Prescription For Disaster

By Bill Maher

One of the big problems with the Drug War is that it goes after the wrong drugs. Because of prescription abuse, drug-related overdoses have doubled nationally in the last decade. We should lay off the pot and start curtailing the pharmaceutical companies and doctors peddling the prescription shit.

The Los Angeles Times ran an eye-opening series last month, revealing that prescription drug overdoses kill more people than heroin or cocaine. Over a five-year period in four counties in Southern California, The Times found 3,733 deaths from prescription drugs. Compare that to the number of deaths from OD'ing on marijuana, which was just one guy in the Valley who giggled to death.

298 of those deaths resulted from just 71 doctors; 16 of them were under the care of one guy named Van Vu. Ask your doctor if Dr. Van Vu is right for you. Amazingly, he has a spotless record with the Medical Board of California.

Wouldn't we be a lot better served asking our drug czar to stop worrying about the other drugs and focus instead on cleaning up this problem?

Weed the People

By Bill Maher

Here's a statement issued by LaToya Cantrell, who's running for New Orleans City Council, about her husband, Jason Cantrell, who's a New Orleans city prosecutor. See if you can guess what Jason did:

“I absolutely do not condone his actions. I love my husband unconditionally and am very concerned for his health and well-being, and for that of our family. I hope that this incident will encourage Jason to seek the professional help [he needs].”

Did Jason abuse a pet? Set up a hidden video camera in a Starbucks restroom? Get caught autoerotic-asphyxiating with a gay male prostitute? No. Jason Cantrell was talking to some cops in the courtroom where he works and when he went to pull something out of his pocket, a joint fell out. A single marijuana cigarette.

Jason was led out of the courtroom, cited by police, suspended without pay and eventually forced to resign from his city attorney job, which he's held for the past 17 years. Over a single marijuana cigarette.

So Jason Cantrell, public servant, like millions of other decent hardworking Americans, chooses to unwind with a benign plant rather than a glass of hard liquor. Fine, Jason, but now that we know about it, your life as you know it has to be over. We "encourage you to seek the professional help you need."

When the prosecutors themselves have loose joints dropping out of their pockets, isn't it clear that criminalizing people and destroying their careers over how they choose to change their headspace is a twisted, immoral disgrace?