It makes it increasingly difficult to take the drug warriors seriously when they pull crap like this.

The survey, by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, said drug-related emergency room visits rose 6 percent in 2001 over the previous year, to 638,484.

The number of times marijuana was mentioned as a drug patients used rose 15 percent, the study said, greater than the increase in cocaine use, which rose 10 percent, and heroin and methamphetamine, which were unchanged.

Note that it doesn’t say that marijuana caused the emergency-room visit–just that it was “mentioned as a drug patients used.” Had they been asked, even greater numbers might have offered up milk as a “food patients used.” Since there’s zero reason to equate correlation with causation, Fearless Leader is either being idiotic, or disingenuous when he says:

“Marijuana-related medical emergencies are increasing at an alarming rate, exceeding even those for heroin,” White House Drug Czar John Walters said in a prepared statement. “This report helps dispel the pervasive myth that marijuana is harmless.

Note also that he misleads by citing a rate, rather than any absolute problem. If the number of instances of something go from one to three in a year (in a population of hundreds of millions of people), one can honestly, and disingenuously say that the rate is “skyrocketing,” because it’s tripled.

This one has to have good people like Iain Murray torn. Which to defend, the War On (Some) Drugs, or valid and non-deceptive use of statistics? Can’t have ’em both in this case.