EDITORS' LINKS: HIGH DUDGEON

It was bound to happen sooner or later.

Drug warriors have discovered the Internet.

In a report that is generating alarm among drug policy reformers, the
Justice Department's National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC) explains that
the Internet, "variously referred to as the National Information
Infrastructure or the information superhighway," has "revolutionized
communications worldwide." Apparently it "serves today as the nation's
primary medium for the exchange of news, mail, and general information."
This Internet thingie "is at once a world-wide broadcasting capability, a
mechanism for information dissemination, and a medium for collaboration and
interaction between individuals and their computers without regard to
geographic location."

That may sound pretty cool, but the government is worried that some drivers
on the information superhighway may be under the influence of
unconventional ideas about drugs.

The NDIC report focuses on the "Threat to America's Youth" posed by these
deviants, who include "drug offenders," "drug-culture advocates,"
"advocates of an expanded freedom of expression," "anarchist individuals
and groups," and "other lawbreakers" (such as "pornographers and pedophiles").

Focuses may be too strong a word. The report is maddeningly vague about
whom, exactly, the NDIC has in mind. Are organizations that provide honest
drug information, such as the Alchemind Society or the Multidisciplinary
Association for Psychedelic Studies, a Threat to America's Youth? What
about drug policy reform groups such as the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws, or subversive publications such as High Times (or
Reason, for that matter)?

The NDIC concedes that actual drug dealing is exceedingly rare online, so
the Threat consists mainly of inconvenient facts and dissenting speech.
Fortunately, the NDIC has discovered the First Amendment as well as the
Internet. In a section on "Challenges Facing Policymakers and Law
Enforcement," it explains there is precious little the government can do
about people who refuse to join the crusade for a drug-free America, even
if they use the National Information Infrastructure to spread their heresies.