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1993-03-02
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Media Hype and the Importance of Perception
by Grigori Cossack
In an age and society where the reporting of "news" is,
primarily, a commercial venture and where most reporting
tends to concentrate on "sexy" or "hot button" issues, it is
of paramount importance to determine just how much of such
reporting is hype and how much is cold, hard, fact. This is
especially so when such reporting materially affects public
policy decisions. The premier example of where such
reporting is primarily hype with little hard facts is the
"Drug War".
Much has been made by both the media and politicians
about the latest polls showing "drugs" heading the list of
American concerns. It should be noted that the vast
majority of column inches in the newspapers as well as the
majority of air time in the electronic media has been given
over to the reports on the "Drug War", its myriad victims
and the government's "successful" efforts on the war front.
First and foremost, it should be noted that anyone who
attempts to address the issue as the "drug" issue is either
completely ignorant of the facts or is deliberately
misstating the situation. To speak of "drugs" as some
monolithic whole is to totally ignore any and all
differences between the various drugs. Just as there are
differences (vast differences) among the various drugs,
there are also differences in the type, manner and amount
used by different individuals. To deny this would mean that
there is no material difference in effect and degree between
a person who is a skid-row drunk and the person who drinks a
couple of cups of coffee in the morning.
This brings us to our second point. "Drugs," if used
in any all-inclusive sense, must also include the drugs with
which we are all familiar and many of us use on a regular,
if not daily, basis. It is well established that alcohol is
a drug, but so is caffeine. Nicotine is the single
most deadly drug in our society. Even something which we
give our own children, chocolate, is a drug. And we must
take into consideration the myriad prescription drugs which
most of us take, only under a physician's care and according
to their instructions, of course.
The simple facts of the matter are that, according to
the government's own mortality statistics for the year 1987,
(the last full year for which such statistics were available
at this writing), the breakdown is as follows:
Deaths Due to Substance *
Tobacco 395,000
Alcohol (this does not include 50% of all
vehicle deaths or 65% of all murders) 150,000
Over-the-counter (OTC) & prescription drugs 27,000
Caffeine 10,000
Aspirin 1,000
Total deaths due to legal drugs 583,000
All illegal drugs (including heroin, crack,
pcp, cocaine and amphetamines) 5,200
Marijuana 0
* Bureau of Mortality Statistics & NIDA.
The newspapers and electronic media are full of stories
told of the pathetic victims of drug abuse; the stories told
and retold of the shattered lives, the scarred children, the
destroyed careers. We are bathed in the pathos of these
individual tragedies, often we are simply inundated
with the same tales told and retold. True, these are indeed
tragedies; however, through omission are we deceived.
Simply by referring to the table above, and through honest
observation of the society we live in, for every tragic
"drug" death there are 75 deaths attributable to nicotine;
30 attributable to alcohol; 5 from prescription and OTC
drugs, and even 2 from caffeine!
The above being the case, it is vitally important for
each of us to question WHY the government is pushing the
"Drug War" to the forefront of national affairs. It has
been this very "war" which has been the excuse used by the
government (through all three branches) to gut the
protections of the Bill of Rights. We have gone so far as
to elevate the "Drug War" to the level of the McCarthy
witch-hunts. The Omnibus Drug Bill of 1988 goes to the
extent of establishing concentration (boot) camps for "drug
offenders" and mental patients. Not content with
establishing concentration camps, the Drug Bill mandates
medical experimentation be performed on persons so confined.
Engendering a witch-hunt mentality is always a grave
situation. Remember, Hitler used the same tactics (also in
the name of "national security") to destroy the Weimar
constitution, most of Europe and, eventually, Germany
itself. Though the "gut reaction" to wreak vengeance is
gonadally gratifying, in the long run it is destructive both
to those inflicting vengeance as well as those upon whom it
is inflicted. Can our society survive another McCarthy-like
Dark Age?
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