 | NORML News: Just FADE away! |
 By Harry Cording. Norml News Summer 2002/3
Veteran NORML activist and Roaring Lion Brodie Andrews wants to sue FADE (the Foundation for Alcohol and Drug Education) for deliberately misleading the public about the health dangers of cannabis.
Young people deserve honest, factual information on all drugs so they can make informed decisions. Instead they are told lies about cannabis in programs sanctioned by the government - which means these programs have no credibility when it comes to drugs that are truly dangerous.
Brodie has collected a huge dossier of evidence about the disinformation spread by FADE, Life Education Trust, DARE, and other “drug education” groups.
With the government preparing to launch a youth drug education initiative, these groups are sure to hold out their hands for taxpayers money. But Mr Andrews says they are not part of the solution - they are part of the problem. Here are some examples of their lies that he has uncovered.
In 1987 FADE mounted an aggressive media campaign against the idea that cannabis can be considered a “soft drug” compared with tobacco and alcohol. They held numerous press conferences and toured two American “drug education experts” pushing prohibition. The New Zealand Herald obliged by giving a full page to the head of Auckland’s Drug Squad, Detective Inspector Ian Hastings, who is a founding director of FADE. He wrongly claimed cannabis “carries with it all the most harmful effects of alcohol and tobacco.”
The Herald soon ran another full page feature on Hastings with extensive quotes on the “great damage” being done by the “promoters of the use of cannabis”.
Wellington’s Evening Post joined in with an interview of another FADE founding director, Liz Jamieson. She acknowledged there has been much misinformation about cannabis - then added more. Official testing shows no increase in THC levels in Kiwi weed, but to scare parents she said “the drug grown in New Zealand today is much more potent in its physical effects than that available 10 years ago.” The myth still persists - thanks to people like newsreader Judy Bailey.
In The New Zealand Women’s Weekly’s 21 August 2000 issue, FADE promoter Bailey said “Kids deserve to know the whole truth about the drugs they’re likely to encounter.” She then claimed the “beast” is now “up to 50 times more potent than in the 1970s”.
No list of lies about cannabis would be complete without a contribution from former alcoholic and self-proclaimed drug expert Trevor Grice. As the mouthpiece of the Life Education Trust, Grice says things like “I’d rather see a child of mine on heroin than on cannabis”.
In 1988 Labour MPs Richard Prebble and Margaret Austin - a member of FADE - were instrumental in enabling FADE to acquire the Life Education Trust franchise from Australia. Austin was flown to Australia by FADE to clinch the deal.
FADE’s sponsorship list reads like a who’s who of big business: beer giant Lion Nathan, AMP, Air New Zealand, Fletcher Challenge, Caltex, ASB and Microsoft, plus the Lottery Grants Board which donated over $1 million in the past decade.
In 2001 the Ministry of Education voiced its dissatisfaction over the state of drug education in New Zealand schools. A review undertaken by Auckland University’s Alcohol & Public Health Research Unit said there was “little evidence concerning the effectiveness of school drug education programs in delaying the onset of drug use or reduction by young people.”
As Brodie says, “There remains the question of accountability. FADE and Life Education Trust have received millions of dollars from the taxpayer and corporate sponsorship, yet have given such poor results.”
Brodie would like to hear from anyone with information, ideas or who wants to support this project.
Email brodds@yahoo.com.au
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