Making Sure Public Health Authorities Don't Say Anything That Might Help Public Health, Illegal Drug Edition

L.A. County Supervisor Michael Antonovich is angry that his county's Public Health Department is distributing a flyer that might actually improve public health by giving sensible advise about how not to get ill when using street ecstasy:

Antonovich said the flier, created after a 15-year-old girl died of an Ecstasy overdose after attending a Coliseum rave last June, did not fit the spirit of the county's anti-drug policy.

"Counseling young people on the use of the illegal drug Ecstasy is stupid and contrary to Los Angeles County's zero-tolerance policy on drugs," Antonovich said in a statement.

The "spirit of the country's anti-drug policy": fuck off and die, druggie, and if you don't, you're under arrest!

The offending flyer.

The L.A. Weekly also gets snide about the flyers, part of their larger attempt at a repeat performance of their last unfortunate success in goading local authorities into unnecessary and damaging actions regarding a non-crisis involving ILLEGAL DRUGS!!!!!! and the fiends who use them.

The Drug Policy Alliance defends the flyer.

Comments

[P Brooks]

It's not a war on drugs, it's a war on people.

[J sub D]

War on Drugs Liberty.
War on Drugs Sanity.
War on Drugs Youth.
War on Drugs Minorities.
War on Drugs Human Nature.
War on Drugs Justice.

I like to mix 'em up.

[Fiscal Meth]

Everybody knows junkies aren't people.

[The Anarkest]

Everybody knows cops aren't people.

[Bill Hicks]

Its not a war on drugs; its a war on personal freedom.

[Tulpa]

There is a certain logic to this. Once all the drug users are dead, there will be no more drug use.

[Sovereign Immunity]

That's very nihilistic logic, Tulpa. It seems, thanks to the FDA, that "drug" is an ever expanding term to include anything that alters the body chemistry in some way.

[Unknown]

Nihilists! Fuck me. I mean, say what you like about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos

[Professional Critic]

The L.A. Weekly has become a complete joke. Between their war on drugs, attacks on charter school parents, and plaintive cries for public radio ("Who will find our new music for us?), they are as Establishment as can be.

[Hugh Akston]

Seriously. Who needs an alt-weekly that out-squares the korporate daily by a whole dimension?

[skr]

It didn't used to be like this.

[Barry D]

"Has become?"

I've lived in a few cities, and I have yet to see a publication titled "XXX Weekly" that wasn't a complete joke.

[Hugh Akston]

The St. Louis Riverfront Times wasn't so bad.

[johnl]

OC Weekly is not a complete joke.

[johnl]

Paging Gustavo. WTH is wrong with LA Weekly?

[creech]

Does the L.A. "zero tolerance" policy extend to having its EMTs refuse to transport drug ODs to the emergency room? If it doesn't, then STFU about warnings.

[Joe M]

Ooh, I like that. It's an interesting and important question.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Why don't they just hand out condoms to kindergarteners, while they're at it? Or give county politicians a controversy for which they can stand in front of cameras and show off those tough-on-crime creds?

[blogimi Dei]

Are there many kindergartners going to jail for being handed condoms? I hope so, then it will be all fair-and-square!

yippie!

[TheZeitgeist]

You just don't know where to begin with crap like this. Sometimes the Taliban drives a BMW and sips lattes.

[Jeff]

If the government says it's bad for me, I'm going to take it. Shit probably cures cancer.

[Jeff]

If the government says it's bad for me, I'm going to take it. Shit probably cures cancer.

[TheZeitgeist]

Actually, there is pretty tragic story with Chinese space program vis-a-vis the USA. Ever heard of Dr. Tsien? Thread of the Silkworm by Iris Chang. Highly recommended for Space Cadets everywhere.

[TheZeitgeist]

Actually, there is pretty tragic story with Chinese space program vis-a-vis the USA. Ever heard of Dr. Tsien? Thread of the Silkworm by Iris Chang. Highly recommended for Space Cadets everywhere.

Wrong thread. Damn.

[J sub D]

"Counseling young people on the use of the illegal drug Ecstasy is stupid and Telling the truth is contrary to Los Angeles County's zero-tolerance policy on drugs," Antonovich said in a statement.

That's all I've got.

[The Truth]

The quality of US produced MDMA when compared to the superiorly Chinese produced MDMA is laughable.

[Hugh Akston]

Go back to the NYT, Friedman.

[Tulpa]

+1

[The Mayor of Drugachusetts]

Don't take more than you can handle and always know your dealer.

[blogimi Dei]

OH NO!
We have to order a pizza!
WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?

[skr]

that last part is key

[spur]

The flyer looks and reads like something straight out of Dancesafe.org used to distribute in the 90s and early 00s

[R C Dean]

Too bad the public health boss doesn't have the stones to say:

"Our job is protecting public health, not enforcing drug laws. This flyer will help protect the public health. So fuck off, slaver."

OK, maybe that last sentence is too much to ask for. But the rest?

[Barry D]

Usually, I think, "Fuck off, public health nazis!" But in this case, I'm on their side. There's always a first time, I guess.

[?]

That flier certainly offends readability, design, and literacy, and what little of it is intelligible comes off like it was written by a narc's mom.

might actually improve public health

1) Will it do that in the same way that the government's informing teenage girls of the pregnancy-avoiding utility of not fucking makes teenage girls fuck and get pregnant? (I've been informed of this indisputably science-type phenomenon by a respected libertarian publication.) The opposite way?

B) What the hell is a "public health?"

[Sovereign Immunity]

1) Pregnancy is 100% preventable.

B) The Nanny State's wet dream of modifying behavior by identifying disease causalities and paying for it with our money.

[Zeb]

Your first paragraph is right on, but you seem to lose the plot in 1). Or is that an example of unreadability to emphasize your earlier point? Are you suggesting that teenage girls can't figure out fucking without help from teh government?

[Pip]

It's a lot like industrial hygiene.

[Barry D]

Maybe it's designed to be read while you're on X?

[IceTrey]

In Louisiana any convenience store, grocery store or drive thru daiquiri hut can sell beer, wine and liquor, yet there are still plenty of package stores.

[Jim]

One person died, so this big uproar over whether or not to educate people. How many drunks were killed in car crashes in LA since that time? Hell, how many people died from power tool accidents since then. Ban them all!

[Jeff]

Power tool accidents and DUI deaths are all caused by teh gay. Everyone knows that.

[skr]

One person died and 200 hospital visits over the course of a weekend out of 185,000 people. I'm guessing that a city of 185,000 people will have more deaths and hospital visits than that over the course of a weekend. But no, "OMG ITS THE DRUGS DURRRR!!!!"

[Warty]

See, I think drugs have done some good things for us

[Gregory Smith]

I'm angry that we even have a Public Health Department, I'm angry that they have money to print fliers. Fliers that are probably printed in SPANISH and English, just in case the People's Republic of California feels like helping ILLEGAL ALIENS with our tax dollars.

Oh well, at least I'm HAPPY I don't leave in California.

10 Questions for La Raza.
http://libertarians4freedom.bl.....-raza.html

[Andrew S.]

I THANK you for putting some of your words in ALL CAPS so we can find out what's IMPORTANT you STATIST.

[Gregory Smith]

How am I a statis when I want the government NOT to print fliers and NOT to have a Public Health Department?

Besides, if you support illegal immigration then you support statism since the illegals are entitled to free healthcare at the emergency room and free education at public schools and state residence tuition rates at the university level.

Illegal immigration cannot coexist with the welfare state. A real libertarian would understand that.

[Hugh Akston]

Oh well, at least I'm HAPPY I don't leave in California.

I DO live in California, and I think I CAN speak for everyone here when I say "likewise."

[Gregory Smith]

I'll be laughing my ass off when they raise YOUR taxes.

[Bradley]

? Lonewacko, is that you?

[Old Mexican]

The "spirit of the country's anti-drug policy": fuck off and die, druggie, and if you don't, you're under arrest!

Which summarizes the schizophrenic nature of most public policy in the U.S.... or around the world, for that matter.

By the way, I agree with the first part - let the druggie die, her decision, her consequences, not my business. I don't agree with the war on drugs (i.e. arresting druggies) which is nothing more than a racket perpetrated by the State against free people, nor with the wholesale pillage and thievery that's require to FUND the publication and distribution of the flyers - let the Public Health Dept's staff do that with THEIR OWN FUCKING MONEY.

[Sovereign Immunity]

(swoon)

[Joe M]

The good news is the commenters at the LA Weekly blog are ripping the idiot that wrote that piece a new one.

[Marshall Gill]

Let me get this straight. The government shouldn't be in the public health business but since they are, we want to expand it to every facet of society possible, so that we can end it?

I am outraged that the government is pissing away tax dollars on ANY public health pamphlets. It isn't their responsibility. This article seems to favor the government pissing away money, as long as it is directed at illegal drug users.

Is this, then, another case where "Libertarians" want to expand government for "fairness"?

[Old Mexican]

Rre: Marshall Gill,

I am outraged that the government is pissing away tax dollars on ANY public health pamphlets.

I made that very same point above.

[R C Dean]

This article seems to favor the government pissing away money, as long as it is directed at illegal drug users.

I read it as being more about the near-religious righteous furor of the drug warriors, than about the hapless nebbishes at public health.

I just wish one of those nebbishes would grow a testicle, just one, and tell the drug warriors to fuck off because their insane war is one of the biggest threats to the health and well-being of significant chunks of the populace.

[Marshall Gill]

I read it as being more about the near-religious righteous furor of the drug warriors, than about the hapless nebbishes at public health.

Where in the hell does the Liberty of adults to consume what they wish have anything to do with the distribution of government pamphlets? This article even mentioned a minor. Is the Libertarian position that minors should not only be able to consume drugs but should have the government provide education to make it more "safe"? Nothing else but the anti-drug warrior in the article counts?

This article, for any but the near-religious, is about government really, really pissing away money. The government doesn't give advice on illegal shit? You lie! Do they also not teach "fire safety when cooking meth"? or "How to avoid cutting yourself while breaking into bank vaults"? The Bastards!

Perhaps the government will include in the next "How to fill out your taxes" instructions on how to cheat and not get caught. Going to prison for tax evasion can't be good for one's health.

[skr]

Hmm what pisses away more money, the WOD or public safety distributing pamphlets about drug safety. I don't have to even fucking look it up. Let's keep our attention on the bigger douchebag, Antonovich.

[skt]

Local news agencies are reporting that the flyers were funded by the rave promoters. So no government funding.

[NL]

That flyer wasn't written by a public agency; it was intentionally helpful at several points.

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