Government using mistakenly high numbers to call for a war on drugs

[Must_B_Free]

Law enforcement officials from the U.S. attorney to the city prosecutor have been promoting a war against the "ice epidemic" this summer and have justified their call for stronger state laws by quoting an alarming statistic that 30,000 people in Hawaii are hard-core users and another 90,000 are recreational users.

However, the University of Hawaii professor who is cited as the source of those numbers says he never made such an estimate.

"I absolutely never said anything near 30,000 people. Certainly not 90,000 users or 120,000. That's ridiculous," said William Wood, a professor of sociology who also serves on the drug epidemiology work group for the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which forecasts drug trends regionally and nationally.

Wood said yesterday that in a 2000 study he estimated 8,100 people in the state were hard-core crystal methamphetamine users in need of treatment after a 1998 household survey of more than 5,000 people in Hawaii.

He said he had no idea how that 8,100 became 30,000.

...

http://starbulletin.com/2003/08/05/news/story1.html

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. Here we go again.

"Justifiable" Racial Profiling is next.

[jagguy]

2. we lost the war on drugs

time to legalize and put that money to better use.

[sweetladybug]

3. The Bush Crime Family fudges the numbers on everything

else, does it surprise anyone that they fudge the numbers on this? They must be benefiting from this lie someway or another.

[jagguy]

5. Our government is the leading drug czar in the world

Yeah I guess they have a stake in it.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. Or maybe they can redirect their efforts...

...and actually expend brain cells on investigations, instead of relying on stereotypes. If they really wanted to, I bet they could bring down some serious drug rings. Except the country would go into shock when they realized that the real ring leaders turn out to be pillars of the community. IMHO.