The REAL DIRT on "The Partnership for a Drug Free America"
The Partnership for a Drug Free America is not a genuine anti-drug effort, but a corporate / media back-patting consortium designed to scapegoat unpopular groups for illegal drug use while protecting the interests of legal-drug industries.The Partnership: Hard Sell in the Drug War
Whos's funding them? For a group fighting drug abuse, the Partnership has taken cash from some odd parties--including:
American Brands (Jim Beam whisky)
Philip Morris (Marlboro and Virginia Slims cigarettes, Miller beer)
Anheuser Busch (Budweiser, Michelob, Busch beer)
R.J. Reynolds (Camel, Salem, Winston cigarettes)
As well as pharmaceutical firms:
Bristol Meyers-Squibb, Merck & Company and Proctor & Gamble (Marin Institute Backgrounder, 2/97).
The Partnership recently announced it will quit its alcohol and tobacco habit but will continue to mainline pharmaceutical checks (Village Voice, 3/12/97).
And its silence continues on America's deadliest drug problems: tobacco (400,000 annual deaths), alcohol (100,000, including 20,000 from drunken driving), and pharmaceuticals (6,000 to 9,000).
Marching to VICTORY!