White House Somehow Screws Up

A program in Bucks County that helps drug addicts is in danger of having its funding cut by President Bush’s new proposal. And why is Bucks County Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence having its funding cut specifically? Phantom manicures.

The Recovery Community Services Program is one of 13 Health and Human Services programs totaling $2.8 billion that would be cut or reduced if the budget plan passes. The program is unworthy of continued federal funding because “services provided, such as manicures and other non-traditional therapies, are not based on evidence-based practices for recovery and grantees have not consistently met all performance measures,” according to a statement from the White House.

Manicures help you stay off drugs? Sweet! Er… oh.

Executive director Beverly Haberle said she can’t understand where that information came from; not only are things like manicures not part of the council’s programming, she said, such an expenditure would never have gotten though the oversight process. “No one can back up that claim,” she said. “That would not have been an allowable expense in the first place.”

Turns out a few people were given services (say, a manicure and haircut before a job interview) donated by local businesses and other private funds. This is the first time the White House has gotten anything incorrect during Bush’s stellar years in office.

Cuts would hurt Bucks program [The Intelligencer]

Bush To AIDS Patients: Drop Dead

An article in this morning’s Washington Post details a recent study about a drug that can greatly reduce pain in AIDS patients. There were no side effects Great, huh? It’s not a panacea, but anything to make the lives of very sick people better is an advancement.

The Bush Administration’s reaction to the study was to, of course, cheer and urge the FDA to approve this drug as soon as possible. Ha ha! Just kidding. Instead the administration attacked the researchers who did the study, insinuating (quoting the WaPo here) “it is likely that those who received the real pot were aware of that, introducing a bias of expected efficacy” and vowed to block the drug from ever reaching the market.

The drug, of course, is marijuana. (So I guess it’s not exactly new.) And it can make chronically ill patients feel better. And marijuana is arguably less dangerous than alcohol, tobacco, Vioxx, that acne drug that fucks up your liver, aspirin, Tylenol, etc. And, as you may have read 17 times, smoking it helps chronically ill patients to feel much better.

But the White House’s message, Republican or Democrat, has been: “Just say no.” David Murray, chief scientist at the ONDCP lied: “We’re very much supportive of any effort to ameliorate the suffering of AIDS patients,” unless apparently it’s some sort of relatively safe drug that the AMA opposed the criminalization of.

Prohibition is one of the most harmful policies our country has toward its own citizens. But prohibition isn’t going to end anytime soon, if ever. But to deny chronically ill patients medical marijuana and to attack the authors of the study without cause just means you’re a human being who doesn’t care about other people.

I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.

Research Supports Medicinal Marijuana [Washington Post]