Anti-Narcotics Chairman Reacts Strongly to Ecstasy Promotion by ABC (updated)

hey, canada just helped them DEA bust a huge ecstasy/marijuana operation (25% of the US ecstasy supply according to the DEA).. sure we might have medical marijuana but we're still a bunch of pussies :)
 
"In 2002, I heard testimony from the mother of 23-year-old Kelley Baker who died of an Ecstasy overdose," Souder noted. "Will Jennings' 'special' offer the facts about Ecstasy's effects on her young life?"
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Its funny how a lot of overdoses and/or severely negative reactions are associated w/ ecstasy (or ignorance on the user's part.. dehydration, water intoxication, elevated body temperature). Pills often contain a wide variety of substances other than MDMA including DXM, ephedrine, methamphetamine, PMA and other phenethylamines, and even tryptamines like 5-MeO-DiPT, which taken in typical heavy ecstasy doses, can have severe side affects. and this is a direct result of ecstasy's bootleg manufacture.

And who's at fault for allowing this bootlegged market to thrive? The government, fighting hard to keep our kids on, i mean off, crack... demand for any popular drug will never cease; so its a matter of giving the production/distributation rights to the "hip-gun-toting-gangsta's," who are just looking to make a quick buck, or legitimate pharmacists in compliance with quality production laws.

The way i see it, kelly baker, along with all her friends in OD-heaven, are victims of the heroic onslaught the united state's constantly wages on its own people. Time to give it the fuck up uncle sam.
 
The report was well done, even those against ecstasy can [hopefully] see that. Seeing the government panic like this, stating this and that with no actual fact is very amusing now that i have the knowledge of what is indeed the truth. I just hope this knowledge will be continued to be passed on thanks to people like Jennings
 
MDMA laws & enforcement has ultimately been a DEA engineered witch hunt solely for the purpose of obtaining large annual budgets. All told, when adding up the federal & local law enforcement costs, judicial costs, annual incarceration costs (greater than $40,000 per prisoner per year), opportunity costs (someone in prison doesn't pay taxes or tuition costs or child support), costs incurred resulting from secondary crimes due being a black market product, etc.

The end result probably exceeds well over 100 billion dollars per year (far greater than what is spent fighting terrorism annually in the US).

Is it any wonder that the DEA and NIDA is fighting so hard to prevent truthful information from being made available? Why they interfere with FDA approved medical research involving MDMA. Or why they fund fraudulent research (like Ricaurte's) designed to produce a specific result.

As far as I'm concerned, the only crime here is that created by government agencies who artificially "manufacture" crime in order to fill their coffers each year (100 billion annual dollars). Compound that for 10 years and it equals 10% of the total US Gross National Product (GNP). Think about that...


In Mark Souder's case, it is a matter of his "empire" being threatened. He's not interested in the truth, or the effects of truth. He's only interested in chairing something that makes him "important." So, to him, it's worth spending the tax payer's money so that he has this "important" thing to do. 8(

He added, "[R]eams of evidence demonstrate that Ecstasy causes brain damage and even death."
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Sure, and all of that "research" exposed the test subjects to massive doses of the drug, and at regular intervals. If the same research models were used to test Tylenol, 100% of the test subjects' livers would have been destroyed. Yet Tylenol is sold over the counter and is considered "safe & effective." :\
 
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Yes! What i want to know is when will our all mighty government step in and save me from killing myself with tylenol. C'mon people its an epidemic; almost 100% of U.S. citizen's report using tylenol within the last 3 months! Junkies... throw their asses in jail.
 
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Unfortunately, I've got to be careful because I'm working under contract at a health related government agency. Souder would have a field day with that. 8)

I hope that other folks will write. Maybe if Souder understands that the science he's referencing has no basis he'll change his position. (Personally, I doubt it, but there's nothing wrong with being an optmist.)

Anyway, think you for taking the time to write him a letter.
 
That girl had been drinking and smoking that night also. She didn't expect ecstasy to be as intense as it was, so she started drinking water, expecting to urinate it out like alcohol. obviously that wasnt the case and i believe she died of.. hypnothermia :x i know thats the wrong word, but she died of a water overdose. Atleast i think that's this girl, i know its the story to one of the 4 kids that they use to promote "awareness"
 
Souder gives ABC agony over Ecstasy

Wed, May. 12, 2004

Souder gives ABC agony over Ecstasy
By Sylvia A. Smith
Washington editor

WASHINGTON - People will die because of ABC's "inaccurate and irresponsible" report on the club drug Ecstasy, Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd, said in a letter to the network's president.
Souder is incensed over an hour-long report Peter Jennings hosted on "Primetime Thursday" last month about Ecstasy, a synthetic stimulant that is made into a pill and that he said has become the most widespread illegal drug in the United States.

Jeff Schneider, vice president of news media relations for ABC, said the network stands behind the report.

Jennings' April 1 program explored the rise of Ecstasy's popularity, its early use by some therapists to treat trauma victims, the decision in 1985 by the federal government to classify it as an illegal substance with no medical use and studies about its danger that the report questioned as flawed science.

Jennings said it was an important topic because "if current trends continue, 1.8 million Americans will try Ecstasy for the first time in 2004. Only marijuana will attract more new users."

The program said no other drug has spread so fast and the federal government has spent millions of dollars in an advertising campaign that depicts Ecstasy as causing massive brain damage. But because of the tainted study and word-of-mouth reports from long-term Ecstasy users don't match the government's claims, Jennings said, the anti-Ecstasy campaign and the federal government's anti-drug program are at risk of losing credibility.

After he watched the program, Souder condemned it as a "60-minute infomercial for Ecstasy that Peter Jennings and ABC should be ashamed of. . . .. He has declared war on those of us who are trying to protect" young people from drug use.

In a letter received Tuesday by David Westin, the president of ABC News, Souder said Jennings focused on one tainted study on Ecstasy and did not report the results of others - Souder listed nine - that found Ecstasy's lingering effects on the brain. Souder said even though the studies were on animals, not humans, they are relevant because "animal-based research has provided valuable information on numerous diseases and drugs."

Tom Yellin, executive producer of the program, said in an interview Tuesday that one of the government-sponsored studies that was a basis for the warnings about brain damage was flawed because it examined only 14 people and didn't determine whether they had used other drugs. A more credible study, he said, conducted in Germany last year, showed the brain loses 5 percent of its serotonin after Ecstasy use but regains it in two months if the person doesn't use Ecstasy again.

In his report, Jennings said: "Recent studies may be reassuring to users, but no one can rule out that the possibility that the government will one day discover that MDMA, Ecstasy, does, in fact, cause long-term brain damage. The question, then, will anyone believe the government?"

Yellin said that in preparing the program, he was aware of the studies Souder cited. He said they might have been useful when they were done, "but they had been superceded by studies on human beings."

Souder is chairman of the House subcommittee with jurisdiction over anti-narcotics programs and a prominent congressional warrior against illegal drugs. He said Tuesday that ABC should apologize for the Ecstasy program and issue a correction.

Souder complained that Jennings "made it sound like it's great and without risk. . . .. He glamorized a drug for 60 minutes. He ought to go to every funeral he causes."

Yellin said he has teen-age daughters, and "the last thing I want is for them to go out and use any kind of drug. But, on the other hand, as a reporter, I feel obligated to say what's true. I don't think it's in anyone's interest to propagate things that aren't true. In fact, my daughters both watched this program with me, and I was very happy to do that because I think it gives me credibility to speak to them about drugs and the dangers associated with drugs, because they know I'm not going try to tell them something that isn't true."

Link
 
Promoting the benefits of Ecstasy rather than the dangers in his show, Jennings said he is not concerned at all that this will pique the interest of young people to try the illegal drug. "It can't be a concern," Jennings said regarding young people wanting to try Ecstasy. "Our job is to lay out the facts."
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Couldn’t be any closer to the truth.
Using his experience dealing with anti-narcotics issues in Congress, Souder said the research conducted by Jennings and ABC is severely flawed.
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Do I even need to make a comment about the governments research here?
"Jennings exposes a great deal about his own selective research methods when he claims that the government's 'science was not good,'" Souder states. "Countless studies have proven that Ecstasy is far from a benign drug."
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Jesus good Christ! He didn’t even need to claim that the governments science was bad, the guy the government paid off (George Ricaurte) wrote a letter of retraction admitting it was bad.
"If Jennings' nonchalant comments about this dangerous drug are indicative of the outlook of his 'special,' then he is misleading his viewers," Souder remarked. "To make matters worse, Jennings appears to have no moral qualms about offering the American public what the Palm Beach Post cast as 'a glossy, late-night infomercial.'"
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Peter Jennings misleading the public? Now that is the pot calling the kettle black.
Souder complained that Jennings "made it sound like it's great and without risk. . . .. He glamorized a drug for 60 minutes. He ought to go to every funeral he causes."
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I’m sure he’d agree on the condition that Souder go to every funeral the government causes in this matter.

Jesus Christ, how do these people even get into office?
 
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