Despite the nearly 30 years that have passed since The Clash first sang, "I get violent when I'm fucked up/I get silent when I'm drugged up," the song "Cheat" still offers a telling insight into the contrasting effects of different substances. Case in point: a recent study by researchers at the Robert Presley Center for Crime and Justice Studies at the University of California at Riverside indicated that alcohol is more closely connected with violence than illegal drugs, according to AScribe.

Researchers found that 25 percent of violent assaults were linked to alcohol, compared to fewer than 10 percent that were connected to drugs like cocaine, heroin, and PCP. When it came to homicide, alcohol was "overwhelmingly" the most frequently mentioned drug. "The stereotype is of the drug-crazed criminal," sociology professor Robert Nash Parker, the lead investigator in the study, said in an article distributed by Join Together (www.jointogether.org), a Boston-based group working to reduce substance abuse and gun violence. "The reality is something quite different."

Parker adds, "If you really want to have effective policies related to drugs, if you want to have fewer bad outcomes in terms of health, welfare and violence, the drug you want to focus on is alcohol. The evidence is pretty powerful and pretty convincing if someone wants to look at it."

Despite the more harmful impact of alcohol, the federal government continues to target marijuana -- arguably the most benign of the illegal drugs. According to the pro-pot NORML Foundation, marijuana offenders are referred to US attorneys for prosecution in larger numbers than any other drug offenders. Citing Justice Department figures, NORML says that one-third of 38,288 drug offenders referred to federal prosecutors in 1999 were involved with marijuana, compared to the 28 percent suspected of powdered cocaine violations, 15 percent each for crack and speed, and seven percent for opiates.

"Despite the government's denials, these statistics show that America's `War on Drugs' is primarily a war on marijuana smokers," R. Keith Stroup, NORML's executive director, says in a statement. The Bush Administration, meanwhile -- at a time when the $19 billion federal anti-drug budget has climbed to an unprecedented high -- is targeting otherwise law-abiding pot smokers for what it calls "compassionate coercion."

Ian Donnis can be reached at idonnis[a]phx.com.

Issue Date: March 15 - 21, 2002