MEDIA AWARENESS ON DRUG PROHIBITION GROWS

Have you heard the news?

Big media are backing away from drug war hysteria.

An oped by Misha Glenny in the New York Times today ends this way:

"After 80 years of war on drugs, consumers have easier access to a
greater variety of these products than ever. Prices continue to drop
while the profits of narco-traffickers go up. But - given the
developments in South America, Europe and Canada - we are perhaps for
the first time seeing the emergence of a coalition determined to
challenge a policy that generates unimaginable misery year in and
year out." ( see http://tinyurl.com/kulj9c )

In recent days, both Fortune ( http://tinyurl.com/nfdlat ) and the
Wall Street Journal ( http://tinyurl.com/lx6vs3) have printed
serious, in-depth features on medical cannabis as business. Compare
those stories against a horrendous bit of speculative fiction posing
as journalism presented by National Public Radio just five months ago
- - ( see http://tinyurl.com/msed8q )

Recent analysis in the Columbia Journalism Review (
http://tinyurl.com/kpkw68) noted that a serious approach to medical
cannabis that rejects propagandistic scare tactics is becoming more
of the norm among media outlets.

After closely watching the mainstream media's coverage of the drug
war for roughly ten years, I've got to say: It's about time.

Why is it happening now? Consider the following factors:

* The carnage in Mexico illustrates the true horrors of prohibition's
logical progression

* The ongoing trend of Latin American nations moving to legalize
personal drug use

* New positive research about the benefits of cannabinoids is
released almost daily

* Financial crises at multiple levels of government, coupled with
financial success in medical cannabis markets leads to new thinking
about solutions

* Bloggers dissection of drug war disinformation from the mainstream media

* The Media Awareness Project's efforts to archive both good and bad
articles and to encourage activist response

And one more big one: Mass media markets with eroding audiences
trying to find new ways to connect. The big media has always been a
stumbling block to drug policy reform, as it seemed to find value in
the sensationalism and appearance of moral rectitude that one-sided
drug war stories offer.

Now, with some major newspapers barely hanging on (stories out of
Chicago this week suggest that the Sun-Times has just enough cash to
cover liquidation, unless a big investor steps up), editors seem to
understand that readers want real, accurate information on
controversial issues like drug prohibition - not a modified DARE lesson.

Of course, the transformation is not complete. The New York Times
just a few weeks ago displayed schizophrenia when it published a
fairly glowing book review of an anti-cannabis polemic titled "The
Lost Child: A Mother's Story" by Julie Myerson. Along with neglecting
to question passages that reflect scientifically questionable reefer
madness, the book review failed to mention concerns about narrative
accuracy that were debated when the book was first published in
Myerson's native England.

But, later, in another section of the paper, the Times did at least
mention the fact that Meyerson's son told a different story, though
the article focused more on the ethics of writing about family problems.

Drug war addiction is a tough habit to break. The whole press corps
won't get it overnight. But, the real news is that many seem to be
on their way.