I am Matt Thomas.

Addictive Propaganda

March 7, 2005

It’s really bothering me that this story about a rise in the number of people going into rehab for marijuana use is getting so much play. It showed up in the New York Times this past Saturday, and I heard it on the local news just this morning.

Many sources, unfortunately, are leaving out the most salient point from the AP article—that the rise in numbers of people seeking treatment is directly related to the fact that the government is simply arresting more marijuana users than before. Consequently, they’re being forced to enter rehab. But the government doesn’t mention that on their faux-blog web site, pushingback.com. In fact, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy would have you believe that scores of bleary-eyed potheads were voluntarily checking themselves into rehab en masse.

In reality, the number of smokers arrested increased more dramatically than the number of smokers entering rehab. This doesn’t indicate the serious increase the government is trotting out for the press—not to mention the fact that over 750,000 pot smokers were arrested in 2003 isn’t exactly a rousing endorsement of the government’s current anti-smoking efforts.

The reality is that the criminalization of marijuana isn’t really keeping anyone who wants to from smoking. It is, however, ensuring that a whopping 88% of arrests are for simple possession, not the dealers who are supposedly creating the problem.

I’m not exactly a card-carrying member of NORML or anything, but even I can see how the government’s current reports are disingenuous. And I suck at math.