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Lies,
Damn
Lies
and
Statistics
4/9/99
The classic American author,
Mark Twain, wrote that there are "lies, damn lies, and then there are statistics."
Two publications for parents and teens by the National Institute on Drug
Abuse illustrate the point:
"Research shows
that nearly 50 percent of teenagers try marijuana before they graduate
from high school." From Marijuana: Facts Parents Need to Know, page
9.
"Most teenagers do not use
marijuana. Fewer than one in four high school seniors is a current
marijuana user." From Marijuana: Facts for Teens, page 3.
While the two statements are
not incompatible, they do show how numerical data can be used in isolation
to support any rhetorical point that the author wishes. When trying
to understand drug policy, always keep the big picture in mind.
Thanks to Shawn Heller of
George Washington University Students for a Sensible Drug Policy (http://gwu.edu/~ssdp)
for bringing this to our attention.
-- END --
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Issue #86, 4/9/99
Driving While Non-White | Search and Seizure Protections Weakened | 53 Year-old Grandmother Robbed, Beaten While Trying to Buy Cannabis for Her Arthritis | California's Y2K (+1) Crisis | Illinois Bill Criminalizes Marijuana Information on the Internet | Report: Crises of the Anti-Drug Effort, 1999 | New Jersey Harm Reduction Coalition -- ACTION Alert | Leaders of South American Indigenous Peoples Challenge US Ayahuasca Patent | EXHIBIT: Human Rights and the Drug War in Virginia | Gore 2000 or Gore 1984? | Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics | Cato Forums: Jesse Ventura, Prosecutorial Abuse, Forfeiture Reform | Editorial: There Oughta Be a Law: Protecting the Masses from Themselves
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