"Tweaking" The Numbers

I strongly suggest you take this week's Newsweek cover feature on the meth "epidemic" with a grain of salt.

As Jack Shafer notes in this Slate article, the Newsweek article plays fast and loose with the figures.

Shafer makes another good point:

Given that Time/Newsweek are generally well behind the curve on social trends, this current hype and hoopla could, in its way, indicate that the meth craze has already passed it's peak and is on the decline.

Incidentally, the Newsweek article, amidst the hysteria (parts of which read like something cut 'n' pasted from an ONDCP brochure) does pose one very good question:

If meth is really so destructive and widespread, why are the Feds still focused on pot?

And a musin' of my own:

Anyone besides me ever notice that conserva-clown Ann Coulter never shows her teeth when she smiles? Ya don't suppose...

UPDATE: The Drug War Chronicle weights in as well...