DRUG MYTH

I notice drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey has come up with another drug
myth: 50,000 deaths per year from illegal drugs (Jan. 16, Parade magazine)

This may rival his foot-in-the-mouth claim on the eve of his
Netherlands trip last year that the Dutch murder rate was double the
U.S. murder rate and the reason was drugs. Contrary to that assertion,
the U.S. murder rate is more than four times that of the Dutch.

How much voodoo is there in Gen. McCaffrey's statistic? Well, 50,000
deaths per year would be nearly 1,000 per week (actually, it figures
out to about 962 per week). A total U.S. population of 274 million
would divide out to 3.51 deaths per week in a city of 1 million. The
Dallas metropolitan area population of about 3,264,000 would produce
11.45 deaths per week, or nearly two illegal drug deaths per day.

Hey, Dallas Morning News, have you been keeping things
hush-hush?