THEY WANT A NEW DRUG

In Texas, teens are doing a new drug. Hallelujah!

And the usual suspects are rejoicing, because the Drug War's ancient
cycle of terrifying the public will keep the usual suspects employed,
busy, prosperous, powerful and in demand again ... until the next new
drug comes along and the ancient cycle begins all over again.

The drug isn't exactly new; it's heroin, but packaged (according to
USA Today and The Dallas Morning News) in a kid-friendly,
kid-affordable way. Its street name is "cheese," and according to
the Drug Enforcement Administration, Dallas police and Dallas public
school police, a light dose of it -- from 2 to 8 percent -- is mixed
into a snortable powder with crushed over-the-counter Tylenol PM,
giving cheese a "speedball" effect: a simultaneous stimulant up buzz
and heroin/opiate down.

To date, the only death attributed to cheese isn't smoking-gun clear;
the 18-year-old high school woman had been drinking alcohol, and
Texas authorities say testing will take a month before they know the
cause of her death. The DEA and Dallas police are tallying seizures
of cheese and circulating memos.

Could USA Today investigate and report on cheese in some more
creative and responsible way than parroting the predictable and
self-serving publicity handouts of law enforcement agencies, and
industries that depend on public fear-mongering for their perpetual
growth and profit? In her 27 April USA Today story "Texas Schools
Battle 'Starter Heroin,'" Donna Leinwand interviews only the DEA,
local police, and, for the scientific insight, employees at
for-profit drug-treatment clinics; The Dallas Morning News has followed suit.

Helping police, prosecutors and elected officials terrify voters
about this week's new dangerous drug du jour is a strategy proven
repeatedly to accomplish nothing for the past 35 years of The War On
Drugs. For this entire period, law enforcement and the Drug Czar
have frightened us in precisely the same "template" way annually --
"Insert Name of Scary New Drug Here" -- with the rise in youth
popularity of yet another drug.

What is accomplished? The budgets and personnel of the Drug Czar, the
Drug Enforcement Administration, and local police drug agencies are
promptly and rapidly increased.

Congress has increased the DEA's budget every year since President
Richard Nixon founded the DEA in 1973.

And each year, more kids discover and ingest more new drugs.

I am by no means suggesting that cheese is not something responsible
journalists and government leaders should be properly concerned
about. Cheese IS bad.

The way our state and federal governments are gearing up to deal with
cheese will be worse -- for kids.

The brain-dead way USA Today and the Dallas Morning News are covering
this story will help our clueless, irresponsible government and
law-enforcement officials make it worse -- for kids.

At-risk kids have a right to and a need for better, deeper, smarter
journalism about drug use and abuse in America than we're getting.
There are actual ways to reduce drug use and reduce drug harm. But
mainstream journalism just isn't asking the right people -- public
health experts with no for-profit, for-power axe to grind -- the
right questions, so nobody's getting the right answers.

As mainstream journalism spams law-enforcement's corny, ancient
script and scares the bejeebers out of every American parent, it's
helping the for-profit, for-power industry we call the War on Drugs
grow rich on our tax dollars, and grow politically powerful.

But it's not helping kids. Reporters who cover the Drug War beat
need to get less "imbedded," more creative and independent; they need
to ratchet up their standards, do their core job with excellence, and
help kids.