July/August 2009 Issue

Drug War Quiz: Just Say Know

Dust off your short-term memory and test your drug war knowledge with some tidbits from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/This-Your-Country-Drugs-History/dp/0470167394/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231014655&sr=1-1">This Is Your Country on Drugs: The Secret History of Getting High in America</a>.

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1. A 1918 New York Times article suggested Germany was trying to make Americans “cokeys” and “hop fiends” with…

  • Drugs mixed into sausage
  • Drugs in toothpaste and teething syrup
  • Narco-polkas

2. How much “ditchweed”—wild hemp with no psychoactive properties—did the DEA destroy in 2005?

  • 219 plants
  • 219,000 plants
  • 219 million plants

3. As the “methedemic” raged in 2004, how many meth “superlabs” did federal authorities seize?

  • 55,500
  • 550
  • 55

4. During the late 19th century, most opium addicts were first turned on to the drug by…

  • Doctors
  • Hobos
  • Chinese opium dens

5. Which of the following did not support efforts to criminalize marijuana in the 1930s?

  • Pharmaceutical industry
  • American Medical Association
  • Liquor industry

6. Nearly what portion of Mexico’s arable land is used to grow drugs?

  • 1/5
  • 1/4
  • 1/3

7. Which president first declared cocaine “the most dangerous drug problem that the US ever faced”?

  • William Taft
  • Ronald Reagan
  • George W. Bush

8. Who was the Senate’s most strident drug warrior in the 1960s?

  • Barry Goldwater
  • Robert F. Kennedy
  • Strom Thurmond

9. In which decade did Americans’ illegal drug use decline most rapidly?

  • 1980s
  • 1990s
  • 2000s

10. In 2004, the White House buried a study that found that a $1.4 billion anti-pot ad campaign had…

  • Increased first-time pot use among 14- to 16-year-olds
  • Increased first-time pot use among whites
  • Both A and B

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