MPP Confronts Drug Czar

[Jimbo]

At the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on September 7, 2006 MPP's chief lobbyist, Aaron Houston, questioned White House Drug Czar John Walters. Following is a partial transcription of their interaction, along with video footage of Walters' responses.

AARON: "Director Walters, I'm Aaron Houston, with the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. Sir, I'm curious if you can comment on the recent GAO report and on the Westat report,…a draft of which your office sat on for a year and a half, which actually showed that the media campaign had no significant effect, in terms of exposure to ads and initiation of use on youth. Except that it actually increased initiation among certain subsets of youth, including 12 1/2- to 13-year-olds, and girls. Don't you think that that suggests that your office is somewhat complicit in whatever higher rates of use there might be because you guys knew this back in February 2005, but it was just released by NIDA last week?"

WALTERS: "Yeah, we've looked at—we believe in accountability in programs. What are these programs about? These programs are about reducing teen drug use. They're doing that. We believe there are some flaws in the way the initial evaluation was done. We inherited this. We've worked extensively with the advertising community. They don't evaluate advertising in its ability to affect people's understanding and education in these ways. We think the study also covers the campaign two years ago. Again look, I think the issue is, does the campaign work? It's a contributor as Wesley talked about earlier. Does it work? We have four years, multiple studies, of sustained decline. A particular decline in marijuana, which was the single greatest blind spot. I understand that the Marijuana Policy Project has a different view. It thinks we should have more marijuana, we should have freer marijuana. We should have more people using marijuana. We should have ballot initiatives that allow people to own and move marijuana. That's about addiction, and I understand that…there are a number of people who have a different policy point of view. We can debate that out. But here, in this room, with people…who have been exposed to substance abuse, you lose."

[Later] "Type "marijuana" on the internet, and you'll find a site from H.H.S. explaining the reality and facts of the dangers of marijuana. That's the first hit…in Google. The second one will be our friends who want you to use marijuana [pointing at Aaron]. The joys, the fun, how to do it, how to grow it, how to find people to use it. That's what kids are exposed to. Who pushes back in the media to help parents? The campaign."

"We are aggressively going at internet sites that are…a source of supply…But we can't go after the sites, that are…every chat room everywhere. So…some of our friends here [gestures to Aaron] are over in those chat rooms encouraging people to use marijuana, so…make sure that you keep your kids away from them."

MPP Confronts Drug Czar