The Monster in Your Medicine Cabinet

A recent Dateline NBC story about recreational use of the cough supressant dextromethorphan nicely illustrates the news media's tendency to promote drug fads while decrying them. The story hypes DXM's attractions as well as its dangers, completely missing the point that prohibition fosters the use of such readily available intoxicants by making better (i.e., safer and more effective) ones hard to get. No doubt we can look forward to more Dateline exposés in the same vein: "The Joy of Jimson Weed," "Nuts About Nutmeg," "Gasoline Is a Gas," etc.

[Thanks to Mark Noble for the link.]