And LSD Accounts for 93 Percent of Falling Deaths

While researching tomorrow's column (about drug war violence in Mexico), I reviewed my recent Stossel debate with Ron Brooks, president of the National Narcotics Officers Association*, and confirmed that he said this toward the end:

Eighty-four percent of all family violence [is] associated with meth and crack.

Since Brooks also claimed that violence went down during alcohol prohibition, when the homicide rate rose by more than 40 percent, perhaps this claim is not that surprising. But you have to marvel at his prestidigitatory skills in pulling such an impressive number out of thin air. Not only is it remarkably precise, but it leaves only 16 percent of domestic violence to blame on alcohol (a point with which the Marin Institute might take issue), not to mention cases where the assailant consumes some other drug or is completely sober.

*Brooks' group is officially called the National Narcotic Officers' Associations' Coalition (make sure to include both apostrophes!), but this is such a terrible name that, taking my cue from Stossel and other media outlets, I refuse to use it.