"Addicted" America’s Drug Policy Is Idiotic - By David Sirota

[kpete]

Addicted to Fake Outrage


Posted on Feb 13, 2009

By David Sirota

I’m not sure if it’s because we’re strung out on “Lost” episodes, or if it’s because we’re still suffering from a post-9/11 stress disorder that makes us crave “breaking news” alerts, or if it’s because the economy has turned us into distraction junkies. But one thing is painfully obvious after Michael Phelps’ marijuana “scandal” erupted last week: Our society is addicted to fake outrage—and to break our dependence, we’re going to need far more potent medicine than the herb Phelps was smoking.

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So, in the interest of a little taboo candor, I’m just going to throw editorial caution to the wind and write what lots of us thought—but were afraid to say—when we heard about Phelps. Ready? Here goes:

America’s drug policy is idiotic.

Doctors can hand out morphine to anyone for anything beyond a headache, but they can’t prescribe marijuana to terminal cancer patients. Madison Avenue encourages a population plagued by heart disease to choke down as many artery-clogging Big Macs and Dunkin’ Donuts as it can, but it’s illegal to consume cannabis, “a weed that has been known to kill approximately no one,” as even the archconservative Colorado Springs Gazette admitted in its editorial slamming Phelps. Indeed, it would be perfectly acceptable—even artistically admirable in some quarters—if I told you that I drank myself into a blind stupor while writing this column, but it would be considered “outrageous” if I told you I was instead smoking a joint (FYI—I wasn’t doing either).

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more at:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20090212_addicted_to_fake_outrage/

[FiveGoodMen]

1. K&R!

[riverdeep]

2. Imagine, if you can, alcohol being unknown.

Then imagine if it was recently discovered. Think of the news headlines, "Dangerous Liquid Causes Death" "Car Accidents Caused by the Use of Dangerous New Liquid" "Study: Spousal Abuse Increases Due to Dangerous New Liquid". We would have non-stop coverage of how this is destroying America at it's core and how everyone from teenagers to the elderly to pregnant mothers imbibe!

But because alcohol is ingrained into our culture, we don't even notice the damage that it causes. Of the two drugs, alcohol has caused far more misery than pot ever has or could. I'm not advocating for making alcohol illegal as well, rather that people respond viscerally to pot smoking as something bad people do, while drinking alcohol is just fine, something 'normal' people do. If he had been seen holding a can of beer instead of a bong, no one would care.

Let's not even talk about how stupid it is to have someone that is good at a sport as a role model. Why should I buy a product that he was paid to endorse, when if the competition of that product had offered him more money he would be endorsing that instead? Because I'm a member of the clueless sheeple?