Crying Wolf.

This week, The Economist had a good article on drugs – more particularly on methamphetamine (also called meth, glass, ice, or crystal). Apparently, one of the spooky effects of meth is ‘early ageing’, with cheeks sinking, eyes turning glassy and teeth rotting (also called ‘meth mouth’) and in case of heavy users, a shrinking of the brain. It is also America’s leading drug problem and is becoming increasingly so in Europe.

Now the interesting twist is that despite “the evident dangers of increased meth use, the U.S. government’s anti-drug policy is once again on marijuana”. A similar thing is happening in France where the debate has shifted from discussion on relaxing the legislation on marijuana (in the late 90s) to campaigns showing cannabis as a nasty drug. It is a drug the same way alcohol and cigarettes are drugs, so I really don’t understand why the mood is suddenly so negative towards marijuana.

The Economist article ends on a wise note, saying that the anti-marijuana campaign may backfire once teenagers realize that cannabis is not so bad. It's all about credibility of course, and most certainly they won't believe future anti-meth campaigns that tell them meth causes terrible things - which it does.