families and their addiction causes crime in our neighborhoods. Car prowlings, home invasions, ID theft, robbery are the result of drug problems that affect us all. I have a dear friend who’s son is a heroin addict serving a lengthy prison sentence. She didn’t even see it coming until he overdosed and almost died in her backyard. So where are the commercials and online ads in the new York Times warning parents like her about these killer drugs?

Here’s my big question, Karen. With all the drugs out there killing, maiming and injuring kids, why have you and your DEA so predominately focused your efforts on marijuana?

Quick – how many college kids died last year from a lethal dose of smoked marijuana? How many people in the United States died from marijuana poisoning in the last decade? How many people in the whole world have died from acute marijuana toxicity in the last century? How many people in all of recorded human history have died from smoking too much marijuana? C’mon Karen, be honest. You know the answer is ….. none.

There is simply no documented case in the annals of medicine and science, ancient and modern, of anyone smoking so much marijuana that it killed him or her. And, this after thousands of years of use by all sorts of different peoples all over the planet. Look it up on the Internet if you doubt me -

What exactly is it about marijuana that freaks you out?

Sincerely,
Granny Green

By the way, at least 300 people died last year in the United States from acute alcohol poisoning.