More Meth Madness

Via Romenesko, I see my old friend Angela Valdez has a sharp story in Portland's alt-weekly blowing holes in The Oregonian's award-winning series on the state's "meth epidemic." Some of the most dramatic and unsettling "statistics" in the series, it seems, were based not on any actual studies or data, but on what amount to little more than wild guesses. Valdez quotes our own Jacob Sullum, who wrote about the moral panic over meth in September.

Comments

[brian423]

One of the worst things is that most of my friends in the medical marijuana community swallow this disinformation whole. They don't realize that we're all in this together.

[spinned]

I heckle thee, oh spin meister, spinning the spin of the spin.

[Some Guy Getting Over A Cold]

I think it's a bigger deal than that. The potential for backlash, that is.

I mean, you hear all the hype about it--there was just an article somewhere about Baby Boomer Tweakers--50 of them Nationwide!!!--a 400% Increase!!!!!!, and, you know, you have no interest in Meth, but you really don't want to have to get a freaking prescription for a fucking cold.

God fucking dammit.

I just want the fucking Nyquil. Some newspaper in Oregon makes shit up, I gotta show ID for a can of fucking Nyquil. Only it's late at the 24-hour CVS, and I ain't seeing nobody on staff, so I gotta go looking for the guy, but this is the CVS where all the post-high school dudes behind the counter are busily getting stoned, not the Indian-run ones, so the staff ain't allowed to check my ID, the manager has to handle that, and he's somewhere munching his way through a busted bag of Peanut Chews that the store writes off as lost, doesn't hear the page, and... time passes.

Fuck you, Oregonian, for making my life on another coast extra hard with this crap. I'm a citizen, a taxpayer, a productive member of society, and my cough is too bad to burn one with the underlings!

/Just saying.
//Thanks, Jacob!!
///Keep hammering this.

[greg]

accoding to a perhaps even more hyperbole-filled and absurd take on the meth issue from
USA Today, "Meth is a cheap, highly addictive street derivative of amphetamine pills; it turns users into automatons willing to take on risky, street-level crime."

this article ran on the front page of USA today a while back, accompanied by a cartoon (unfortunately not included in the online version) of a zombie-eyed cyber criminal sitting at a computer and shooting up. compared to this, i would say the oregonian article is a model of responsible journalism.

[Rich Ard]

My wife recently obtained a prescription for Adderal - amphetamine salts in pill form - with all of 15 minutes conversation with her doctor.

Guess it's only dangerous if you buy it from a dealer. 🙂

[Terrorific]

"Unlike marijuana or ecstasy, Durbin says, meth can hook users the first time. "Most often within a couple times of use, you're addicted," he says. "Some people, it's the first time they use."

I tried meth once with my friend on the night before college graduation. We were both experienced "experimenters" and got it from a reliable source who used it every day. Both of us immediately went to bed. Gimme a break.

[Larry A]

Unlike marijuana or ecstasy, Durbin says, meth can hook users the first time.

I am certain I have read equally "well researched" articles that say:

• Unlike meth or ecstasy, <Pundit> says, marijuana can hook users the first time.
• Unlike marijuana or meth, <Pundit> says, ecstacy can hook users the first time.

[bob mologna]

Terrorific said: "I tried meth once with my friend on the night before college graduation. We were both experienced "experimenters" and got it from a reliable source who used it every day. Both of us immediately went to bed"

You didn't try meth my friend. Or did you go to bed and have sex for the next 24 hours...?

[reader]

Just in case anyone's still reading this, an Oregonian response to the story is here. Willamette Week has disallowed many attempts to post this response or even a link to it in the online "comments" after its story.