Drug-Fighters High on Their Own Nonsense

[superjoint]

By Ellis Henican
Source: Newsday

Let me get this straight.

Some American kid smoking pot is to blame for the World Trade Center terror attack?


Apparently so.

That's the message, anyway, of a glitzy new museum show that opened yesterday on the first three floors at One Times Square, sponsored by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

"Drug Traffickers, Terrorists and You," the exhibit is called, which, if I'm not mistaken, was once the official slogan for Times Square.

OK, maybe not. But it probably should have been.

And all the top generals in the government's Official War on Some Drugs gathered yesterday in cleaned-up Times Square for a standing-room-only opening reception. All of them seemed to agree: That 16-year-old with the pack of rolling papers in his jeans pocket, he's pretty much responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

"If you use drugs, you are standing against the rule of law," warned John P. Walters, the White House drug czar. "You are standing against freedom. You are standing against those who fight against terrorism."

"Your drug dollars, this so-called victimless crime, fund people around the world who do us grievous, grievous harm," added Deputy Attorney General James Comey, after delivering the warm greetings of his boss, John Ashcroft.

Like many anti-drug campaigns before it, this one rests on shaky evidence and throws a fast emotional punch. Just inside the big glass doors is a green 1994 Thunderbird, smashed like an old Budweiser can. A few crayons, a toy truck, a couple of plastic ride-em cars and other heart-wrenching symbols of childhood strewn not-so-randomly nearby.

The little write-up says the T-bird driver was high on coke and other drugs when he killed a woman in Ohio.

Which is awful, I think we can all agree.

But that's just the start. The floors above are outfitted with meth-lab mock-ups, hypodermic needles under Plexiglas, a brightly lit model of a brain on drugs and photos of just about every famous druggie who ever OD'd.

Jim Morrison! Judy Garland! Elvis must be here somewhere.

Maybe he got crowded out by Osama bin Laden, al Qaida, the Taliban, Hezbollah and assorted other Middle Eastern terrorists, all getting fat off the dollars of high-school pot smokers and South Bronx crackheads. That highly tentative connection, anyway, is the real message here.

To hammer it home, there's a prominent display of World Trade Center debris accompanied by an audio sound track reliving Sept. 11 and tying it straight to the drug trade.

"Terrorist organizations are turning to alternative methods of funding for their activities," the museum material asserts. "One lucrative revenue stream is the sale of illegal drugs."

Just look how close they are!

"While not always involving the same groups, drugs and terror frequently flourish in the same environments," the write-up explains. "It is small wonder then that opium production and terrorism flourished in Afghanistan, just as coca production and terrorism flourish in other countries, such as Colombia."

Which is kinda like saying, "It is small wonder Broadway and the Mafia flourished in New York, just as lettuce-growing and car crashes flourish in California."

So close, they have to be connected, right?

Unfortunately, the evidence for these connections runs from murky to plainly overstated to partly-true-but-hardly-the-point.

Sure, terrorists have raised money from all kinds of sources, including the drug trade and any number of official United States IRS 503c charitable groups. The Mid East Fund for Easing of the Pain of Blessed Martyrs' Families, that sort of thing.

And the biggest terror-funder of all? The sale of oil to the West.

Didn't most of the 9/11 hijackers come from Saudi Arabia? Hasn't Saudi money supported those hate-filled madrases for years?

You want to starve terror? Get out of that SUV!

We got the first sniff of this exaggerated drug-and-terror link in the anti-drug ads at the Super Bowl in 2002. The spots were widely criticized, even within the anti-drug community, as unsupported by any firm evidence.

But now the message is back. The messengers are as unapologetic as ever. None of this should come as any surprise.

It's a political decision, really.

Since the War on Terror pushed its way to the top of the national agenda, America's long-running War on Drugs has found itself a little edged out. The public has been losing interest. So have Congressional funders.

Nothing like a little talk of terror to focus the mind in 2004.

You should have seen the crowds at the museum opening yesterday! Source: Newsday (NY)
Author: Ellis Henican
Published: September 15, 2004
Copyright: 2004 Newsday Inc.
Contact: letters@newsday.com
Website: http://www.newsday.com/

[BlackSheep]

hmm I buy all my weed from local growers. But anyways i guess that doesnt matter.

[critter]

"Your drug dollars, this so-called victimless crime, fund people around the world who do us grievous, grievous harm," added Deputy Attorney General James Comey, after delivering the warm greetings of his boss, John Ashcroft.



l grow my own with goods l buy at the local hydro store.l pay taxes on all the goods l use .

Does this mean l help fund terrorism ???.

l also help local charities ,am a member of the lions club .l,am a good citizen of my country a father and grandfather.How can what l do be wrong??.

All l do is grow and smoke a plant that has been around since time began.

Now if all that means l support terrorism it is a great shock to me .

[WestCoastStoner]

we wouldnt have the problem of marijuana money goin to gunz and crime if they made it legal........

[PintyHet]

this crap is starting to piss me off.. not because of pot being invloved but because they are making a mockery of 9/11 and using it for thier own little agenda.. i hope there is a special place in hell for everyone responsible

[Mustard]

Let me get this straight.

Some American kid smoking pot is to blame for the World Trade Center terror attack?


Apparently so.

That's the message, anyway, of a glitzy new museum show that opened yesterday on the first three floors at One Times Square, sponsored by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

"Drug Traffickers, Terrorists and You," the exhibit is called, which, if I'm not mistaken, was once the official slogan for Times Square.

OK, maybe not. But it probably should have been.

That right there ladies and gents is PURE comedic brilliance. That was a good article, for the most part. Not to interesting though, and a bit hard to read. But that may be because I'm tired.

[Osiris]

Originally Posted by Mustard

That right there ladies and gents is PURE comedic brilliance. That was a good article, for the most part. Not to interesting though, and a bit hard to read. But that may be because I'm tired.

I agree completely.

This shit is really fucked up. I try to respect the government for what they do for the people (such as keeping the country from falling into anarchy, and setting up welfare for those who are poorly paid, etc), but when they go and do things like this, I get pissed off. I feel like I'm being betrayed. This is just nonsense. Is the American goverment trying to make fools of themselves? Cuz if so, they're succeeding.