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New Report Challenges Meth Misinformation

Submitted by Phillip Smith on (Issue #822)
Consequences of Prohibition
Drug War Issues

In a new report released this week, neuroscientist Dr. Carl Hart and coauthors Joanne Csete and Don Habibi examines common assumptions about methamphetamine use and users and finds them wanting. Instead of careful, evidence-based analysis, rising concern about meth use has resulted in "a barrage of misinformation and reckless policies," Hart finds.

"The scientific literature on methamphetamine is replete with unwarranted conclusions, which has provided fuel for the implementation of draconian drug policies that exacerbate problems faced by poor people," said Hart.

As its title suggests, the report, Methamphetamine: Fact vs. Fiction and Lessons from the Crack Hysteria, finds clear parallels between the tide of distorted facts, faulty assumptions, and misinformation that characterized the crack cocaine scare of the early 1980s and similar claims made about the most recent drug panic over methamphetamine. Both feature the same sorts of claims, made by the same sorts of claims makers -- largely police, health professionals, and academics.

While the report finds real detrimental health effects with sustained meth use, it says those effects are exaggerated and/or the result of factors other than meth use in or by itself, such as poor overall health, poor nutrition, poor dental care, and poverty. It also challenges claims that meth is more powerfully addictive than other drugs.

In the report, Hart calls on lawmakers at home and abroad to revisit laws that harshly punish methamphetamine possession, to invest in treatment instead of punishment, to reconsider restrictions on access to amphetamines for legitimate medical purposes, and to stop supporting "wasteful and ineffective" scare campaigns replete with misinformation about meth use.

"We've been down this road before with other drugs that were poorly studied and misrepresented by media," said Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch, director of the Open Society Global Drug Policy Program. "The results included policies that hurt the users, ineffectively addressed the problem and ultimately failed society. We can't afford to repeat these experiences."

Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

Comments

ArtG (not verified)

Pretty much all info that comes out of the DEA, ONDCP and other similarly useless agencies are full of shit.  This is why they need to be abolished!!! 

Thu, 02/20/2014 - 4:25pm Permalink
Anonymous123 (not verified)

Ive heard one, ONE sheriffs deputy state that while 'weed' (for example) is illegal he will go after it. When its no longer illegal he'll do something else. This is probably the most down to earth response ive encountered from that side of the fence. Generally, individuals are so vested on so many levels-economic, emotional, life choices-that they betray common sense and rational thinking to everyones detriment, because its so psychologically painful to even consider the possibility that they might have been over-zealous or even, god forbid, wrong.
Thu, 02/20/2014 - 5:23pm Permalink
Dr Jane (not verified)

Check out Carl in action here;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JDfzzit5f4

.

Jane.

Thu, 02/27/2014 - 12:17am Permalink

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