The Latest Lies From the White House

Over the past two or three years, I’ve heard of some disturbing new studies that suggest adolescents can be harmed by using marijuana.

There might now be limited evidence marijuana can cause adolescents to develop depression, and perhaps in some cases psychosis.  Yet, so far as I know, the studies to date have been inconclusive.

So, I was dismayed this morning to learn the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy issued a report yesterday that claims it’s fairly established marijuana can lead to mental illness, suicidal thoughts, and dependency in adolescents.

Dismayed because the report appears to be just as dishonest as most of the information coming out of the White House these days.

Indeed, it seems this time around, the White House has chosen to lie by deliberately confusing correlation with causation.  For instance, the report notes that “a teen who has been depressed at some point in the past year is more than twice as likely to have used marijuana as teens who have not reported being depressed — 25 percent compared with 12 percent.”  Now, all that indicates is a positive correlation in teens between depression and marijuana use.  It could be that marijuana use leads to depression.  Or it could just as well be that depression leads to marijuana use.  A fair reading of the information would admit that either scenario is a possibility.  So, why does the Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy conclude marijuana use causes depression?

The short answer is the White House is once again lying to people as it has on so many other issues — from weapons of mass destruction to global warming.  But why is it lying this time, and what are the stakes?

About 40,000 people are currently incarcerated in the United States for having done nothing worse than possessed marijuana.  Those 40,000 people are the stakes.  At least some of the stakes. If marijuana is harmless, then it should be legal.  If it’s legal, then why incarcerate 40,000 people for possessing it?

Unfortunately, there are other stakes.  Stacked against those 40,000 people are the interests of a very large number of other people.  Some people got paid to put them there.  And some other people are being paid to keep them there.  None of that counts the politicians and prosecutors who have made their reputations for being tough on crime off the backs of those 40,000 people.  And add to it all the bureaucrats working in the various law enforcement agencies.  A whole lot of people have a vested interest in keeping marijuana illegal.

The White House is clearly on the side of those who want marijuana to remain illegal.  The White House has shown us time and again these past seven or eight years that it cannot be bothered with telling the truth when it wants something.  It’s lying is almost pathological.  So, while yesterday’s White House report dismayed me, it did not surprise me.  You can pretty much expect the White House to lie to you, and anyone who doesn’t know that by now hasn’t been paying attention.

I am genuinely saddened that something as important to me and most others in this country as the health of our teens is something the White House feels free to lie about.  If it eventually proves true that marijuana leads to mental and emotional disorders in adolescents, the lies the White House released yesterday will only become obstacles to reason in the national debate over what to do about it.

Last, please allow me to express a moment of frustration: I don’t know if anyone working in the White House these days has even the honest integrity of a bucket of spit, but if someone does, I wish they’d come forward.  I’d like to pin a medal on them.  They are an ant among lice.