SIDEBAR ONE
Over the Top with the War on Drugs
The Partnership for a Drug Free Americašs 1991 tax returns reveals the following contributors for the period 1988-91 (i.e., the period in which the war on drugs went into high gear: (27)
Pharmaceutical companies and their beneficiaries:
Tobacco and alcohol companies:
SIDEBAR TWO
Reported Emergency Room Drug Deaths in 1991
This chart is based on information provided by the Drug Abuse Warning Network, developed from a statistical survey of medical emergency facilities in 27 metropolitan areas located throughout the United States. It is not a complete picture of drug related deaths in the United States since it does not account for deaths occurring outside of reporting facilities, nor of the long term effects of drugs.
As the evidence clearly indicates, illegal drug use is not a major cause of emergency type deaths in the United States. Many of the deaths reported were not due to the drugs involved per se, but were the result of the drug triggering an existing medical disorder, an intentional overdose for purposes of suicide, or an external physical event. The combination of more than one drug was also a significant factor leading to death.
Source: Annual Emergency Room Data: Data from the Drug Abuse Warning Network. The report is available from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research, 5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, Maryland, 20857.
FOOTNOTES
1. "Annual Emergency Room Data: Data from the Drug Abuse Warning Network," National Institute on Drug Abuse, Division of Epidemiology and Prevention Research, Rockville, Maryland, 20857. Of course, there are many ways to interpret these data. It can be pointed out that these figures do not take not account the long term health effects of illegal drugs. On the other hand, many of the deaths currently involving illegal drugs are due to their very illegality, leading to adulteration with toxic substances or improper dosage.
2. Jeffrey A. Roth, "Psychoactive Substances and Violence," Research in Brief, US Department of Justice, 1994 (can also be found at http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/GOVPUBS/psycviol.htm);
Gregory A. Austin, and Dan J. Lettieri, ed., "Drugs and Crime," Rockville, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse, 1976.
3. U.S. Department of Justice, "Drugs and Crime Facts," Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics.
4. Cynthia Cotts, "Hard Sell in the Drug War," The Nation magazine, March 9, 1992.
5. "Annual Emergency Room Data: Data from the Drug Abuse Warning Network."
6. U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, "Uniform Crime Reports," http://www.fbi.gov/ucr
7. U.S. Department of Justice, "Drugs and Crime Facts."
8. James Coleman, "The Criminal Elite," NY: St. Martin's Press, 1998, p. 9.
9. More information on corporate crime can be found at: http://www.ratical.com/corporations/mm10worst95.html
10. "The Buchenwald Touch," the Progressive magazine, February 1994., pp.8-9.
11. Tony G. Poveda, "Rethinking White Collar Crime," Westport, CT: Praeger 1994, pp. 72-73.
12. Russell Mokhiber, "Corporate Crime and Violence," San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1988, pp. 171 and 363.
Stuart Hills, ed., "Corporate Violence," Totowan, NJ: Rowman and Littlefield, 1987, p.170.
13. Multinational Monitor's Corporate Rap Sheet, http://www.ratical.com/corporations/mm10worst95.html.
For a more comprehensive look at crimes committed by pharmaceutical corporations, see John Braithwaite, "Corporate Crime in the Pharmaceutical Industry," London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1984. Typical corporate pharmaceutical crimes include bribery, antitrust violations, unsafe manufacture, as well as marketing of potentially addictive legal drugs.
14. Letter from Eli Lilly and Company, Lilly Corporate Center, Indianapolis, Indiana, 46285, dated September 25 1995.
15. Coleman, p. 76.
16. Richard Barnett and John Cavanagh, "Global Dreams," NY: touchstone books, 1994, p. 344.
17. "A Good Harvest," Mother Jones magazine, March-April 1996, p. 75.
18. Poveda, p. 51.
19. A.N. Barnet, Commentary magazine, January 1995, p.5.
20. "The Goodwill Pill Mess", Time magazine, 29 April 1996.
21. Barnett and Cavanagh, "Global Dreams," p. 222-226.
22. Karen M. Hicks, "Surviving the Dalkon Shield IUD," New York: Teachers College Press, 1994, p.39.
23. Including such practices as asset forfeiture (violation of 4th and 5th Amendments), profile searches and sweeps (violation of 4th Amendment), drug testing (violation of 4th and 9th Amendments), suppression of religious use of drugs (violation of 1st Amendment), etc.
24. Eric Blumenson & Eva Nilsen, "The Drug War's Hidden Economic Agenda," The Nation magazine, March 9, 1998.
25. White House Press Release, "Remarks by the President to the 52nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly," October 14 1997.
26. See, for example, Timothy Leary, "Chaos and Cyber Culture," Berkeley: Ronin Publishing, 1994, for a more recent evaluation of the impact of drugs, computers and other modern technologies on society.
27. Cynthia Cotts, "Hard Sell in the Drug War."
Also used in preparing this article was information appearing in the April 1993 Readeršs Digest magazine, and the December 6-12 1991 Washington City Paper.
END
INDEX
J. Seward Johnson, Sr. Charitable Trusts $1,100,000
Du Pont $150,000
Proctor and Gamble Fund $120,000
Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation $110,000
Johnson & Johnson $100,000
Merck Foundation $75,000
Hoffman-La Roche $50,000
Philip Morris $150,000
Anheuser-Busch $100,000
RJR Reynolds $100,000
American Brands $100,000
Tranquilizers 1038
Narcotic Analgesics (excluding heroin/morphine) 1720
Heroin/morphine 2,333
Non-narcotic Analgesics (including aspirin) 375
Non-barbituate sedatives 192
Antidepressants 1403
Antipyschotics 185
Barbiturates Sedatives 387
Amphetamines 272
Hallucinogens (PCP, LSD) 110
Alcohol in combination with other drugs 2436
Cocaine 3020
Cannabis/Hashish 199
Others/Unknown 1906
Total drug deaths 15,576
Total illegal drug deaths 6,601