Tivo Alert: War on Drugs v. War on Drug-Related Harm

I contend that the war on drugs is similar to our "war on terror" in Iraq: it targets the wrong enemy, hurts those it is intended to help and is based on faulty intelligence and poor strategy.
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Recently, I posted an article on the stats.org website critiquing Lou Dobbs' recent series on the drug war, titled The War Within.

Dobbs has argued that we have "retreated" in the war on drugs-- despite continuing to spend money on it at record levels-- and is spotlighting prescription drug misuse, teen drinking, overdose deaths and the harms he believes are related to marijuana use.

I contend that the war on drugs is similar to our "war on terror" in Iraq: it targets the wrong enemy, hurts those it is intended to help and is based on faulty intelligence and poor strategy.

If we're to use a war metaphor at all in dealing with a health problem, we should have a war on drug-related harm-- distinguishing between damage done by our attempts to fight drugs and damage caused by drugs themselves and fighting drug use only when it is associated with harm.

They've asked me to be on the show tonight-- so tune in for more!!

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