60 Minutes: Interview with U.S. Drug Czar Michael Botticelli, 6/5/16
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60 Minutes: Interview with U.S. Drug
Czar Michael Botticelli, 6/5/16
Following are excerpts from a 60
Minutes TV interview with Pres. Obama’s Drug Czar Michael Botticelli in which
he reiterates his opposition to legalizing marijuana.
This is spectacular news that most journalists in the marijuana-mesmerized
mainstream media are ignoring. Although correspondent
Scott Pelley tries his best to guide the interview to disparage the nation’s
war on drugs, Mr. Botticelli manages to convey some extremely important anti-drug
information.
Edited excerpts
with NICAP commentary follow; the full interview is available at link:
Scott Pelly: So what have we learned (from the
40-year war on drugs?)
Michael Botticelli: We’ve learned addiction is a brain disease... we don’t expect people with cancer just to
stop having cancer… The hallmark of addiction is that it changes your brain
chemistry. It actually affects that part of your brain that’s responsible for judgement… (NICAP NOTE: Drug-impaired judgement
leads to failed education, failed careers, failed marriages, harmful accidents
and crime.)
MB: I often say that substance use is one of the last diseases where we’d let people reach their most acute
phase of this disorder before we offer them intervention. You’ve heard the phrase “hitting
bottom.” Well, we don’t say that with
any other disorder. So the medical
community has a key role to play in terms of doing a better job of identifying people in the early stages of their disease… (NICAP
NOTE: Non-punitive Random Student Drug
Testing (RSDT) effectively detects exposure of schoolchildren to the
potentially deadly disease of drug addiction.
It is currently in use in over 5,000 U.S. schools.)
SP: It’s addiction to legal drugs, alcohol and
tobacco that kill the most Americans, over half million a year. Botticelli does not believe in
adding another drug to that cocktail with the legalization of marijuana. You’re not a fan?
MB: I’m not a fan. What we’ve seen quite honestly is a dramatic decrease in the perception
of risk among youth around
occasional marijuana use. And they are
getting the message that because it’s legal… there’s no harm associated with
it. (NICAP NOTE: This has resulted in significant increases in
teen drug use in states with “legal” pot.) So we know that about one in nine people who
use marijuana become addicted to marijuana.
It’s been associated with poor academic performance, in
exacerbating mental health conditions, linked to lower IQ. (NICAP NOTE: It’s also associated
with increasing school violence and use of harder drugs leading to soaring drug
overdose deaths ands disabilities.)
SP: Botticelli worries the marijuana industry is
quickly adapting “big tobacco’s” playbook.
In the 90s tobacco companies appealed to kids with flavored
cigarettes and Joe Camel. Today, the
nearly $3 billion marijuana industry promotes sweetened edibles and “buddie,” a
mascot for legalization.
SP: You are never going be able to talk all the
states out of the tax revenue that will come from a burgeoning marijuana
industry. It will just be too seductive.
MB: That’s quite honestly my fear. Is that states are going to become
dependent on the (marijuana) revenue… It
becomes an addiction to, unfortunately, a tax revenue that’s often based on bad
public health policy.
NICAP
6/16/16